Roof rattle

jonnywells

Member
 Leicester
Over the last couple of months noticed my roof seems to be rattling/creaking over bumpy road.

It seems to be coming from the passenger side somewhere. I have removed all the roll hops as this seems 1 problem area but no change.

It only rattles when roof is up, lubricated all the seals I can see with gummi fledge but no change. Also put Velcro on the battery cover.

Any idea where else to look? BMW won't cover rattles under the extended warranty which isn't a surprise so on my own trying to figure it.
 
I will have a read.

Any advise on what lubricant to apply to the hard plastic bits that lift up behind the roll hops? I have a sneaky feeling it might be them rubbing on the rubber of the roof. gummi fledge dont seem to work on hard plastic.

Noticed on your thread you was alto lubricating lots of parts. Can you tell me what products you used on what.
 
The flaps shouldn't rub on anything. They have a small rubber pad that sits on the metal arms of the roof mech. If you want to try something just pop a little grease on the rubber pads under the flaps, just a wipe. I've felted all these parts and it makes little difference. Most of the noise seems to come from what BMW call the 'buffer' (the whole section the roof sits on when up).
 
I will take a picture of where I mean later.

any grease? I take it white grease will be ok. Its doing my head in!

never managed to get rid of the rubbing on final roof open close. I know you said it was the gap between the bootlid and bumper but BMW never fixed it even though I pointed them in that direction. Since you seem an expert on the roof :-) any idea how this is adjusted?
 
Take a video for me... let me see what you mean about the open close rubbing as well as any other noises and I'll offer whatever advice I can...
 
Here is a video of the noisey boot close/open

https://www.dropbox.com/s/swv3e9ujp0htsfu/VIDEO0004.mp4

*Fixed, imageshack didnt seem to my my video so put it on my dropbox*

Also Where i think the rattling is going on

 
The plastic you circle was also where I thought the noise was from on mine, but it wasn't. I removed this plastic and the noise continued. It sounded like just that area. But in the end, as per my e89 forum post linked above, it was the metal rail that the window sits on, tightened slightly from underneath the noise was gone.

As for the video, that noise is slightly different to what I had, it sounds more like its coming from the plastic covers that cover the mechanism you're pointing at with the camera. You can remove these when the boot is in the service position (boot opened as if putting the roof away but then release the key. The plastic covers over the lower hinges can then just be pulled off (they're on spring clips). Take them off and see if the noise persists.

If it IS the same noise as mine, it was the very edge of the boot lip under the badge that was touching the plastic trim thats on the top of the bumper making a similar noise. The dealer adjusted this for me to have the boot not close quite so low, only 1mm or so, and it solved the noise.
 
Removed the lower plastic bits that have the clips, still the same noise. sprayed white grease on anything I can see that moves or comes into contact with something else with still no joy :cry:
 
When the boot lid opens during a roof opening, and it makes that sound, can you get anything between the boot lid lip and the bumper? When mine made that noise, you couldn't get a fingernail between the boot lid edge and the top of the bumper. In time it scratched the lacquer on the boot lid edge which I had to polish out once they'd finished the adjustment.

Try taking two more vids, one close to the hinge that you show in the first video and one close to the centre of the rear bumper looking between the bumper and boot lid edge. One or the other will be louder and help you narrow down the sound.
 
Well i think the rattling seems alot better. Tightened the nuts to that bit the roof sits on half a turn and all seems better.

There is a gap big enough between the roof/bumper so im fairly sure its not that rubbing.

Still struggling with the noise the roof makes on open/close. Decided its the hard trim on the inside of the boot just can not figure out which part. :thumbsdown:
 
Like I say, use a phone/camera to take video while you hold the phone near various parts of the trim.. It will help you narrow down where the noise is coming from as the video should get louder as you close in on the exact area which you can then see and hear on playback.
 
Rattles back over hard surfaces :headbang:

Gave up for now with trying to find the rubbing on open/close. Hope to be going to a little meeting on sunday so will grag fellow z member into the search for it :P
 
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
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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