2005 S-Type 3.0. Yesterday afternoon was the first 72-degree sunny day we've had since we acquired the car in mid-December. Opened the moonroof for a nice drive through the country but at highway speeds, the harmonic distortion in the cabin caused by the open moonroof would pop your eardrums. Had to close the moonroof about six inches or so to get rid of the noise, but that defeats the purpose of having a moonroof in my opinion.

Called our local Jaguar dealership parts department this morning to check on a moonroof wind deflector but they don't sell one. Since 65% of this car is shared with the Lincoln LS platform, I'll try a local Lincoln parts department next. But the Lincoln moonroof may be a different size and shape than the Jaguar moonroof - I don't know. Our moonroof opening measured from side-to-side is 32 inches, so any appropriate wind deflector must be slightly wider than that to allow for proper mounting.

Have any of you S-Type owners with moonroofs found an appropriate wind deflector kit? I prefer a smoky grey Lexan plastic type, not a shiny metal type. And if you found a good one, what was the process for installing it? I would prefer to minimize drilling holes through my roof as much as possible....

 

Try www.wooddash.com. They have the clip on type.

 

Thanks. I'll check out that site, but I wonder about the clip-on type. Seems like the clip-on hardware might compromise the moonroof's rubber molding and perhaps cause rainwater leaks as a result....

 

Doesn't your roof have a little deflector that pops up when the roof opens?

Maybe it's stuck?

 

I am not aware of a built-in deflector that pops up when the moonroof opens. Is my 2005 S-Type 3.0 (built in May 2005) supposed to have this feature on its factory-installed moonroof? If it does, what is this pop-up deflector made of and where exactly does it sit when the moonroof is open? In order to do any good, it would need to sit directly in front of the leading edge of the moonroof and protrude at least an inch or two above the moonroof opening in order to effectively deflect the moving air....

 

I watched the moonroof open and close from outside the car this morning and yes, the little built-in deflector is indeed popping up when the glass opens and going back down when the glass closes. Unfortunately, it is simply too small and shallow to do much good as a wind deflector. With the glass completely open, harmonic distortion inside the cabin begins at about 50 mph and becomes unbearable to the ears at about 60 mph.

I've found some aftermarket deflectors that are designed for the S-Type, but I'm not comfortable with their clip-on system. I don't like the idea of any deflector fastening system protruding down through the moonroof opening and therefore having the glass close against it. Too much of a risk for damaging the rubber moldings and creating rainwater leaks in my opinion. So right now we're stuck with opening the moonroof only about two-thirds of the way in order to eliminate the harmonic distortion at speed.

Surely I can't be the only moonroof-equipped S-Type owner out there with this problem?

 

Have you tried to crack open one of the rear side windows to relieve the sound pressure?

 

Yes. It helps very moderately. Not a solution as far as I'm concerned. A slightly-opened rear window creates wind noise of its own. I don't want to resort to fixing one very annoying noise problem by creating another less-annoying one. Until I can come up with a better solution, we'll just stick to a partially-open moonroof on nice-weather days. Not ideal, but it beats having our eardrums pounded.

This is the only complaint that I have about our S-Type at this time. All things being equal, it is a very mild one and we can certainly live with this minor flaw if we must....

 

Yea, I know what ya mean. I personally don't have a wind deflector because I think it detracts from the smooth lines by having the black acrylic hump on my roof.

 

I've never had a problem with my sunroof open, rear windows, now there is a different matter, I can't really have them open over 50.

Maybe we should have a poll?

 

Jon89, thanks, I hadn't thought about what damage the clips may do in the long run. The only other thing I can think of is a deflector of the same "general" size that uses 3M tape to hold it down. I know what you mean about the harmonics (like a buffeting pressure) as it happens in my X-Type but only if I have seat down as well as the roof open.

 

i wonder how bad the LUND one would be if it was color matched to the car???? just an idea im throwing out there

 

I've looked at several photos online of the Lund model and I think it is too big, bulky, and looks more like it belongs on an SUV than on a sleek vehicle like the S-Type. I like the 3M double-sided tape attachment system better than the clip-on hardware running into the moonroof opening, but I've decided that I'm not willing to do either one. Too ugly in my wife's opinion and I can't really argue with that. So we'll live with it. As I said before, it's a minor problem now, but it could become a bigger issue as we move into springtime and she wants the roof open on more frequent occasions....

 

For anyone looking at this, dont buy it. Just put it on, will be returning it. The height is too much, looks like a hump and it has dull, black rubber molding around the whole thing. Looks like sun faded window molding. Yuck.

 

Yep, I still think that the best solution is to only open the moonroof about two-thirds of the way. We can comfortably get our S-Type up to about 75 mph with no harmonic distortion as long as the moonroof is not opened more than two-thirds. But with our outside temperatures reaching 100 degrees or more today, that moonroof is staying closed just about all the time now so it isn't really an issue for us lately....