I've just had my '04 LS430 for a month now and I am appreciating it more every day, except for one problem. Yesterday I brought my car in for the 30 day inspection and asked the service advisor to have the tech check out the sunroof. When it is closed, no rattles, even with the shade open. When I open the sunroof, it rattles, especially at low speeds. I have noticed that the sunroof does cause a lot of wind buffeting, more than I have experienced on any other car. As luck would have it, when I went for a test drive with the tech, the rattle was very minimal. He told me there was no adjustment for the sunroof in the open position and the because of the design of the sunroof, it has to "float" some in the open position so it won't bind. He said all was normal.

After I picked up my car, I did some experimenting. It seems like the sunroof rattles more at slower speeds and is partially caused by wind buffeting. I opened the sunroof about 3/4 with all windows closed and at exactly 25mph, the pressure from the wind and the rattle hurts your ears. Any faster or slower, the pressure is relieved and the rattle is more intermittent. Fully open, the sunroof continues to rattle intermittently, but without the air pressure, and by putting light pressure on it, the rattle stops. By lightly touching the open sunroof while driving, I can feel it vibrating, like the sunroof is flexing.

I guess I can understand the wind buffeting and the air pressure, especially with such a large sunroof, but I can't believe the rattle is normal. Does anyone else have this problem? I guess the only way to see if it is normal is to drive another LS430. I have to believe if anyone else had this problem, there would have been a thread about it before. Any help, recommendations, advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

The rattle is not normal. My girl friend's 02 LS430 had a similar problem with the sunroof. The dealer worked on it several times without success. They finally replaced the whole thing. Now the new sunroof doesn't rattle a bit.

 

You paid for an '04 LS 430 just one month ago and should not have to tolerate rattles.. The tech should not have given you any explanation or excuse. The sunroof should be repaired or replaced to eliminate the rattle.

Goodluck!

 

I have an 03 LS 430 with 6600 miles and I have "0" rattles from sunroof (open or closed). A rattle in sunroof is not normal--Have the dealer fix it or if they refuse call Lexus CS> I have excellent response from dealer whenever I call CS.
Hope this helps.
Ron

 

I have rattle from the moonroof cover when the cover is in open (partially / full) position. Asked the dealer to fix it, and it was quiet for a while... and now the rattle comes again... and I don't have anything planned for it, currently, coz the service from Lexus Madison is a little
Now I just moved to Milwaukee, and we'll see how the dealership here does it... from a friend's experience, it seems that Milwaukee Lexus dealers are better.

 

That's exactly what happened to my ES300 when it was 6 months old (that was when I first opened the sunroof....never tested it when I bought the car).

Brought it to my dealership (Putnam Lexus in the Bay Area). They re-stuffed the sunroof cover and the annoying rattling noise was then forever gone.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a better dealership to solve the problem. It is definitely NOT normal.