996/997 Cab roof noises for Halcyon

An inspired post on another thread by Halcyon got me thinking about Cab roof noises so heres a few fixes for 996 / 997 ..

Open the roof half way for access .

1/ Rain x .. great stuff .. pour onto a rag , wipe it along the top of the front windows where the glass touches the rubber and leave to dry .

Clean the rubber the glass touches against .. i use brake cleaner on a rag then wipe off but thats probably not the best stuff to use .. a degreaser basically that wont rot rubber .

Wipe rain X on the seal and leave to dry .

This will stop the chirping noise you get as the body flexes and wont cause smearing on the glass like most sprays or rubber replinishers .
You will have to redo it about once a month or when it gets noisy again though .

2/ Check the roof rear rubber / panel that touches the rear glass both side , x2 T30 .. they come loose .

3/ clean the rubber as above that runs along the front of the car that the roof touches along the front of the windscreen , both on the windscreen side and on the roof then spray with a rubber replinisher , clean it well as it does get pretty dirty.

4/ The locateing tabs for the roof , the plastic part can wear , fall off or just get dry and creak .. felt tape , teflon tape or something like crytox .. its a lubricant / rubber replenisher from Porsche .

5/ the rear of the cab roof , the rubber that goes around the back and the " horeshoe , clam shell or roof cover for when its opened " people have different names for that part , clean the rubber and the contact part of that on the clam shell , rubber replinisher around the base rubber and thats another chirp , squeek gone .

6/ Bit more involved this one .. if you get a cracking type noise directly above your head , or the pasengers side then its a dry pivot pin , it needs removeing and greaseing ..

undo the torx at the front of the roof and drop the panel , undo the very small and acward small torx along the side which is above the front glass .. you can then peel back the roof fabric and it will give you access to these pivots .. if anyone wants to do this then PM me and ill try to explain it better .. maybe find a picture to help .

7/ roof half open , crytox the ends of the frame rubbers that close as the roof is shut .. just look , youll work it out !

8/ Rain x the rear windows the same as the front .

9/ Wrap some felt tape around the rear seat lock pins , this will stop rattles with the seat in the closed position .

10/ the seat belt hight adjusters can cause a light rattle , common on all models but can only be fixed by replacing them .

11/ the seats can creak , check the side plate on each seat at the corner of the seat ( it covers the tilt mechanism ) .. a bit of felt tape or i used crytox on one today where the plastic cover touches the leather .. yup it was nothing to do with the Targa roof repair i had carryed out

For rubber replinsher then i use crytox or a Wurth replinisher in a spray can .

Any rubber must be cleaned before this stuff is used , it even looks good on the door seal rubbers .

Might as well make this about noises in general so ..

12/ 996 .. rattle from door panels , remove the door card and the screws for the speaker box are often loose .. the middle one is the most common so tighten each one .

13/ 997 , 987 .. rattle from door panels .. the airbag is rubbing against the door , remove and fit felt tape behind on any point that is makeing a contact .. Do Not however put any tape around the air bag .. it will stop it working properly in the event of an accident .

14/ 996 creaks from the windscreen , its the screen rubber thats dry and can cause some pretty awful creaks when the body flexes .. solution is to fit teflon tape under the outer windscreen seal .. a little tricky this one so might be a garage job .

15/ instrument cluster noises all models .. you have to remove the cluster and fit felt tape around the cluster where it joins the 2 halves and on the cluster where it touches the dashboard .. sometimes its the cluster its self , the plastic halves are where it creaks .. not a lot you can do other than a strip and something like crytox rubbed into each half to allow it to slide and not creak .


Edited to add some more .

Iain, This is a great post and should be a sticky , I bet it affects many 911 owners of all years :worship: :worship:

Its just a few bits and pieces that i take for granted and do as needed or on a service if i think its noisy .. didnt think to do a post about it untill Halcyon mentioned about his .

If i think of any more ill add to it .

Thanks for that Iain :thumb:

You're a true gent. :worship:

Those little creaks and rattles drive you crazy. I'm just happy I have Bose to make mine disappear!

I forgot to add .. most of my list also applys to Boxsters .. they tend to suffer from the rear of the roof .. the rubber causeing squeeks on the clam shell , you also lubricate the base rubber on the clam shell ( one at the back ) on these , and the rubber the roof hits when the clam shell is closed .

Also .. on Boxsters then lubricate the round hole the pin goes into on the clam shell , it stops it sticking .

A bit of grease / lubricant on the runners for the clam shell doesnt go amiss either .

Noises on a Coupe are normally the stupid metal clips Porsche use to retain all the panels .. i teflon tape over them .. metal clip into a metal hole .. sigh .. give us a chance Porsche will ya lol .

I've only just seen this post! Brilliant advice (as always from you!) and I'll try some of these this weekend - some of the rubber cleaning / degreasing tips, I've already done.

Places I can hear rattles / squeaks from:
directly above my head - I've heard that dry bicycle chain lube is a good product to use, teflon based etc. such as this:
STUFF HERE
Welcome opinions?

The other place is the small 3/4 light window. When it's down, I can hear the glass tapping gently against something metallic. Unfortunately, I can't undo the seat locating pin "thing" to remove the inner panel. If i could, I'm sure it would be an easy fix!

There's a high-pitched squeak when driving at speed when it's below freezing :-D Only had this noise once on the M3 / A303 on Boxing day when it was -4c

Thank you again Demort we are very lucky to have someone with your experience willing to share on this forum!
:bow: :bow: :bow:

Directly above your head would be the pivot pin or the side cable .. runs from the back and its the one that snaps and the roof fabric gets pulled in when closed .. lots of posts on that .. well at the front of that is a spring with a cover on it .. this can wear ..

Basically when you pull back the roof fabric you should be able to find / see it .. youll get marks rubbed on the ally plate it sits against .

For rubbers then you need a ruber replinisher .. something like this ..


https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/2619870689...=9045806&device=c&campaignid=856939625&crdt=0

Wurth gummi pfledge .

Anything with teflon then its more a lubricant .. a dry one , dont use this around the window rubbers as they will smear and its more for metal / hard plastic .. not reaqlly for rubbers .

Locateing pin is a 6mm allen key .. they round off .. use a similar sized torx and try that .. if not then grips of some sort and force it undone ( stilsons spring to mind ) .. but you will probably need to replace it after that .

Aww .. a bit of felt tape around the pin stops rattles when the seat is closed .

The window at the rear is a bit of a pig to actually get at so removeing the panel might not help you very much unless its something like the drain tube or spalsh guard in there thats noisy .

You would remove the panel then drive to see if you can hear the noise .. need to be in the back next to it really with someone else driveing to find fault like this .

With all rubber seals then a good clean first .. you could use hot soapy water , then dry and spray with something like that wurth stuff above .. it WILL stop the rubbers from makeing any noise and last a long time .. always clean both surfaces so what ever it touches against .. at the rear this would be the clam shell .

I do prefer Crytox though , small bottle from Porsche and you rub it in with your fingers .. one bottle will last forever though as you only use small amounts .

Where abouts was the high piteched squeek coming from ? .. ill have a go if i can have a location


Your post was inspirational , i loved the fact you went after one car and bought something totally different so this thread is for you

Added a few more to the original post .