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I'm dredging up this old thread from the past because my roof squeak, while vastly improved at the time, slowly came back. The adjustment of the tension bolt as described earlier certainly helps but eventually it too failed to completely silence my roof noise.
Today I did something altogether different. I lubed the weatherstripping that runs along the rear edge of the package tray. I used a silicone lube because it's 100% safe for weatherstripping. This weatherstripping is where the roof seals up against the car body when it's up. Altogether I'd say I used about 5-10 small drops of the oil in total. A little goes a really long way. I tried not to get the lube on the vinyl/plastic package shelf itself but instead worked the lube on just the exposed rubber weatherstripping and on the black strip just to the right of the weatherstripping as shown in the picture.
I took her for a spin on a lousy concrete road that joggles the car at every expansion joint and silence, dead silence. Almost too quiet, eerily quiet.
I don't know how long this will last but I'd be willing to repeat this as frequently as needed to keep enjoying this Lexus-Quiet ride that I now have. I've now begun to dress all the exposed roof weatherstripping to make things, perhaps, seal up better.
I think more in cool/cold weather. The rubber is probably harder cold but we're talking about 60 degrees today and it was making a fuss before I lubed it up. Funny, I took a ride this afternoon on a road that's really rough and not a squeak from the roof but I heard my sunglasses rattling in the door pocket, removed them, and then heard my center armrest was creaking when I put my elbow on it. I got out the silicone lube and smeared a drop around the latch of the armrest lid and, again, total silence. From now on I'm going to have to drop the top when I want some noise.
What drove me nuts is the rattling that would be loudest when the car is first started. Later, it would get lower to the point of just being gone. Next day, the same story all over again. Long story short, here is the fix:
It's only temporary to show what was rattling. The question is: how do I remove that plastic cover without breaking anything to make the final solution more elegant?
That plastic piece just pops off. If you use either your fingernails to get into the area where you've put the shim and pull towards the rear it will pop off. If you have a trim tool kit, it would also be helpful. You can slide it under the horizontal area and it will pop off that way too.
That plastic piece just pops off. If you use either your fingernails to get into the area where you've put the shim and pull towards the rear it will pop off. If you have a trim tool kit, it would also be helpful. You can slide it under the horizontal area and it will pop off that way too.
Amazing how 7 years later after this tip was first posted it still comes in ever so handy.
Worked like a charm for me as it had been driving me nuts for months, love this place!!!
I also found the tip about the loud passenger side clunk when the roof frame flexed a bit over a bump and how adding a bit of felt tape (in my case a one inch long fold of gaffer tape) over the roof pin worked perfectly to get rid of that nasty sound, literally took 30 seconds to fix this mondo annoying artifact that had been driving me nuts for months!!!
Now if I could just figure out how to calm down the wind noise in the driver/passenger door front corners life would be just about perfect with my little Lexie!!!
You'll get the best results with the OEM weatherstripping, though some have used liquid electrical tape with reduced results and life expectancy of the repair.
Thanks for all this information. I just got done silicone lubing every piece of weather stripping I could find on my 430. As you know lots of rubber stripping especially on the folding roof. This REALLY helped reduced the noice to near nothing. Would have never have guessed.
By the way have a red LC 500, ES 300h, and a GX 460. Yes, you could say I like Lexus.
Another piece of information. Make sure you lube the latches that attach to the window frame (holds the roof in place). This also helped me reduce roof noice.
Last edited by bobsteger; 07-20-19 at 12:02 PM.
Reason: ADD TEXT II
02-08-15 | 01:22 PM
I've now begun to dress all the exposed roof weatherstripping to make things, perhaps, seal up better.
