as some of your might remember, last summer I raised hell on this board venting about how my rubber seals on my doors or windows squeal as the car moves. I brought it to Acura, they greased up both the window seals and the door seals (AND MY SEATS!), and the noises went away. Now that its warm here in the northeast, its starting to squeak! Im thinking about going back to Acura to have them do the same thing again; which I think is absolutely rediculious that it needs to be repeated constantly... I want to just go buy the 'proper' grease to put on the seals myself, but im not sure if its the windows or doors that was causing the problems because they were both lubbed at the same time. I also am not going to waste my time asking the Svc Dept bc they will just tell me its generic silicone grease; which is a load of b.s bc that grease took a loaf of Brillo to take off the seats...

Anyone know if theres anything official to fix this, or what grease I should use? Or maybe someone knows or has pinpointed if this is the door seals or the window seals?

 

It is probably a Japanese brand of grease called Shitszu (not sure of the spelling).

 

Shin-itsu...great stuff, but kinda expensive.

 

where do i get that?? doesnt anyone else have this problem?

 

Thanks for the corrective spelling - I just took a stab at it.

 

People also had success with Meguiar's #39 Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner, 3M Silicone Lubricant, or 303.

 

I tried 303 and it helped somewhat. Before applying 303 the window creaking was very pronounce, and annoying. A week after applying 303 the window still has a slight creak to it, but only occasionally and it is not nearly as annoying. Still, I want to get rid of the creaking altogether so silicone is the next step.

Hmmm, I forgot to listen to the sunroof where I also applied 303 to all the rubber seals.

 

I simply used "Son of a Gun" protectant on all the rubber seals from day one. I have not heard any squeak from the car. Applying the protectant stuffs was a normal procedure that I learned a long time ago training on auto body repair. I've been following that practice for over 20 years. I would re-apply after each car wash or during detailing.

 

I had a similar problem on a '96 BMW. The dealer kept applying a substance called "Gummi Pfledge", or something like that. I think I've seen it advertised in AutoGeek, Griot's Garage, or some other such place. It would last a few months and the creaking would come back. They finally replaced the rubber seals on both doors and the sound never came back. You may want to press them for new seals. Be warned, however, that installing them is a perfect opportunity for a poor technician to make a bad situation worse.

 

Tell me about it. Thats one of the reasons I wont bring the car in unless something is pshycially about to FALL OFF. Too many stories and too many headaches. Im going to try some greases today from the auto shop. Im just concerned about all these posts I read saying silicone breaks down the rubber over time... I obviously would like to avoid that whole situation.

 

Before the BMW I owned an '88 Integra. Periodically the hatch seal would start creaking. I would put a little mineral oil on it and let it soak in, which solved the problem for at least six months. It just became part of the normal maintenance. I had the car for 8 years and never saw any sign of deterioration. Too bad it didn't work on the BMW.

 

Is there a permanent solution to this?

 

Probably depends on your climate, formulation in the batch of seals from the supplier, etc. Some folks may never have a problem, others will never get totally rid of it. For the most part periodic applications of some lubricant (like mineral oil) are no big deal and seem to solve it for months. I've had my TSX about 14 months and have heard no creaky seals yet.

 

good news is i put brake caliper grease on the door seals only and the noise is gone. this is good news bc at least i know its the door seals and not the window seals. bad news is that the grease makes a suction on the door seals and it sounds/feels like im opening an air chamber whenever i open my door.


i think the seals craeak at the bottom of the door where its not glued or continually attached to the body. theres points along the door frames (bottoms) where the seals are just held in place by clips and theres gaps where dirt gets in between the rubber and the paint. i bet you anything thats the cause of the seals creaking. when the sunroof makes the creak noise, it goes away if you just wipe the seals down, and goes away even longer if you grease them up.

just my assumption though...

 

Is there an acura service bulletin that addresses this problem?

 

I heard the same thing as well which makes you wonder why the dealership would use silicone spray on the window/door seals. Any ideas?

 

alrighty... update to a should-be-obvious notion... DO NOT use brake caliper grease... It is a nightmare to take off, it makes the doors stick to the car (literally) and if you accidentally bump into the door frame you might as well strip right there and burn your clothing.

i power washed that shit off and after getting confirmation from acura that it is ok to use straight-up silicone spray (not wd-40 people), i drenched it. i sprayed it directly on the seals and even along the gaps when the doors and sunroof were closed. one place i didnt put it, and i wont, is the window seals. i had proven to myself that the noise is caused by the door seals and not the windows and the last car i had siliconed the window seals on, the rubber had stretched itself out.

good luck. mine have been fine ever since the silicone spray. this is what acura put on last year (and on my damn seats) and it lasted a whole year! woo hoo!
i am convinced that silocone grease is the answer to all problems. i use it all the time to clean the rims. it leaves a nice greasy feeling on them and when more brake dust builds up, it just slides off with water or rain. kick ass!

 

I bought the silicone spray from Acura and sprayed it on all the door seals and I can still hear the rubbing noise when driving on uneven roads. I'm starting to think it's the window seals.

 

guess whose back? back again, rubbers seals, tell a friend.

 

So, what's your next plan of action?

 

Anybody replace their window seals at the dealer?

 

The dealer did this for me about 6 weeks ago, didn't think it was a great solution. In the last few days, I've started hearing the creaking coming back. They applied clear tape around the inside of the sunroof opening and that seems to have resolved that one. Now if I could just find a permanent solution for the side windows.

 

Thread revival. For those of you who are still having issues, it is the door seals themselves. The latest Acura TSB for February '08 addresses this. You can take it in to you dealership to have the fix done. Her is the link:

http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/b080200.PDF

It's on the second page of the TSB.

 

Actually its an article in the Acura Service News, its not a TSB.

 

I am long past the warranty period, but I did bring the car in several times during the warranty period for this specific issue. I think they just applied the lube, and the sound eventually came back. I am going to ask that this fix be done next time that I bring the car in for service, now that Acura finally figured out how to fix it.

 

I bought the grease from acura and greased the hell out of every single rubber piece on the door seals. I ran this stuff inside and outside of the clips on every single part of the door. It took over an hour! Then I lubed up the rubber seals that mate with the car door rubber seals. I can't really say it did anything useful at this point. When I go over big bumps it still sounds like the car doors are shifting. But I don't have squeels or creeks like others mention on here.