OCLSLexus

I recently bought this 90 LS400 for $3k (155k miles) and it has a rattle in the headliner above the passenger rear seat. Does anybody have any advise regarding how to remove the headliner? Much appreciated.

steve2006

To completely remove the lining looks quite a job,if you can roughly locate the source of the noise it may be possible by removing the interior door opening trim and grab handle to pull down the lining enough to have a look inside with a flashlight then if you can see the problem reach in and remove it.
Looking at the exploded parts diagram it seems that plastic clips are used to secure the headlining so these should just pop out with a little leverage then click back in afterwards.

OCLSLexus

Steve, good point...since the rattle seems to be just above the rear passenger door I may get lucky with just pulling down that section and finding the culprit. Is the "exploded parts diagram" available for online viewing? If so, can you provide a link? Thanks.

steve2006

The parts diagram was freely available until Toyota made a fuss so now it is only available to inner circle members, I think there may be diagrams still viewable via some of the Lexus dealer sites, maybe Sewell or Carson.

Or even like this!

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...1t:429,r:1,s:0

OCLSLexus

Thanks Steve! This should help.

sdls

My car's got a rattle in the headliner / sunroof too - it's been the most aggravating aspect of my entire LS400 ownership experience.

steve2006

Make sure there isn't a snake attached to that rattle!

deanshark

If it's rattling over the passenger door it could just be the handle needs to be tightened, they do have some wierd connecters they screw into. I had some rattling but it turned out being the wire for the phone antenna, duct tape took care of that.

OCLSLexus

sdis, I found a temporary fix to be to slide the moon roof cover back. This put pressure where it was needed and the rattle stopped.

deanshark, thanks for the heads up on the door handle and car phone antenna idea.

sdls

oh I do that and i also put the sunroof in the tilt position to stop the rattling component in the sunroof mechanism too. garrrrh!

sdls

So.. i found the source of the rattle. it's the stupid spring-loaded deflector that pops up when you open the sunroof. Four screws later, it was off, and my rattle gone. Why didn't I do this sooner? It took me literally one minute to take it out. Maybe 40 seconds.