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      01-27-2019, 11:14 AM   #1
CrossyN
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Chronic M4 Convertible Roof Noise

I'm just creating this as an extra piece of material for someone to maybe come across in the future. I don't have a solution yet but will post it after it's fixed. Car is booked into BMW this Thursday for inspection.
I'm experiencing absolutely unbearable creaking and clicking noises coming from the roof joints when moving at any speed, it so loud it can be heard over normal music volume and it's coming from the area where the driver side latch fixes to the chassis. There's also an equally as annoying creaking coming from the rear parcel shelf area, not so bad as its further away, and there's an infrequent creaking coming from somewhere over on the passenger side. It's making driving the car a hideously unpleasant experience.
I'd already tried applying gummi-whatever the stuff is called to all recommended areas, beyond that I'm personally not taking anything apart as its under warranty.
Basically just making this post to follow it up with the explained solution later, so anyone in the future can see what their problem might be.

Here's a quick clip of what the noise is like.

https://youtu.be/yPMKDJXDsWc
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      01-29-2019, 05:45 PM   #2
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Yeah, that’s pretty bad. My z4 had a little bit of that but no where near as bad and it was 10 years old when I traded it. I suspect something is out of alignment.

On a related note, I took my m4 in because of a pretty loud noise every time I put the top up. It was occurring when the rear part of the roof would lock into position. The dealer told me the noise is normal and that it’s the locking mechanism for the top.
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      01-30-2019, 04:49 PM   #3
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I had the same problem after they worked on replacing some seals. Back to the dealer it went and they made some adjustments to the side windows (their words not mine) and that pretty much took care of the noises.

I get an occasional creak over a large bump, but to me that is ok. Before it felt like some sort of phycological warfare in my car.
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      01-31-2019, 03:39 AM   #4
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Just dropped it off into the dealership, excellent service, no offer of a lift home and it's -5 outside!

Anyway, hopefully they'll sort it out and let me know what it is so I can log it here. I'm fine with a couple of creaks over large bumps, I have to expect that when the roof is a moving part, but yea what it's like now is some kind of psychological torture.
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      02-01-2019, 02:20 PM   #5
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Same Problem

My roof is also creaking badly on my M4 convertible. I was seeking blogs to see if anyone else was having the same issues. This car was brand new as of October so a 68 plate in the UK. The dealer believe they have improved it but said it’s not gone altogether by the sounds of it. They have asked me to test drive it to see if I am happy with it, if I’m not they’ve said the next step is to try replacing all the seals. It is disconcerting and feels like they are putting some of the decision making on a fault back into my court. Not sure whether to push back and tell them I will only accept a return when they tell me it’s fixed. That way if it continues I believe I could possibly still reject the vehicle under the Consumer Rights Act. Really that would be painful as I love the car otherwise. The final point I’d add is my wife used to have a 3 series convertible and that had no such noises in the 6 years she owned it, so I am suspicious this is a design issue? Would appreciate it if you could update me on how you get on and I will do the same, also, I’d be interested to see if any other owners have similar experiences. Thanks
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      02-01-2019, 05:19 PM   #6
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Will do although I'm not holding up on much hope at this rate, it's Stratstone and I've had nothing but negative experiences with them. I handed the car over to them yesterday morning, they've had it two full working days and they've told me they need to keep it in over the weekend now as they ran out of time... in other words they didn't start working on it until today and realised its worse than they thought it would be. I shouldn't be losing my car for 4-5 days over a weekend for a trim rattle, that's just poor.
I'll still feed back here, mine was brand new in March 2018 and didn't get like this until a couple of months ago, it was fine throughout last summer however it's only got 4500 miles on it after 11 months so I'm nervous it'll get worse.
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      02-01-2019, 10:35 PM   #7
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Sounds familiar again! My dealer said that they’d overlooked it or something also and kept it longer than planned this week. Mine wasn’t making this noise initially either when I got it in October, started a few weeks later. I wonder if it’s due to temperature drop? I’ve done around 5k miles also as driving it everyday. I’ll feedback when I’ve been in later.
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      02-02-2019, 10:42 AM   #8
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Just got it back, dealer asked me to do a drive with the technician. I said if the tech had any doubts then they should keep the car, if it’s resolved I’ll take it. So driven home and whilst it is better the audible creaking is still on the drivers side. The dealer said it is to do with the seals. I’m going to have a think about next steps, maybe I need to drive another one or just lump it?
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      02-04-2019, 03:27 PM   #9
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How's it been?
Tomorrow is the start of the FORTH WORKING DAY that the dealership have had my car in for a roof rattle, they've had it since the Thursday morning last week. I have no choice but to assume that there has been complications and difficulties, but on face value this is nothing short of appalling. Given the variety of feats that a competent team of mechanics should be able to accomplish in four working days, this better not come back with so much as a whisper of a noise from the roof.
Personally I don't think lumping it is acceptable, a brand new £75,000 car should not be creaking like an old Renault. It's whether or not we can be bothered with the fight and hassle of an escalated complaint.
They gave me a M140i in the mean time, and I'm super surprised at how fast this thing is, it's perceptibly as quick as the M4 whilst feeling much cheaper on the inside.
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      02-09-2019, 04:07 AM   #10
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Well I finally got my car back yesterday, it had been with the dealer for 7 WORKING DAYS. Thursday morning to the end of Friday the following week.
And it's still emitting creaking and clicking sounds from the cabin.
It's nowhere near as bad as it was before, but it's certainly nowhere "the car was in the dealer for 7 days regarding this issue" levels of resolved. I asked them what they did and they said anti-rattle/vibration tape, and the rear quarter panel of the roof needed to be removed to get at something which resulted in needing new seals somewhere, really not enough information to make this thread helpful to anyone else.
So I have to face the prospect of the car rattling and creaking for my entire ownership, the only good thing that came out of this was I saw a San Marino Blue M4 CS on the showroom floor which was absolutely incredible.
Asides from that, I lost my car for over a week and they still couldn't resolve it.
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      02-13-2019, 11:11 AM   #11
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Another update, the tapping/creaking noise has become worse over the last few days and is now just as bad if not worse than it was before it went into the dealer, and to make matters worse, water is now getting through into the interior through the rear fold in the roof. Absolutely livid, I'm rapidly falling out of love with this car.
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      02-13-2019, 03:04 PM   #12
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Do you have another dealer you can try. If not, go back to your dealer and let the service manager know how unhappy you are with their past performance. I am not sure how it is in the UK, but here in the US, they send those surveys out after a service. Last time I was unhappy, I gave them crappy scores and they got contacted by BMW corporate. Next thing you know, they called me and bent over backwards to fix things correctly.

