Recently, I had the experience of driving the EX on an out of town trip with the family in some rough weather - Lots of rain, high winds (gusts of over 40-50mph at times), frigid temps etc. On many occasions, I could hear the sheet metal on the roof flexing and popping many times. The first time, I heard this noise, I was passing a semi truck pulling a (potentially) empty container (that was a bigger noise maker than mine on the pothole ridden roads in NY/NJ) and thought it came from there. But the popping and flexing noises came back a few times later in the day as well. I asked my daughter to hold her palm against the roof in the 2nd and 3rd row seats, and she confirmed that the roof sheet metal was indeed flexing causing the noises.

So, how can this be remedied? Does it need to be remedied? We have all seen pictures of a rollover flattening the roof, and I am not looking to fix that. I am just talking about strengthening the sheetmetal and stop it from flexing.

 

I've never noticed it in mine, but be careful about falling into this trap. Trust the engineers who designed the thing that they knew what they were doing.

A while ago, I had a buddy who built an offroad truck. He boxed the frame to make it stronger. It definitely made the frame a lot stronger and took all the flex out of it. Frames are designed to flex because when they do, they're absorbing energy. If the frame can't flex, it can't absorb that energy. The energy is still there however, so it must go somewhere or be absorbed by something else in the structure of the vehicle. So he started breaking spring shackles and other structural components because they now had to shoulder the load that the frame was designed to handle but no longer can. What I'm trying to say is that you will spend a ridiculous amount of time and money to "fix" something that isn't a problem to begin with and you will likely create other problems where are there are none now.

 

This is a little odd.
I have 3 excursions and live in Wyoming where typical winter days consist of high temps in the teens and wind gusts to 70 mph that blow semis off the road and put them on their sides in ditch.

I have not experienced what you are experiencing. Maybe your roof is rusted out as I have seen some eastern excursions with horrible rusted roofs.

I would climb up and look the roof over really good.

 

My '02 GMC pickup does that at highway speeds (75-80) when passing semi trucks, about the same time the nose of the pickup gets even with the semi's cab doors. Scary the first time, now that I know what it is and what causes it I pretty much ignore it. I think the wind currents cause excessive pressure points in areas that aren't adequately supported. I removed the headliner to look at the support structure, thinking it may have become detached, but all was okay. The Ex, having more roof acreage, is probably as susceptable if not more to semi-truck downdraft and wind currents. I wonder if that's part of the reason for those otherwise useless cross members on the roof rack structure... add some external rigidity to the sheetmetal.

I guess you could remove the headliner and have a thin layer of insulation sprayed in such that it doesn't interfere with the headliner reinstallation, that would probably stiffen it up to a large degree - I've thought about that, but more for the insulative properties. I know that some people talk about applying bedliner externally on the roof (more for rust prevention, I think), that would probably help as well. But unless it is a very regular occurance, or flexing enough to crack paint or permanently deform, I would leave it alone.

 

Excellent points @andym . Let me clarify again that I have no intention of altering the mechanical structure of the roof. The point about the energy storage and transfer is spot on. I was just taken aback by that noise and was asking to see if this was something to be worried about and dealt with preemptively.

 

Yes. It was an odd occurrence. Or a total of 4 occurrences in that trip. I sure as hell don't think that it is rusted, as this EX has lived in FL for the past 15 years and relocated up to VA in Aug 2018 I will however be checking the roof thoroughly once the weather here warms up a bit.

This was the first time I've had/heard this happen in all my life. So, it was a bit shocking. I do have a project listed in my to-do to add sound proofing for the interior including the headliner, but that's nowhere in the priorities for now. I guess, if this starts happening more frequently, then I may have to move this project up the list as I don't want to be pulling that headliner off multiple times.

 

So ive researched and found the issue. Its the glass guide rails and more specifically the plastic guide in them. It needs to be replaced. It cracks and breaks. Hopefully warranty will cover if not its not too hard to fix. I hear the replacement part has a better guide but ill reply once i see my dealer to determine if its a warranty thing or im doing it. Once i see the part ill let you know but. Lets not worry about this too much as it easily repaired. One thing that must be done regularly is to clean n lube the gasket. Must be done every 5000 miles or so. Just take a few mins and perform this maintenance item. Silicone lube btw. If yu do it yurself theres a great series of vids on youtube on how to fix this. I reccomend checkin it. Dont be afraid to fix it yur self and by all means use the roof as intended. Enjoy life. Dont hide from problems. This nice feature was one of the main reasons i bought this truck

 

Remove the headliner and do the acoustic insulation like a few others have. It will kill any noise, I’m doing mine in the fall.