2nd Gen R57 Convertible Convertible Roof De-squeakification (lotsa photos)

I don't know if convertibles in the US are afflicted with squeaks from the seal to the tops of the side windows like in Britain, but I know you guys are great do-it-yourselfers so I thought I might some details on the de-squeakification (technical term...) procedure that BMW have issued - see the PDF attachment.

A beautiful day yesterday seemed the ideal time to work on the car and try out this procedure which was a complete and utter success.

It takes maybe 15 minutes to do (probably under 5 minutes if it needs doing again - I wonder if this will be an annual event) and couldn't be simpler.

The repair procedure starts, less-than-helpfully, "remove the seals using repair procedure 51 70 ...". What I did was:

1) Peel off the bottom lip of the seal, by pulling it outwards.



2) Detach the bottom half of the seal by pulling it all outwards and sliding my finger behind.



3) This photo shows the seal carrier with tracks that the seal grips onto at both the top and bottom.



Looking at this you can see that the top track has much less 'T' than the bottom one so actually it might be better to remove the top half first.

The photo also shows that my 03/2009 car already has the felt strips in the seal carriers, so it's where the seal carrier Ts fit the seal that need to be done.

(continued below...)

 

I sprayed ordinary DIY store silicon spray into the top and bottom grooves of the back of each seal - obviously I didn't do this on top of the car as this photo suggests!



I also sprayed the area behind the quarter window seal like it says in the repair procedure.



And it is my belief that you want to stop the seal moving against the glass, not encourage it, so after I had refitted each seal, I cleaned the area in contact with the glass using BMW silicone remover - this was $10 or so from my dealer (so $20 or so from yours, I think!).



The result this morning was complete silence - I almost wish the sun that has appeared would go away so that I can see if this holds good this afternoon! I will try to remember to report back if this is a permanent or temporary cure. To be honest, I'm not fussed if it's only temporary as it's so easy to do.

And my deepest thanks to whoever posted the BMW repair procedure in the first place - it may have been on a site concerned with sewing, so I hope you see these thanks.