What is quickly developing as one of my pet peeves (other than the ever present electronic snafus) is the wind buffeting when the sunroof is open...even at moderate speeds. The roof is practically useless because of this, and I'm used to driving a vehicle with the roof open quite often.

When I open the RL's sunroof, the little apparatus that springs up on the leading edge has a vertical bar with oblong holes in it. While cruising at 60 mph the other day and experimenting around, I discovered that by depressing this contraption, I get less buffeting towards the middle of the opening, although the wind does get deflected towards the rear of the opening. It's noisy all the time.

Of all the cars I test drove prior to purchasing the RL, the MDX seemed to be less egregious regarding wind buffeting. The only other car I have any long term reference to is my '94 Honda, which is practically buffeting free at all reasonable speeds up to about 80 or 90 or so...and even at those speeds, it's mostly the wind/road noise which is objectionable...not being blown about the cabin by wind intrusion.

I don't like the idea of putting a wind deflector on the top of the car...it defeats the purpose of having a sun roof if it's partially covered up by plastic.

I'm wondering if there might be an aftermarket fix for that goofy spring up apparatus that causes more wind than not?

 

Could something be missing from mine?

I just took a look at it, and with the roof open, along the leading edge and on top of the interior roof, there is a row of what appears to be "punch-outs" for lack of a better word, or perhaps for a better description, a row of small circles stamped on the metal. Withhin this row, where two of the small stamped circles would be, one on the left and one on the right, there are two small holes about 3/8 " in diameter..."punched-out" holes if you will. Is anything supposed to go into those holes? I didn't notice a tab on the sliding roof that might mesh with the holes when the roof is closed.

 

I just noticed that when you just tilt the roof the inner shade does not pull back. Now it didn't in the S either but it had ventilation holes in it so you would actually benefit from the roof being open.

Weird.

I'll have a look at the springy thingy.

 

I'm no engineer, but my sense of how things works is telling me that when you take a piece of plastic, poke it up vertically into the windstream, and put holes in it, you will get turbulance, buffeting and noise.

The "94 Honda has a nice looking stainless deflector bar that pops up very slightly and actually deflects any stray wind....BTW this model Honda was designed this way...as per the literature.

I have to say that every car I test drove over the past 3 or 4 years had wind intrusion/buffeting from the sunroof...even the newer Hondas.

 

For the S (and other Audis of the same generation I'm sure) you got a note that said to only open the moonroof 75% to prevent buffeting. My wife's A6 Avant has a marker on the dial that indicates how far open you want your roof. Windows down and roof open at the same time is asking for trouble at speeds over 30.