Sun roof vibrates

[Warrantero]

Got a luxury + about 200 miles on it. Vehicle has been great, but I think I may have an issue with the sun roof vibration at slower speeds around 30mph.

I will be driving on secondary paved roads and it sounds like a background buzz, I thought first it was from the radio but I felt the sunroof and when I heard the noise I felt the sun roof vibrate.

It’s weird does not happen all the time depends on speed and the road. On the highway no issue.

I am running my tires about 35 psi. I was wondering if perhaps I have a tire out of balance? Maybe the crappy dunlops are the issue.

I checked my roof rack it seems tight, nothing loose.

Strange that it is not constant.

Anybody with a lux + ever notice this?

 

[cartermatthews]

We have a luxury + with the roof cross rails. From my research that is what is causing my road noise. The roof rack/rails could be causing more air to be pushed under it possibly causing the vibrations? I haven't noticed the vibration on ours, just noise.

 

[Warrantero]

Lexus provides the tool and caps for removal of the roof rails, maybe I’ll give that a try.

 

[Larry]

Lexus provides the tool and caps for removal of the roof rails, maybe I’ll give that a try.

First I heard of this. Are the parts on line?

 

[Warrantero]

Just removed my roof rails using the tool that my dealer provided and the instructions. Pretty easy four half covers to remove along with four star head bolts, took about 10 minutes. My dealer also included the covers that install in the space where the roof rack was. Looks nice and clean.

Time for a test drive to see if the vibration is gone.

 

[Gunner]

Let's us know. Sounds good and I bet it looks good.

 

[Warrantero]

Just went out for a drive, no more vibrations, felt the panoramic glass not vibrating as was before. Drove different speeds secondary road and highway, no problems encountered.

Cabin is nice and quiet. I like the smooth roof.

 

[Gunner]

Warrantero, That's great news and I bet it looks good.

 

[Warrantero]

Looks great! I was looking at the cross rails, not very aerodynamically designed, I figured that the lead and trailing edges should come down to a thin edge kind of like a wing shape. The blocky design is not good for airflow. I wonder if Lexus even knows that this is happening.

I never use roof racks, if I had my choice I would have not had them at all.

 

[Gunner]

I hear they can be removed by using Lexus removal items.

 

[Warrantero]

When I picked up my GX my salesperson handed the package to me that had the tool, plastic covers and the removal/installation instructions.

 

[ilumo]

I wonder if this happens to the OT trims as well or if it’s just the lux/prem packages with the thin profile side rails?

I wanted a rack but not sure if it will compromise noise this much.

 

[Gunner]

Each to his own, pick your camp as they say.

 

[Pottsy]

This thread has me very excited to get back into my GX after work and check if the sunroof on my OT+ is where my faint buzzing sound is coming from. I haven't bothered bringing mine into the dealer yet for a diagnosis because it's very minor albeit annoying. The sound I am hearing sounds VERY familiar to your experience, with one caveat that I only seem to hear the sound when I am on the accelerator at lower RPM's. I don't feel any vibrations associated to the buzzing sound.

My initial reaction was that I thought it was a bad speaker making a low frequency vibration, but it was happening at all different parts of songs and music types and not even consistent at the same point of particular songs. Then I realized it was still happening when the stereo was muted. It's been super annoying to diagnose where it's coming from because to my ear it sounds like it is coming from the passenger side and my wife and kids are not super helpful in trying to track it down when I am driving, but I completely overlooked the moonroof. I don't have the Pano glass on the OT+, but I do have the Cross Rails.

On my ride home tonight I am gonna see if applying pressure to the glass or opening the moonroof has any effect on the sound. Will report back.

 

[gvan1998]

Just removed my roof rails using the tool that my dealer provided and the instructions. Pretty easy four half covers to remove along with four star head bolts, took about 10 minutes. My dealer also included the covers that install in the space where the roof rack was. Looks nice and clean.

Time for a test drive to see if the vibration is gone.

Do you have a picture of the cover that install in the space where the roof rack was? or a part #. My car didnt come with it

 

[Pottsy]

It’s seems the vibration I am hearing is coming from the moonroof area on my OT+ though it doesn’t change much when I push on the glass while it’s happening. It does stop however when I open the moonroof.

With the moonroof open and trying to recreate the sound I can hear the wind noise change over the cross bars in the same throttle range when the noise usually occurs. I suspect it has something to do with the way the air is buffeting against the roof within a certain velocity of the wind flow. It sounds like it’s actually slightly behind the glass towards the rear a bit so maybe it’s something vibrating in the cavity where the moonroof goes when opened.

I just ordered a set of these rhino vortex generating strips that look to insert in the T-channel of the OEM bars to see if it makes a difference. My go to is to usually wrap my racks in paracord but if this works it will look a lot cleaner on the GX and also adds padding for whatever I strap up top.

If this doesn’t make an improvement I’ll try some paracord and go from there. Worth a shot.

Amazon.com

 

[Pottsy]

Reporting back…. I’m pretty convinced the vibration sound is from wind vibrating against the roof from the cross bars. I installed the Rhino Vortex strips but at the same time I noticed the cross bars have that weird rubber strip on the bottom similar to what folks are pulling off of their OEM racks. It’s a really odd shape strip to put under something aerodynamic. I decided to pull those off as well - they come off easily with no damage.

Happy to say the vibration is greatly reduced, though not completely gone. I used to be able to recreate it whenever I wanted with feathering the throttle when going 35-40 pretty much anytime, but now I rarely hear anything and can’t force it to happen. It still seems in certain conditions/speeds enough wind hits the roof in such a way it cause the buzzing vibration sound, but not enough to annoy me anymore. I still might try adding some paracord around the bars and see if it eliminates it completely but for now I’m satisfied.

And the vortex strips are actually functional, adding grip and padding to the top of your bars and they look nice too. Also very easy to install and can be removed later. Here’s a couple photos of the vortex strips and the rubber strip I removed.

You can see the strip hanging down off the front bar below as I started removing it, and the vortex strips are installed.

This is the profile of the rubber strip. The rectangular part was pointed frontward which seems like it would just force high velocity wind straight down at the roof. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the point of this was and why it was added. Why would you need rubber under your cross bars? They look nicer without it as well.

Another photo with the strips installed and the rubber strip half pulled off.

Hope this helps someone else.

 

[munkeeboi]

is there any chance the bars were installed backwards and the rubber piece was supposed to be along the trailing end? Still doesn't make sense as it it would be creating lift that way they would be facing.

With all the engineers at Lexus, who would've thought they would fail so miserably with their roof accessories for the GX.

 

[Pottsy]

Looking at the profile of the rubber strip, either way you position it, it still directs air into the rectangle portion, and it was already positioned so that the slope part was facing forward. But there really isn't a way it would have made sense. It's very very silly and seems like an afterthought. I've been trying to figure out what in the world they were trying to accomplish when adding that strip. I can't think of a single purpose it would have been intended to solve for.