jcombs

Ok, What am I missing? I have had this car for about 3 weeks now, and can't figure out why the top rattles. It is the solid top, not the smoked glass. The brackets are on correctly and all the screws that hold the brackets on are tight. There are 4 screws that hold the top on, and I get them very tight. There is still a major rattle when I go over even semi-rough roads (like I-40), and it is definately the top. The seals do not leak, so I think that they are ok.

Any insight into this problem would REALLY be appreciated. It is driving me nuts!

biggrizzly

I can't tell from you post, but did you tighten the bolts that actually hold the mounts? I'm talking about the alignment plates on the roof panel, not the torx bolts that fasten the roof to the car.

Motsiv2

Biggrizzly is right. I had the same thing and my mounting bracket on the driver's side was loose. Tightened up the mounting bracket and all was right witht the world again, except for a small squeak, which I am now trying to attack.

Bill Cude

Mine rattled also, come to find out the top had came loose from the frame. Reglued the two back togerther with a high strength epoxy, haven't had any trouble..

jcombs

I did. That was the first thing that I checked. But... now that you mention it, how do you "align" the alignment plates?

biggrizzly

If you do a search here there have been a few threads on adjusting the tops. Just from what I recall, you loosen the brackets just enough to get the top to fit good and then tighten the roof down using the four retaining bolts on each corner. This will bring the roof mounting brackets into alignment with the mounting holes. Then I guess the tricky part is loosening the top back up carefully and then tightening all the brackets.

BADDUCK

It's a PITA. I used masking tape to mark the location and packing tape to hold the brackets in place. You will need to use blue Loctite on all the screws or it will shake loose again.

CSS996

I had a similar problem with my '93 right after I bought it. When I would hit a medium to larger bump, I would get very loud noise from the roof. More like a crack than a rattle. I was pretty sure one of the bolts was loose.

I checked all of them and they were tight. Then, about a month later, I was removing my sun visors...

I took the roof all the way off, and was preparing to take off the little plastic cover at the top corner of the windshield on the passenger side. There was a pot metal piece in there that was broken in half!

I believe it is called the sun shade support, if you are looking in a Helm's Manual.

Anyway, I kinda re-aligned it, and it doesn't rattle now. I did get a replacement piece from a forum member who was parting out a car, so I'll take care of that one of these days, but for now, it is not making any noise at all. In fact, my car is almost completely free of rattles. Crazy!