Soft Top rear corner rattle: Finally tracked down rattle at back corners of soft top when in fully closed position, my simple fix

[Bearcat1]

I have been chasing a rattling noise on the soft top for quite a while. I only hear it when I have the soft top fully closed with the windows in.
I mainly hear it when going 50mph or above, a clicking or creaky kind of noise. I had my son drive while I sat in the very back to figure out where it
was coming from. Determined it was at the very top rear corners. Got home, and took off the back window and unclipped the side windows.
There is a metal square channel that runs from side to side which you can see if you pull up the fabric top in the back, I used a clamp shown in the pic below to keep the fabric flap out of my way. It appears the metal channel slides into the plastic corners and then is held together by two screws on each side. There was enough play in that connection that if I twisted the metal channel slightly or pushed up and down could duplicate the clicking/creaking noise. I couldn't figure out how to remove the channel all the way due to the black rivets that attach to the channel and the plastic piece of the soft top.
I removed the two screws on each side and sprayed a little bit of white lithium grease in the screw holes and also where the metal channel fits over the big plastic corner pieces. (You may see a little white grease around the screws and the metal/plastic joint where I sprayed.)
This has at least temporarily made the noises go away, we'll see how long it lasts. If it comes back, quick easy fix and no what to do now.
Hope this helps anyone else that has this issue, it sure has eased my sanity.

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[ajreno952]

I have been chasing a rattling noise on the soft top for quite a while. I only hear it when I have the soft top fully closed with the windows in.
I mainly hear it when going 50mph or above, a clicking or creaky kind of noise. I had my son drive while I sat in the very back to figure out where it
was coming from. Determined it was at the very top rear corners. Got home, and took off the back window and unclipped the side windows.
There is a metal square channel that runs from side to side which you can see if you pull up the fabric top in the back, I used a clamp shown in the pic below to keep the fabric flap out of my way. It appears the metal channel slides into the plastic corners and then is held together by two screws on each side. There was enough play in that connection that if I twisted the metal channel slightly or pushed up and down could duplicate the clicking/creaking noise. I couldn't figure out how to remove the channel all the way due to the black rivets that attach to the channel and the plastic piece of the soft top.
I removed the two screws on each side and sprayed a little bit of white lithium grease in the screw holes and also where the metal channel fits over the big plastic corner pieces. (You may see a little white grease around the screws and the metal/plastic joint where I sprayed.)
This has at least temporarily made the noises go away, we'll see how long it lasts. If it comes back, quick easy fix and no what to do now.
Hope this helps anyone else that has this issue, it sure has eased my sanity.

I just did this to my soft top and it fixed the squeaking! Thanks for posting this, I was going crazy with how noisy it was.

Go bearcats!

 

[Bearcat1]

Glad I could help. It has been a couple of weeks and mine is still rattle/squeak free from this fix.

 

[BroncoBoy22]

Going to try mine this weekend. The squeaking is driving me crazy. Seems to only happen at certain temps but it’s still very annoying.

 

[jakebadlands]

I had this same exact issue for the last 2 years of ownership and I finally fixed it with the help of this post and some of my own tinkering. The noise was an absolute headache to say the least. It was a constant clicking no matter the bumps, winds or anything. Clickin all day baby! It was so bad it literally made me neurotic while driving and made it hard to enjoy driving in general.

I pin pointed my noise to the side panels of the back window and the rear cross bar of the top. I could recreate the sound by pushing down on the side panel near the clips, pulling down on the rear cross bar, or pushing in on the window slightly from the inside. I added lithium grease on the three rivet-looking connectors on both of the side panels on the back window (see photo)(not even sure if this did anything but still...). Then I added lithium grease in the screw areas of the cross bar detailed in the OP. I also have never taken my back window off until today, which honestly might have been the real fix to my issue. As soon as I took the back window off and put it back on, I couldn't recreate the noise. I think there might have been some tension in the window that just needed to be released and re-fit. Nightmare noise is now gone and I am cruising in SILENCE! Thanks OP!

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