drjoe

The window squeak has been a tough fix... I'm talking about the driver's side squeak seemingly caused by contact between the window and the outer rubber seals, that is worse when vibration (bumps, etc.) and colder weater. I've tried silicone spray, as well as the posted fix of applying adhesive felt/weather stripping to the insulation inside of the window. Neither worked -- the silicone may have even made it worse. It has been a very difficult, and highly annoying, noise to pin-point the source of.

I think I have finally determined the source though. The rubber outer seals of the window are quite spongy (in contrast to almost any other car I've inspected in various parking lots, which are much more solid and stiff), and it would appear that at lower temperatures (50-70' F) the rubber contracts and loses its flexibility causing a squeak. If you mash on the rubber with your finger, you can come close to replicating the sound (again, this doesn't happen on other cards, which I've tested extensively in parking lots). I've shimmed just about every part of the seals with padding, and that hasn't helped, so the problem seems to be due to the flexing of the rubber itself, with the noise transmitted through the door and glass. The only fix therefore would be a change in the rubber itself, either by temperature (summertime is coming), or by replacing with new seals made of different rubber.

But hope springs eternal. There seem to be several products specifically designed to attack this problem. And, contrary to those of us lamenting the crappy worksmanship of our Acuras, this seems to be a popular problem among BMW, Audi, and mini-Cooper owners. Although, from what I can tell, BMW has changed their seals to eliminate the problem. They also, prior to doing so, offered a free (warranteed) temporary solution based on the products I am about to describe. So, Acura could certainly improve upon what is a known problem.

The original BMW product was called Gummi Pflege, and came as an ointment in a tube. This though has since been discontinued, possibly due to the product containing silicone or some other regulatory issue, and is no longer available. A replacement product, also called Gummi Pflege (which apparently just means 'rubber care') made by Autosol can be found at http://www.bavauto.com/. It is much cheaper ($7.50) than the original BMW GP *(~$30), but is less an ointment and more a liquid and possibly not as good. BMW offered something called Carbaflo (http://www.carbaflo.com/) as a replacement product for a while, and this is what the dealers used for the warranteed treatment, along with a silicone remover pre-treat. It costs $40 for a tube.

http://forums.audiworld.com/detail/msgs/47296.phtml
http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e83/6362935-5.html
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=8884

There is another Gummi Pflege product made by one-zed, or "1Z" that also retails for $7.50 and can be found online. Oh, and something called Wurth rubber care, which seems quite similar to the GP products.

I ordered the Autosol GP and will let you know how that works. Has anyone else tried these products?

TLS-Fiend

Any word on whether this seemed to help your window problems? Windows rattling/chattering are my only serious gripe right now with my '04 TL. If I could fix the chattering I would be in heaven!

22Olde

My driver side window was making this rattling noise also, I think. I brought my 06 TL in for two other issues and also asked them to look into this. They said they cleaned out all dirt that had trapped in the window seal and lubed it inside out. The rattle is gone for now but let's see how it works tomorrow morning after the car cools down overnight.

soxfan12

I will be interested to hear if any of these fixes work. I can say the driver's side window rattle is the only negative with my '04 TL

drjoe

I thought I ordered the AutoSol, but it looks like i got the 1Z product. I really didn't expect it to work, but so far so good!!! It definitely helped -- not sure how long it will last, but it's been a couple of weeks...