Just wanted to post a fix for the Sky One Touch (SOT) top annoying squeaking sound. Full disclosure, I've removed my SOT several times and installed a soft top and half doors so this might be self inflicted. But the past couple years I've been getting this super annoying creaking squeak sound coming from the roof track just above the passenger seat.
At first I thought it might be rubbing between the SOT roof assembly and the Jeep's sport bar or the sound bar so I unbolted the roof and lifted it up and added some sound padding. It still squeaked. Then I thought the noise might be coming from the track assembly itself, so I tracked down the factory OEM SuperLube Grease they use and tried lubricating the trak, no luck. Then I figured it out. The sound is coming from a very small gap between the SOT track and the SOT white fiberglass roof shell. As far as I can see there is no sound isolation material between these two dissimilar materials and it's a lot of surface area contact to make noise. So naturally it eventually rattles, or squeaks, or creaks. It's impacted a lot by temperature expansion so sometimes it goes away for a while just to come back again. So I took some black rubber material (a good quality rubber band would work) and squished it in there right next to a few of the connecting bolts that hold the SOT roof assembly together and presto just like that the squeaking sound is completely gone. It's hard to track down these noise issues but I figure this might help someone so here is a picture of where the issue is:
While i was at it, I went ahead and fixed a few more common noise issues that were easier to diagnose, specifically the SOT removable rear windows. The two latches seem to need a little grease every once in a while to keep them from rattling. And the other common issue is the pin on the tail gate damper needs a little grease as well or it sounds like an old front door at a haunted house. I really like the Super-Lube multi-purpose synthetic grease (21030) its good stuff. Now I can finally enjoy that hemi without all the annoying squeaks and rattles. Hope this helps someone.
At first I thought it might be rubbing between the SOT roof assembly and the Jeep's sport bar or the sound bar so I unbolted the roof and lifted it up and added some sound padding. It still squeaked. Then I thought the noise might be coming from the track assembly itself, so I tracked down the factory OEM SuperLube Grease they use and tried lubricating the trak, no luck. Then I figured it out. The sound is coming from a very small gap between the SOT track and the SOT white fiberglass roof shell. As far as I can see there is no sound isolation material between these two dissimilar materials and it's a lot of surface area contact to make noise. So naturally it eventually rattles, or squeaks, or creaks. It's impacted a lot by temperature expansion so sometimes it goes away for a while just to come back again. So I took some black rubber material (a good quality rubber band would work) and squished it in there right next to a few of the connecting bolts that hold the SOT roof assembly together and presto just like that the squeaking sound is completely gone. It's hard to track down these noise issues but I figure this might help someone so here is a picture of where the issue is:
While i was at it, I went ahead and fixed a few more common noise issues that were easier to diagnose, specifically the SOT removable rear windows. The two latches seem to need a little grease every once in a while to keep them from rattling. And the other common issue is the pin on the tail gate damper needs a little grease as well or it sounds like an old front door at a haunted house. I really like the Super-Lube multi-purpose synthetic grease (21030) its good stuff. Now I can finally enjoy that hemi without all the annoying squeaks and rattles. Hope this helps someone.
