mbintx

My 964 has an annoying and persistent rattle, and I'm 99% sure it is coming from the rear of the sunroof mechanism. If I had to describe the noise, it would be a long, thin piece of metal that is rattling/vibrating because an attachment point has come loose. It's not a squeak, it's a rattle. Uneven surfaces or bumps in the road cause the rattle above and behind my head.
So far, I've carefully opened the rear zipper and looked/felt around, but nothing obvious stands out. The front of the sunroof mechanism (what I can see/feel via the sunroof opening) is all solid, as is the sunroof itself. The sunroof opens and closes easily and smoothly, and the rattle is consistent whether the sunroof is open, partially open, or closed.
Unless someone has a brilliant suggestion on what it could be, my next step would be to remove the entire headliner to expose what's underneath and see if that sheds a light on the noise. I'm hesitant to do this unless absolutely necessary, though.

So...my question: Has anyone successfully removed and replaced the headliner in a 964? What's involved? Is it better left to an upholstery shop? Can the existing headliner be re-used?

Thoughts/suggestions?? TIA!

JohnK964

The cable for the sunroof is at top of poorly drawn arrow
My sun roof is out above is a picture looking into the area where the sunroof is when retracted. I can’t see anything that could rattle in there. There is no opening from that area to where the drive motor is located except for the cables to come thru. Not sure if this helps good luck let us know what you findnout

JohnK964

Also the head liner wraps over the lip the windscreen seal go over so to do the headliner correctly you’d have to pull the quarter glass and wind screens out of the car

540964

540964

no need to remove headlinerto gain access.

JohnK964

540964

Not exactly. The drawing I used is from PET for a ‘94, my car is a ‘90. I think the design is a little bit different because the covers found on my car are made of a stiff fiberboard material and each of the 2 covers has some metal clips riveted to the fiberboard at the front edge. The rear edge has holes for the screws to pass through. In my case one of the clips wasn’t straddling the sheet metal edge and was free to rattle against the metal structure of the sunroof mechanism.
It appears the drawing depicts screws all around, maybe there was a design change along the way?

JohnK964

I will look closer on my car it’s a MY 91 my piece was just laying there when I unzipped the head liner

JohnK964

I just went and looked I believe my car MY 91 has part 62 in it to hold the panel in. They are black plastic look to have a torx bit head I think mine was just pulled out all the fasteners are there and spin with out unscrewing. Maybe they are a single use part. I will have to see if I can hold the back side while unscrewing them.
Good thing my seats and windows are out I’m 6’2” 250 and barkefit back there anyway

ok ok I lied 270😂

mbintx

This is quite helpful. That is the general area of the noise.

Richard H

Had exactly the same happen on mine.

911Jetta

I've had the sunroof out a couple times to fix the cables, Checkout this album for various pictures I've taken of the parts:
https://goo.gl/photos/jbVL11zLV6XzTJNK9

540964

mbintx

Just to close the loop on this. Finally got around to unzipping the headliner and probing around. Removed and refitted the two fiberboard parts with the metal clips. Poked around for anything that could be loose/vibrating, and tightened all visible bolts. Subsequent test drive over bumps with me in the back seat and my ear pinned to the area revealed no obvious culprit. Turns out a major rattle is actually emanating from the passenger rear window area. More digging to come...