Hope your next experience is better.
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      02-13-2019, 06:23 PM   #13
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Thanks, yea I've put a call back into the dealer to speak to the service manager but he didn't return my call today. Thing is, they had it for 8 days and made it worse, so I'm not inspired with confidence that they'll be able to do anything better second time around. I'll see what the guy says and if it's not convincing, I'll indeed head to another dealer.
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      03-16-2019, 06:34 AM   #14
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Hi, I just saw your post and wonder if you have any update at all on resolving the issues.
I also just bought a 435i M Sport convertible last week and rattles so badly I'm not enjoying driving the car at all, it's terrible. I bought it from Stratstone BMW Doncaster. Where did you buy yours from?
Thanks.
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      03-16-2019, 07:08 AM   #15
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Oopsie... mine was from Stratstone BMW Newcastle! That's not the fault of Stratstone though, they don't build the cars.
I've had a hellish time with it. It went back into Stratstone on Monday last week, they had it for a further 5 days and gave me it back yesterday claiming it was "deathly silent"... their definition of that seems to differ greatly from mine. It's still rattling after being in the dealer for a total of 2 weeks.
I've only driven it from the dealer back to my house but it was still making some noises, although it is slightly better than it was, it could get worse over time.

In my personal opinion, I think having such a huge detached moving part (the roof) makes it impossible to not have rattles... and how well a dealer can help depends on how skilled their individual mechanics are. I'm gonna give it a week or so and see if I can live with how it is now, if not I think it's time to decide whether I want to keep the car or trade it in.
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      05-05-2019, 12:17 AM   #16
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I got my F83 M4 in late 2015. I had no rattle sound from roof unless I on some bumps. Until one day around 2 years ago I applied a kind of grease on the seal (in order to prevent rubber ageing), there were a lot of rattle sound while I’m driving.

You may try to clean the seal and all connected part especially the window to see if the rattle sound becomes better.
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      05-05-2019, 01:13 PM   #17
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I think I said in the first post that I had already used the gummi stuff on the seals, and BMW have completely disassembled and replaced all the seals, but it's still rattling and now also leaks in heavy rain. I've given up with it, I'm stuck with it for another couple of years and will just write this off as an experience not to be repeated.
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      05-06-2019, 06:38 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TFI View Post
I think I said in the first post that I had already used the gummi stuff on the seals, and BMW have completely disassembled and replaced all the seals, but it's still rattling and now also leaks in heavy rain. I've given up with it, I'm stuck with it for another couple of years and will just write this off as an experience not to be repeated.
You may still try to clean even after you have replace the whole seal, because the gummi stays on seal contact part (e.g. metal part and window).

I cleaned my car yesterday after my last post in this tread by using wet wipe (must be able to cut grease). Now the rattle noice disappeared.
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      08-24-2020, 04:50 PM   #19
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Hi TFI, long time no speak! Sorry I went off the thread for a while, travelling for work took over! My M4 went back 4X in 2019 after my first post, they replaced the seals then tried to realign, these actions didn’t lose the creaking, then they blamed house keeping which I disputed so told them to show me how to clean to get rid of it, they couldn’t do it so back in Feb 20 before UK lockdown they had it for over a week and took all the mechanisms apart at the front, they fabricated some spacers out of styrene or something similar which they glued onto where the locking mechanism sits, in honesty it has slightly lowered the noise it was making but hasn’t really lost it. With Covid issues I haven’t had the will power to take BMW on over it. Like you say though for a £75k car it didn’t ought to happen! Still wondering if I can reject as whilst it’s a fantastic car to drive this has slightly spoiled the ownership! Not sure if I’d have many rights though as had it for two years now! Let me know where you got to if you pick up the reply! All the best!
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      10-05-2020, 10:27 PM   #20
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303 Protectant cures BMW seal squeaks on convertibles. I use a microfiber cloth to apply 303 to the seals (especially the seal that touches the rear deck)
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