My 2001 XJR (RHD) has a new noise. It sounds like a nut rolling around in the roof. It's only on the left-hand side. When I brake I can sometimes hear it roll from the back to the front, when I accelerate I sometimes hear it roll back.

The sunroof is working correct - I was a bit apprehensive testing it, in case it got stuck halfway.

It looks like I'll need to remove the rear or front window to get the roof lining out completely, but wondered if it was possible to just drop one side enough to extract the nut (or bolt) and identify where it came from - possibly with a endoscope/snakecam.

I'd really prefer not to have to drop the whole roof lining for all sorts of reasons.

Does anyone have any experience doing this?

Troy.

 

I am thinking try to trap it with a strong magnet and pull/drag it to a place where you can pull down some of the roof liner at rear window molding or possibly work it through the sun visor mounting plate or even the drop the control module and work it through there. Pulling the whole headliner down will cause more problems with a car of this age. Glue and material will crumble.

 

Good idea Elmo - I'll try and source a strong magnet and see how I go!

 

Is this like a loose nut behind the wheel reference?

 

Don't worry, when it comes to rattles and mysterious sounds the first thing I think is...is it me or the car?