Roof rattle

[jonnywells]

Where in the country you from maniac?

Do you attend any meetings? (Clearly you do looking at ur sig picture) Ive only ever been to 1 before.

Apart from popping into the dealership and playing with 1 of there cars i VERY rarely see another E89 around where i live

[Maniac]

I'm in Manchester. I am going to the Silverstone event this year, its the only one I have planned so far though... not sure what else is going on.

[jacksonz4]

I also had a problem with what can only be described as rolling dice in a cup with a terrible creak and more so over bumps like the boot or door was not shut properly.
To complicate thing my Z had gone in under W because the roof failed, they replaced the pump and censor and everything seemed to be ok, 11 days in total in due to the sensor coming from Germany, but then the noise, and to anyone who as these sort of problems they drive you mad to obsession. Anyway did the normal things held the roof while driving checked as much as you can in a Z nothing loose, I checked the battery compartment and found 2 black studs that hold the felts down in the boot but could not see any holes but obviously they were from somewhere, so took a video with my phone (see below link) and phoned BM, car went in on Monday 15th April 2013 8am got back 6pm, they showed me the job card which is rare, they did various test including the plug and play but no fault with roof was found and the engineer put a comment that manual fault finding was necessary.
To cut a long story short they said they had found the the two missing holes for the black studs they actually took all the boot apart, and they found the noise on the roof to be the roof rollers (whatever they are and tightened them and then lubrication, this seems to have done the trick, my advise on these tricky noises are to test various for at least a week before getting it booked in, the guy at BM said the engineer was chuffed that he had loads of info off me with the weeks info on mail on what I tried ie weather conditions, roads I went on, particular time it happened, roof tray up then roof tray down etc and gave him a USB with the video on which they said helped.

Hope this helps..........keep the faith


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyoGR8k7d9Q

[bigendbob]

I've seemed to have cured the last of my boot area creeks and noises.
Stuck on some sticky pads of foam on the boot buffers, the two plastic pins that stick down attached to the boot. When the boot closes they rub on the two plastic discs the sizes of ten pence pieces. The buffers have a sort of soft plastic, but stills seems quite hard.

[Maniac]

Photos?

[bigendbob]

http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... 3d2177.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
This has made the most significant noise reduction with the top up. The sticky pads are from Tesco pound shelf. They come in different sizes.
Also stuck here for good measure for when the top is down;
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... da38a7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... af08fa.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... d5b61e.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... 9a45f7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... 79da2d.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Now all is quiet, the only sound is the exhaust, sweet.
Interesting as the foam acts like a witness marker, you can see where the parts touch and by how much. Did the same with the front rubbers on bonnet.

[Maniac]

Thanks for those, ill see if they help me find that elusive clicking!

[jonnywells]

Thanks for those, ill see if they help me find that elusive clicking!

The place he has put sticky rubbers in this picture is what has fixed my rattles big time. There was some fabric on the side where the roof closes there but it was nackard. Removed that and put some fabric in the same place as the rubber above and all seemed better. Krytox also was used everywhere apart from around the glass where gummi pflege is still used.

[Maniac]

I'm going to try the Krytox thing. I've still not found the click from the passenger rear and I'm convinced its the cast-metal arms/roof mechanism, its proving a pig to track down and I think the car is playing with me because it knows its doing my head in. I had a quiet week when I padded and oiled lots of it, making me go 'voila' and then the noise came back....

I'll find this damn noise if it takes me until I'm 90. What I really want is one of those rattle finding rolling road machines that the manufacturers have. That, or sit in the boot while the car drives around so I can find it! lol

[bigendbob]

Another attempt at getting rid of a few last noises, as others are noticable after you cure a few.
The black plastic trim in the boot where the boot light is located.
If you grab hold of the plastic and push its a bit creaky.
So i removed the holding pins and dropped a small amount of engine oil around the then refitted. Also around the circular discs the boot buffers fall onto. Also where the side trim touches i put some felt pads under, and if you lift the boot rubber seal above the number plate area, the plastic trim clips into the body at three spots, so oiled those as well.
Thats cured a few more noises.
Something i have noticed if i drop the drivers window an inch, a few more vague noises disappear, as though the lifting mechanism is creating some noise when fully up. It does sometimes clunk at full up.

[Maniac]

I removed the plastic on the boot hinges (near the lamp clusters) this weekend and that's resolve some smaller noises. That cheap plastic in the boot is awful. I'll be felting and putting these back next weekend. It still hasn't resolved that loud click I keep getting, but I'll find the little bu**er eventually. TBH with all the noise reduction work I've been doing (noise reduction = ANYTHING I can hear other than road noise or exhaust lol) the car is now so quiet that the slightest noise sets me off on another noise OCD quest!

[Kettleboy]

Another attempt at getting rid of a few last noises, as others are noticable after you cure a few.
The black plastic trim in the boot where the boot light is located.
If you grab hold of the plastic and push its a bit creaky.
So i removed the holding pins and dropped a small amount of engine oil around the then refitted. Also around the circular discs the boot buffers fall onto. Also where the side trim touches i put some felt pads under, and if you lift the boot rubber seal above the number plate area, the plastic trim clips into the body at three spots, so oiled those as well.
Thats cured a few more noises.
Something i have noticed if i drop the drivers window an inch, a few more vague noises disappear, as though the lifting mechanism is creating some noise when fully up. It does sometimes clunk at full up.

I came to the conclusion that dropping the window an inch removed the noise of the window fidgeting again the rubbers of the roof? Krytox or Gummi on seals helps this, but only for a few days then it's back, and leaves residue on top edge of window...

Nightmare...

[supersebbo]

It's part and parcel of convertibles, both my old Audi convertibles would make this weird clicking noise occasionally, it's not immediately obvious, but it is actually the sound of the glass overcoming the friction of the rubber on the seals repeatedly. The only way I can think of explaining it is the same kind of effect if you press the tip of your fingers hard onto a waxed/polished bit of furniture and pull them back slowly, you get this kind of juddery clicking noise. It's actually worse when the glass and seals are cleaner as it generates more friction, 'squeaky clean' as they call it.

I guess the solution would be to apply some sort of anti-friction coating to parts of the glass that go into the seal.. or maybe just rub something fine and powdery.. like a bit of talc or something into those areas.

[InvisibleName]

Had the annoying rattle from the roof, glued a felt strip over the spiggot below the rear window that locates into the rear shelf... sorted!!

[Maniac]

FOUND IT! FOUND IT! FOUND IT!

I didn't want to throw a party right away, so I made some changes to the rear deck last week and drove it around for a week as usual. The rattle that has plagued me for over two years or more is fixed. Oh yes, thank you very much, a round of applause is heard in the distance.

It seems I was right a long time ago, I just didn't fix it well enough. That piece of metal on the rear deck/boot lid that the roof sits on... I took off the many many nuts and removed the metal strip. I then used PTFE spray along all the rubber and metal edges, as well as all the plastic screw/pins and the pin seats (the plastic screw/pins are a T shape glued to the metal piece). After re-assembling it all there was a slight click for a day and now, presumably as the PTFE spray as been moved around, silence. Its almost like driving a new car.

Praise the lord!

I can only think that as the rear deck (part 5) is reinforced plastic that its twisting under load marginally against the metal strip (part 3), which is unforgiving. Though I couldn't see a surface mark, there is a lot of contact on many surfaces.