Rattling Sunroof - 09 Camry SE

[thoots]

Originally Posted by judge34411

All the master mechs where I take my car are very well trained and know what they are doing.

To requote myself:

"All I can tell you is that I've learned it the hard way. Learn from my experience."

The one-hundred-percent, absolute worst "car decision" I ever made in my entire life was to take my 2003 Corolla in for a little moonroof rattle. To read the whole story, see my post from a few years back, here:

That open sun roof rattle

Bottom line, they utterly couldn't POSSIBLY have done a lousier job. They couldn't diagnose SQUAT, they made a mess of my car, and they did such a poor job of slapping my interior together, it rattled constantly from that day forward.

To respond directly to the quote I've edited your message down to, above, I can only say this:

"Master mechs" will not be tearing your interior apart and slapping it back together again. Those guys will be working on transmissions and performing major engine work. The guys who will be ruining your interior for the entire life of your car will be newly-hired rookies, burned-out failures who never became "master mechs," and other derelicts who can't be trusted to work on a vehicle's running gear.

Follow the link and read my old post, to find out how competent these guys REALLY are. I'll never trust a dealer to touch my interior again.

NEVERMORE!

[Dave-o]

Good thing I haven't gone yet? lol

Well Thoots, I'm positive it IS the sunroof making the noises, and I also know about that long thin metal part that comes off easily too. It's not that part at least. =\

[thoots]

Originally Posted by Dave-o

Good thing I haven't gone yet? lol

Well Thoots, I'm positive it IS the sunroof making the noises, and I also know about that long thin metal part that comes off easily too. It's not that part at least. =

Well, again, see what you can do on your own. Does the noise happen when it's closed, or when it's open? If it happens when it's closed, check out the front of the moonroof opening. The roof "rests" somehow -- get some weatherstripping cushioning in there. And so on. If it happens when the roof is open, is that such a big deal? I mean that in the kind of context that I had with my Corolla -- I probably would have VIRTUALLY NEVER really opened the roof to the point where it would make its noise.

Again, check out the headliner. Check out that trim ring around the moonroof opening. Open the roof and push and pull bits and pieces of the mechanism that you can reach while it's open -- see if you can isolate what's making the noise. If you can find it, try to silence it with some kind of cushioning that doesn't gum up the mechanism. If you can do that, it'll be one heck of a lot better than having the dealership hack away at your precious interior.

Good luck!

[judge34411]

Originally Posted by thoots

To requote myself:

"All I can tell you is that I've learned it the hard way. Learn from my experience."

The one-hundred-percent, absolute worst "car decision" I ever made in my entire life was to take my 2003 Corolla in for a little moonroof rattle. To read the whole story, see my post from a few years back, here:

That open sun roof rattle

Bottom line, they utterly couldn't POSSIBLY have done a lousier job. They couldn't diagnose SQUAT, they made a mess of my car, and they did such a poor job of slapping my interior together, it rattled constantly from that day forward.

To respond directly to the quote I've edited your message down to, above, I can only say this:

"Master mechs" will not be tearing your interior apart and slapping it back together again. Those guys will be working on transmissions and performing major engine work. The guys who will be ruining your interior for the entire life of your car will be newly-hired rookies, burned-out failures who never became "master mechs," and other derelicts who can't be trusted to work on a vehicle's running gear.

Follow the link and read my old post, to find out how competent these guys REALLY are. I'll never trust a dealer to touch my interior again.

NEVERMORE!

It is a shame when you quoted me you missed the part where I stated sorry that happened and i had no doubt it did.

My major point was yes you can get bad dealers with bad mechs. Even worse you have lousy non skilled assembly workers (and that is what they are). So we need to find a good garage to do our warranty work!

I would hope you never bought another car off of those people. Myself, with a car with less than 3000 miles I have no choice but to take it to them. An no I will not tolerate it.

So, once again I will clearly state! Sorry you had such a bad experience. But that is not necessarily what all will get. An if it is none should by this make of car.

[judge34411]

Originally Posted by Dave-o

Good thing I haven't gone yet? lol

Well Thoots, I'm positive it IS the sunroof making the noises, and I also know about that long thin metal part that comes off easily too. It's not that part at least. =

You are being talked into working on a car under warranty think about it. Once you pull it apart all bets are off! May I suggest you stay and watch what they do. It is your right. Just sign a waver over health and all the other BS.

Again i have no doubt about the sad stuff he went through. And it sickens me. Places like that should be shut down by Toyota.

[SSBN]

Originally Posted by Dave-o

I've had my 09 SE for about 6 months, there's 7k miles on it and I'm starting to hear some "rattling" noises inside the car.

My girlfriend would try to investigate when we make our occasional Atlantic City trip from Philadelphia.

She thinks it's the sunroof that rattles while I'm driving... it does make some sort of rattling noise when you move it back, but it's only sometimes.

The noise gets really bad sometimes too.

Thanks in advance for the input.

The sunroof and dash rattled in our 08 XLE. took several trips but the dealer finally got it fixed. I think there is a TSB on it. I could be confusing it with one of the other TSBs. I have to say this is the first Toyota we have owned an it has been to the dealer several times over the first year. Not what I expected when the wife wanted a Toyota.

