'00 OBW front window wind noise and fix

[wirelessenabled]

A little background first.

 

Somebody smashed the passenger side front window on my '00 OBW.  They had first tried to pry the window open with something and so tore the rubber seal strip and bent the metal trim near the front top "corner" where the window begins the curve down to front triangle by the rear view mirror.  I had an auto glass company come and replace the window however the repair guy didn't do a good job of aligning the glass.  That made for wind noise at speeds above about 45 mph and even at lower speeds if windy.

 

The fix.

 

I spent a lot of time repairing the torn rubber seal with Goodyear rubber cement thinking that would fix the wind noise but of course it didn't.  I finally got around to looking seriously at the fit of the window and comparing it to the drivers side.  I discovered that the glass was not going completely and tightly up in to the rubber molding at that front bend.

 

The FSM has a lengthy explanation about how the glass should be fitted and adjusted.  That explanation is good but really doesn't make a lot of sense if you are just reading it.  You need to go ahead and take the inner door panel off the door to gain access to all the adjustments for the procedure to begin to make sense.  This weekend I did the adjustment.  After getting the door panel off, take some time to look at all the pieces in the door that carry and control the window.  Roll the window up and down,  look down from the top in to door.  With the light coming in you can see most of the stops and get an idea of how the whole thing works.

 

 

In my case the replacement window was set too far back, the glass was tipped forward, and the front stop was set too low.  Following the instructions I did the following.

 

1.  Loosened the B channel nut and aligned the back edge of the window glass to the center pillar, ie the pillar between the front and rear seat windows.  This was confusing because the FSM doesn't show the location of the nut clearly.  It is almost directly below the pair of screws labeled A in the diagram, and is hidden behind the plastic sheeting sealing the door.

 

2. With the glass aligned to the center pillar, the glass was too far back.  To move it forward you loosen four nuts, two each at the places labeled A and B in the diagram.  Careful when you loosen the last nut because then the whole window is free to move.  I moved the glass forward and then tightened a couple of the nuts.  Roll the window up to see how the fit is.  In my case I had to do this 3 times to get the glass to the correct place.

 

3.  With the glass lined up now it still was hitting the front stop before compressing in to the rubber molding.  You can see the moving piece on the window frame coming up and hitting the stop through a hole in the metal part of the door.  To adjust you loosen the nut and move the stop in the direction needed.  Lower the window to get some clearance between the two parts of the stop before adjust otherwise it allows the window to sort of pop upward.  Also if you need to move the stop down you obviously cannot do that with the two parts in contact. 

 

The window also rolls up and near the top of travel gets tipped in by how angled the metal channel that the glass rides in is set.  This tipping or angle is set by the bolts labeled A and B, the same ones that set the forward/aft setting of the glass.  To see how this works, look down from the top of the window in to the door.  The glass rides in a metal channel, the top of that metal channel is held by a bracket held by the two sets of bolts labeled A and B.  The bracket is threaded so to change the angle you loosen the nut on a bolt, turn the bolt, then tighten the nut to lock it back in place.  It is sort of the same as how you adjust the valves on the engine head.  Do one bolt at a time, or at least do one of the pairs, A or B, at a time.  If you loosen all four of them then the glass can move forward and back.

 

I had to lower the rear stop after adjusting the front stop because the change of the front stop changed how the glass angled and locked the rear part of the glass in the channel of the door seal so I couldn't open the door.  I then had to play with the angle of the tipping to get the door to open and close nicely and to get a good seal.

 

It takes a while to do all this.  Each adjustment you make to one part changes how the other adjustments act.  What you have to do is change what is wrong, then find the next adjustment that is wrong and fix that and so on.  Use the matching window on the other side of the car as a pattern of how the glass is supposed to fit.  Keep making changes until it looks correct and make sure the door opens and closes without undue effort.  Take the car for a test drive before putting it all back together keeping in mind that that seal on the bottom of the door is attached to the inner panel so you will hear wind noise from that.

 

Took my car up to 75 mph with no wind noise so I called that good.

 

This is probably all as clear as mud.  I wrote this up because the FSM has just the bare facts with no real indication of what does what to actually get the window adjusted.  Hope this helps someone.

[Rooster2]

Good write up. Thanks for taking the time about writing up your experience. I am sure someone will appreciate reading your advise in the archives.

[vtwinjunkie]

Dang. This is good, I will prob need this one day so I am commenting here to be able to find it!

 

Thanks!

[wirelessenabled]

Just a follow-up on this.  After nearly a month everything is still good.  No wind noise at all from the window I adjusted.

[1 Lucky Texan]

there's also this; http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/297977-another-wind-noise-solution-cheap-easy.html

[wirelessenabled]

After nearly a year the window still works fine, no wind noise yet

[brewsky69]

Good information thanks for sharing