Headliner rattle/removal

[Sascwatch]

I’ve been trying to track down a horrible rattle for the last few weeks and narrowed it down to something above the headliner in the rear of the cab.

I should probably have the dealer check it out, but for something so simple I will probably just drop the headliner myself and install sound deadening while I’m at it.

Has anyone here dropped their headliner and have any tips/tricks?

 

[Sascwatch]

Here is a quick video I took showing just how loud the rattle is, it can be heard when hitting small bumps at 30-40mph and when some bass heavy songs are playing. I am not hitting the roof very hard, they have a lot of flex.

 

[Sascwatch]

Alright, so the headliner was easy enough to drop a few inches to see what was going on. There is one torx screw in each c-pillar, under the plastic covers at the rear that say airbag and one in each coat hangar.

It seems that the roof panel is attached to the cross ribs with some kind of adhesive that looks like low expanding foam. The foam/adhesive has let go allowing the roof panel to rattle against the cross bar.

To fix the rattle I installed a sheet of dynomat in between the roof panel and cross rib, I didn’t have any adhesive that wouldn’t require me to drop most if not all of the headliner to apply it and not damage the headliner itself.

 

[redneck2]

that was my thought the body seam sealer glue let loose dynomat works wonders

 

[Sascwatch]

It sure does, it seems the panels on vehicles are getting thinner and thinner. While I was at it I tore apart all four doors and dynomatted the door skins, no longer do they sound hollow or cheap when closing the doors.

I am tempted to remove the entire headliner and apply dynomat to the roof, but I would have to purchase another box.

Getting the inner door skins off is a real pain, but once you do it’s wide open to the entire panel.

 

[redneck2]

in my younger days we had massive stereo systems with lots of bass & everything had dynomat on it

 

[ReklessGhost]

Is it possible to drop the back of the headliner a few inches without breaking any adhesive? I am trying to install an antenna on the back of the roof but I don't want to pull down the headliner if I am going to have to break and reapply adhesive.

 

[Sascwatch]

I didn’t notice any adhesive when I lowered the back half of my headliner. If you remove the B and C pillars you should have lots of room to work. You may not be able to reach all the way to the centre of the truck from the side tho depending on how long you arms are.

 

[RamBigHorn/LS]

I’ve been trying to track down a horrible rattle for the last few weeks and narrowed it down to something above the headliner in the rear of the cab.

I should probably have the dealer check it out, but for something so simple I will probably just drop the headliner myself and install sound deadening while I’m at it.

Has anyone here dropped their headliner and have any tips/tricks?

I dropped my headliner yesterday to replace drivers side airbag. A couple things I noticed were the wiring is glued to liner. If loose, I should see it rattle. The main connector is on drivers rear corner. Two screw by rear window under covers are torques. Very difficult to get them back in with torque driver. I replaced them with hex screws. Make sure you pull all trim surrounding the liner along with headrests before removing screw holding liner. It is time consuming, but I would suggest disconnecting battery since side airbags could deploy.

 

[ReklessGhost]

I dropped my headliner yesterday to replace drivers side airbag. A couple things I noticed were the wiring is glued to liner. If loose, I should see it rattle. The main connector is on drivers rear corner. Two screw by rear window under covers are torques. Very difficult to get them back in with torque driver. I replaced them with hex screws. Make sure you pull all trim surrounding the liner along with headrests before removing screw holding liner. It is time consuming, but I would suggest disconnecting battery since side airbags could deploy.

Also be aware of the ’feature delay” when you reconnect the battery. I wasn’t aware of this and was worried I messed something up yesterday! Let the truck sit for 3 hours and all of the features came back.

 

[Krootz]

Just ran across this post and ended up dynomatting my rear roof support. Been dealing with a terrible metallic rattling noise originating from above my dome light. So glad I did, all the sealant had come loose and the roof support was just slapping the roof. It only took a few torx screws and 30 minutes. The hardest part was reaching through the sliding glass window to apply and roll the matting because I only dropped the headliner a few inches.