[Snipester]

Originally Posted by SSBN

The sunroof and dash rattled in our 08 XLE. took several trips but the dealer finally got it fixed. I think there is a TSB on it. I could be confusing it with one of the other TSBs. I have to say this is the first Toyota we have owned an it has been to the dealer several times over the first year. Not what I expected when the wife wanted a Toyota.

I have an 09 SE V6 and i have no issues with the sunroof rattling or dash noises. However, once in awhile the plastic on the dash my creak/pop due to bumpy roads or the A/C (very rare). I've only gone 1200 miles or so.

[thoots]

Originally Posted by judge34411

I would hope you never bought another car off of those people. Myself, with a car with less than 3000 miles I have no choice but to take it to them. An no I will not tolerate it.

A few bits:

1. No, I'll never buy another vehicle from that dealership again.

2. I just disagree on that "no choice" bit. If you'd like, do a search through every "noise" post you can find in this forum, and see how many people reported getting them solved by dealers, or didn't get them resolved, or wound up with a nightmare's worth of problems everafter. Yes, some have had success. My general recollection is that a majority of folks have NOT gotten noise issues resolved, and several have wound up with nightmares.

In my experience -- and I got PLENTY of it with a damn rattletrap 2004 Honda Accord coupe -- a little do-it-yourself noise mitigation is usually far more successful than the average trip to a dealer. It's definitely worth a shot before "trying your luck" with a dealer that has to perform warranty work under the insane time constraints the manufacturers hold them to.

Finally, there is plenty of "context" here. Yes, there's a TSB for some dashboard rattlings, and many people have had that done successfully. That appears to be a worthwhile operation. But that is a relatively minor operation compared to getting into the moonroof. There probably is no more-invasive operation a dealer can do than tearing your entire interior apart in order to get to that moonroof. And there's also the "engineering" of the headliner that they have to remove -- it's a virtual "house of cards" with pillar covers and other bits and pieces holding it up. It takes the utmost care and precision to remove everything without damaging something, and to put it back together again properly. Under "warranty work" time restrictions, I just truly doubt most dealer techs are going to be that careful.

[louie1086]

If the rattling is mostly during cold days, I'd say it's the gasket around the sun/moon roof. In cold weather, gaskets tend to harden, sometimes even shrink in size. Now, if the sunroof parts were made within tolerance, the shrinking of the gasket would be accounted for, and there wouldn't be a rattling. However, there are such things as defective parts, hence the factory warranty. There may be a screw loose because the assembler didn't screw it in enough, or something to that effect.

Nonetheless, if your car is still warrantied, I would highly suggest taking your car into a dealership for service. True, technicians aren't miracle workers, but they are more trained and equipped to properly diagnose and solve the problem than some of us that don't have access to an assembly drawing or parts list. But if you're the type to take stuff apart without a diagram and explore your car, then by all means good luck hunting.

And, if the technicians don't solve the problem, at least wouldn't have spent any money (other than gas money) to fix it. Not to mention, if they do end up doing more harm than good, you can hold them accountable since they are legally bound by the company to properly service your vehicle. And who says you have to go back to the dealer that messed up? There are plenty of reputable Toyota dealers all around. Sure, some of us live a good distance away from the nearest dealership, but if there's a chance of a "free" fix for my car, why wouldn't I take it?

[judge34411]

Originally Posted by louie1086

If the rattling is mostly during cold days, I'd say it's the gasket around the sun/moon roof. In cold weather, gaskets tend to harden, sometimes even shrink in size. Now, if the sunroof parts were made within tolerance, the shrinking of the gasket would be accounted for, and there wouldn't be a rattling. However, there are such things as defective parts, hence the factory warranty. There may be a screw loose because the assembler didn't screw it in enough, or something to that effect.

Nonetheless, if your car is still warrantied, I would highly suggest taking your car into a dealership for service. True, technicians aren't miracle workers, but they are more trained and equipped to properly diagnose and solve the problem than some of us that don't have access to an assembly drawing or parts list. But if you're the type to take stuff apart without a diagram and explore your car, then by all means good luck hunting.

And, if the technicians don't solve the problem, at least wouldn't have spent any money (other than gas money) to fix it. Not to mention, if they do end up doing more harm than good, you can hold them accountable since they are legally bound by the company to properly service your vehicle. And who says you have to go back to the dealer that messed up? There are plenty of reputable Toyota dealers all around. Sure, some of us live a good distance away from the nearest dealership, but if there's a chance of a "free" fix for my car, why wouldn't I take it?

My point exactly,

But I sure know what Thoots is talking about I had a Ford/Mercury and they made a real mess of my car. From a shattered hatchback window to a driver seat that had to be replaced because of a mech slicing the seat with a screwdriver in his back pocket and more. An even sadder I have no doubt lots never got the problem resolved and even some ended up with worse problems. Trouble is I think this comes down to design flaws. These people are there to bring the car up to specs. But if the spec is flawed.... well.

But as you clearly stated I will start by going the dealer route with my new car. I just pray I do not have Thoots nightmares.

EDIT: Oh and my problem is not from the moon roof (yet) but everywhere else! And only when below 60 it is clearly a plastic on plastic. I have to wait until it starts to get cooler and Here in Montreal it wont be long.