Is there a difference over time? In different climates? I won’t name other manufacturers who have had fading/cracking/chipping on their carbon roofs, but it happens and makes the car look awful. How does the LC carbon roof hold up in rough environments? Is throwing some PPF on, and replacing it every few years, worthwhile? I much prefer the appearance, inside and outside, of the carbon roof, but that would change quickly if the roof started to look poorly. Thanks.

 

I'm not sure how similar the process/materials of the RCF carbon roof but mine is almost 10 years old and does not have any sign of fading or delamination. It has never been PPF but I keep it clean and have it ceramic coated. Lexus did a good job on the clearcoat. I also enjoy the extra headroom vs a sunroof.

 

What kind of environment are you in? (Sun, snow, etc.) Is the car garaged full time? My assumption has always been that Lexus doesn’t put out stuff that breaks, but I preferred the drive of German cars so I’ve stayed in that world. The LC, and my age, have pushed me from the latter. To be honest, I’d probably prefer a full glass panoramic roof, but I agree that the sunroof just isn’t for me. Less headroom, and it just feels a little dated given how so many inexpensive cars have the pano roofs nowadays. I just want to be sure that the carbon holds up. Thanks.

 

Partly why I didn’t like the idea of CF roof.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...m-bubbles.html

But the main reason for me is that the glass roof provides more light into the cabin if needed.

 

For added info on RCF CF Roof:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rc-...oof-issue.html

I have this glass roof, and leave the sun shade open 100% of the time.

Lou

 

Not to say glass roof doesn’t have issue lol.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lc-...aminating.html

 

Interesting. It sounds like some of the interior issues are from a sort of faux carbon, and I’d imagine that the products used on an exterior panel and interior trim are probably different, anyway. This doesn’t seem to be a wide issue, though. (That said, with my luck, if it can happen, it’ll happen to me.) As mentioned, if this were a pano glass roof, or even just a solid roof, I’d probably go for that. I don’t like the way the sunroof looks on these cars. It just seems too small.

 

Just to be clear, the sunroof on the LC500 isn’t exactly a sunroof. You can’t open it to the outside world. That means there’s no mechanical sliding or tilting mechanism and therefore, doesn’t take a lot of headroom. It’s basically a sliding headliner that expose to the glass to allow some light into the cabin.

If you do the CF roof, you can add some clear tint that block UVA/UVB from the sun and this may help to prolong its life. Just know that if your interior is black, it does make it very claustrophobic, at least to me. I did not like the mood when I was inside test driving the DHP version of the car with CF roof and black interior.

 

I’m used to a 911 with a black interior and black alcantara headliner on a steel sunroof, so any claustrophobia was squeezed out (pardon the pun) a long time ago.

 

Alright. Go with the CF roof. Put some clear tint on it to help with the sun exposure. If any issue with it, it can be replaced.

 

To add to this this - I saw notes from a Lexus service shop in Texas on a 2018 model where a customer reported a clicking sound when turning, the tech notes the glass roof was not torqued correctly and had retorqued it to oem specification. This was around 20k miles as I recall. I've looked at service history's on what is probably 50-70 LC's and it was the first and only time I've seen that in pop up as an issue.

I think the roof choice is as much aesthetic as it is functional - a little extra headroom with the carbon fiber is nice for us taller folk but it doesn't look great as a contrast to all colors, depends on the body color and wheel design, in my opinion.

 

I’m probably more paranoid about the health of a roof than most, as JLR tried to get me to pay a bit over $15K when a clear manufacturing defect required a brand new roof when the sunroof drains rotted and broke off of a five year old SUV. (It wasn’t a replaceable part, so the whole pano roof and sunroof had to go.) In the end they did right by me, but I had to wait three months while waiting on a roof to come on a boat from the UK. I’m not comparing reliability between these two manufacturers, but once bitten …

 

Thanks for the thread. Curious how the headliner if finished and how low it is with CF roof.. Cannot find image of headliner on CF roof online. Glass roof and the trim for the shade make it too LOW for 6 4 driver IMO

 

And.. at the end of the day you know what doesn't have any of these problems?? A metal roof

 

One other thing to note here. My wife's car is a Lexus ES with a true sunroof. When you slide back the headliner, even if you keep the sunroof closed, you get a bit of wind noise in the cabin. With my LC, when I slide back the headliner for the "sunroof," there's no additional noise. As it should be!