Hello, I have a squeaking problem with my car.
When the top is down/open position the car squeaks quite a bit on a road that is not very smooth.
The noises seem to come from the door and pillar area but I cannot pinpoint where is comes from.
When the top is up/closed position I have no squeaks or rattles.
I guess I should say mostly squeaks, rattles would mean something was loose and I'm not sure that is problem. Not a knocking problem, squeaking, like things rubbing together.

Anybody else have squeaks with top down vs. no squeaks top up?

Any experience on identifying where they come from and how to silence them?

Thanks for time and reply.

Happy Motoring...

 

The top provides a lot of rigidity to the body of the car, even the convertible one. I would suspect that it is the door seal rubber that is squeaking from the additional movement with the top down.. There have been a number of rubber/vinyl protectorates discussed on this forum but I suspect that most would be adequate to lubricate the seals enough to stop the squeaks.

 

Thanks Test point, I will try some glycerin on the rubber seals and report back.

Happy Motoring...

 

Another thing you might try is to unlatch the door onto the safety catch to take the pressure off the seals and see if the noise goes away.

 

Thanks Test Point and ccfulton for your input, I put some glycerin on the rubber seals and it did help a bit.
but now I have found the main culprit of the noise, it is coming from the dash itself.
The Dashboard foamy material and vinyl seems to have separated from the metal dash frame that is bolted to the car frame in 3 places, when I push down on the vinyl part by the glass you can see it move down a good ½" to ¾" . This is across the entire width of the dash side to side.
Seems Jaguar dash separation is a fairly normal occurrence. Not to be confused with the vent covers (which are a culprit as well).
At this point I doubled up on some plastic toilet shims and covered them in black rubber and wedged them in between the windshield and the dash, two on each side, this has completely taken out all play of the dash and has silenced all noises.

It would seem Jaguar could do a better job at securing the plastic and vinyl to the dash frame for a long term hold!

I guess I am stuck with 4 black wedges between the glass and the vinyl, until at least I can check out the situation when the windshield needs replacing. The wedges are minimal viewing and are evenly spaced, probably won't even notice them in a day or two, hidden on the outside by the black paint on the windshield from factory!

The only way to get at the separated parts of the dash would be from that end with the glass removed. I will see about epoxy or some sort of high temp glue to permanently re glue the vinyl dash part to the frame or maybe even a screw or two.
But for now I am happy with no squeaking, creaking or rattles from the dash. None! AWESOME !

Happy Motoring...

 

No squeaks but only 2 other objectionable noises--the clunk I have been trying to track down and some rattle in the driver's side door (presumably some metal plate near the handle that could be tightened and/or a window rattle).

Doug

 

SeismicGuy, you may try looking at the transmission mount. The mount is a metal plate with a lot of hard rubber, creating almost a cradle, the rubber had completely cracked and was broken. The problem was that you could not see the crack until the mount was removed because the weight kept the rubber pieces looking as if they were still one piece, but it was not, so presumably when the cover goes over a bump it easily separates and then comes back together creating a clunk or thud that could be heard. Just a thought because this is exactly what happened to me. A new Transmission mount solved that problem!
Good luck and

Happy Motoring...

 

Everyone knows about the defroster vents.

There are two (2) rattle culprits in the glove box... first is the upper tray (for the owner's manual). Remove GB and hot glue the plastic in place... like weld it to the GB proper using a hot glue gun.

The second is the GB spring cushion stop cord. There is a cord on the right hand side that cushions the opening glove box. The end that fixes this cable onto the GB sometimes gets loose and rattles in place. This is why the rattle stops when you open the GB!

The wood panel over the instrument cluster sometimes rubs against the gauge binnacle creating a squeak. Double sided tape fixed mine.

Also pull your door panels. I had a couple of minor noise makers when the foam wire wrap became loose and fell off. Also foam wrap any thing loose like the door handle rod. zip ties are a great way to tighten up the loose ends.

Check your spare tire well. I had an old socket from a tool kit break free and roll around. Sounded just like a suspension part going bad.

 

I am guessing it is not that but it gives me one more thing to ask the mechanic to look at. The reason I think it is something else is that it is clearly coming from the right front not the center front. More likely candidates seem to be upper wishbone bushings (since I had the lower ones done) and/or upper shock mount. The last mechanic I brought it to had it up on the rack at least 3 times (one of which he did the lower bushing replacement) and he found nothing obvious that caused the noise. His next tack was to look behind the front console since it really sounds like the noise is coming from behind the glove box. I already tightened the bulkhead strut/brace as much as I could so I have ruled that out.

Doug