Roadster lid tonneau rattle squeak fix
 

After having a new roof put in I noticed that the Z started having a rattle/squeak coming from the lid/tonneau area. It's usually louder when top is up, but can still hear some squeaks/rattles when top is down. It sounds like metal against metal. I thought it could be the striker causing it. But after reading different suggestions on the forum i tried covering the lid/tonneau bolts with some weatherstrip tape. To my surprise the noise went away. Hooray! It was really getting on my nerves :).

I used Duck Weatherstrip Seal Self Adhesive Foam. This is the stuff people use to insulate windows and doors from drafts.

i found the piece that is causing the squeak, see pictures attached

saw after some time of opening and closing the top, the lid was ripping the tape off the screw, and the rattle started coming back. I went to home depot and found a rubber screw protector. Basically a rubber piece that fits over the screw/bolt. It was only 88 cents at my local home depot. I put some more weatherstrip tape on the bolt and slid the screw protector over it. So far so good :).

vman12,

I don't know if the Nissan gods will strike you down or not, but putting something yellow where everything else is painted black???

Clever fix!

Haha didn't think about the color, since it's hidden under the lid. So no one will actually see it unless they look in when i put the top down.

They had different colors for different sizes at home depot. I bet there are black ones online.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Thanks! I had exactly the same symptom and your fix worked a treat.

Cheers!

Thank you, this worked well for me today.

Did you replace the whole top or just the cloth?

I too have a rattle That has developed behind my left ear while driving that’s making me INSANE. It’s more prevalent with the top up. Maybe this is the fix I needed!! Will try this and see if it fixes it.

Thanks for posting this! Rattles drive me insane, and it takes lots of detective work and trial and error to track them down. I don't have this particular rattle on my car (yet), but I'll keep your fix in my repertoire.
By the way, I did check my car and observed that it has black, plastic caps on those lower bolts where you added the yellow screw protectors. Mine is a 2017; maybe yours had them originally but they somehow fell off? You might want to see if you can get the OEM replacements.
Thanks again for the info,
Steve

Thanks. This has been driving me nuts for a year.

BTW, all I did was put a tiny cabinet door bump stop (with the self adhesive back) on top of mine and it worked great.

Mine has been squeaking like an old bed spring with a pair of randy teenagers going at it for several years now. I can’t wait to try the fix. Thanks for that vman. :bowdown:

Now if I can only get the top to go up and down. I’ve checked for worn wires but so far no luck. It sucks to have a convertible that doesn’t convert. I don’t think I could give it away in this condition even though it doesn’t have 40k on it after 8 years and except for scrapes on the nose cowling it looks mint. Heavy sigh.

I finally decided to go at it 100%. I dug in and found the fluid had all drained out into the storage space. I ordered new hydraulic lines for the rear latch system and replaced them along with cleaning out the hydraulic reservoir and replacing the fluid. While going through all that I checked the wires once again and voila, I found a broken wire. I soldered it back together. Now with new hydraulic lines and new fluid I'll be damned if the thing didn't work! I think the bungee is getting old because it tends to catch when I try to close it. Regardless, the hydraulics are working. Now if I could only fix the gawd dammed miserable squeak. Ugghhh!!!!!!!!!

So I'm back. I ordered two new hydraulic lines and replaced them. I took out the pump and cleaned out the reservoir. Replaced all the fluid with brand new. The top goes up and down. The pump is noisy, probably still has some air in it, but at least it works as it should.

I chased down areas where I could see rubbing and glued down some cork where it seemed appropriate. It seemed to work at first but its back. It still squeaks like an old bed spring with a couple of randy teenagers making love on it. I checked the areas vman12 shows in the images but the wear he shows isn't there. I'm getting to the point I'm ready to shove the car off a cliff.

I guess I'll have to give it another look and see if I can spot some wear points. Gawd it's driving me nuts. This has been going on for five or six years now. I loved the car in the beginning but I'm getting to the end of my rope.

I hear ya... That squeak gets annoying! For me, it's right behind the driver's seat. I like to find the desolate (let's say not routinely maintained) backroads between Georgetown and Placerville to run around on, which I believe has contributed to the problem. Not that Sacramento proper has better shape roads! Anyway, I'm going to need to try to figure it out. It reminds me of an old domestic convertible from the 1980's!