UPDATE: Hey everyone, I haven't been as vigilant about this I should be, but things have been busy at work. Here's the latest. I got my car back from the shop for the 4th time. they kept it 2 full days. here is a long excerpt from my 6 page letter to Honda: (does anyone have any contacts in HOA that I can send my letter to? I'd rather it not have to make its way through the chain of mail handlers and get right to a person that will read it and do something with it. Thanks!)

Wednesday, October 25th:
I tell myself that this will be my last attempt at Brown’s Honda before I contact the national office (you). People are less excited to see me than they were before. Chris had promised me a drive with the mechanic so that I could point out the sounds that I was hearing. Upon arrival, she pages the mechanic (Fred) and asks him to ride with me. He is not happy about it, grudgingly accepting only after letting us know that he has other work waiting. He also claims that three people had driven my car already and heard nothing, so there is no real reason for our test drive. I insist.
Before even pulling out of the dealership parking lot, I reproduce the sound that they had purportedly fixed coming from the rear seat-belt assembly. He hears it. For some reason, I am happy about this. Maybe it means that it will finally get fixed. Then, we go for a five minute drive so that he can hear the moonroof rattle.
I found as the weather became colder, the rattle would be much more prominent after the car had heated up inside. I told Fred this so that he could more quickly reproduce the sound when trying to fix it, and reproduced the sound for him quite easily after the car had gotten warm. Fred, however, did not give me much hope. He said the sound coming from the rear-deck may not be fixable if it is in the seams and he cannot get to it. I told him that, while I understand that the repair may be difficult, if he cannot get to the source of the sound, there has to be someone who can. He told me that he just bought a new truck, and there is a noise coming from the suspension that he is unable to locate and fix. I asked if this bothers him. He replied that it does, but sometimes you just have to live with these things. I told him that neither I, nor several other Accord enthusiasts on various forums, think that is the case.
This was the longest stint yet. Brown’s kept my car from Wednesday morning to Friday evening. I requested a rental car up front on Wednesday morning since they would be keeping it at least overnight. Brown’s obliged and provided one for me, paid for by the dealership.
Late afternoon on Friday I got a call from Chris. She informed that they had re-isolated the noise from the rear deck and had fixed it this time for sure. The moonroof, however, still had no problems with it, and they did not attempt to fix it. She says that they hear no noise. But wait a minute, I rode with Fred and he admitted that he heard the same noise that I hear every time I drive. I counter with this argument, and Chris said that Fred never said that this noise was a problem. Interestingly vague, the invoice reads “no abnormal noise heard at this time.” I tell Chris that I am unhappy with the way this moonroof rattle issue is being treated, especially since the rattle seems to be getting worse as time goes on, and is really preventing me from enjoying my car. What fun is it to drive when you loathe every bump or sharp turn because of the sound it will inevitably make? I can only play my music so loud.
Chris puts me on hold and switches me to another service rep named Allan. Allan stays on the phone with me for a good twenty minutes explaining how they used chassis ears and isolated the rear-deck noise and how minute a change it was. He proudly states that they fixed it after all that trouble and apologizes for not having caught it the first time. I tell him that I am really very happy that they finally fixed the rear-deck noise, but I am not buying their assertion that my moonroof rattle is normal. Allan begins to tell me about his brand new Scion tC and how much more noise his moonroof makes than mine. This is a troubling trend. Not only are two Honda employed workers seemingly advertising non-Honda make vehicles, but they both seem to be using a bigger problem that they have to make me feel better a supposedly smaller problem that I have. I am not sure exactly how they expected me to react to this, but I mostly ignored these comments.
What bothered me most about Allan’s explanation was that he kept insisting that all cars with moonroofs will make rattling noises. He told me that there are moving parts, and a natural reaction to the body moving over bumps and turns is noise. I ask him if he seriously believes that every single car ever built with a moonroof will make rattling noises. He answers that yes, in some degree, they will. I ask him if my friend’s Mercedes-Benz C230 is quiet because it’s a Mercedes. He seems to avoid the question and tell me that there are two major design options for a moonroof, but both are susceptible to this kind of noise. I tell him my friend’s 2005 Civic has a quiet moonroof, and that I would be glad to take a test drive in a new Accord Coupe to compare the two. In fact, I might not even need to drive it, just to push up on the headliner. He replies, after some hesitation, that a brand new car will most likely not make that noise because the parts haven’t been subjected to that much use. So, suddenly, a necessary side effect of moonroof design turned into a by-product of overuse? And can one even say overuse? My car is not even four months old. Less than 4,000 miles. I would say “hardly been used.”
I tell Allan that if this is a problem with Honda’s moonroof design, someone should know about it. He says that it is not a “problem” but “inherent in the design,” a logic that I still cannot follow. I am software developer. If my program happens to delete critical system files while trying to do a virus scan, is it a “problem,” or is it “inherent in the design” and thus something that my client just has to deal with? I would bet my car that if I ever told a client that this happens with all virus scans I would not enjoy that client’s business for long. Granted, this is a bit of an exaggeration; however, my point is that a negative consequence of a certain design that is detrimental to the product as a whole is a design flaw.
Allan tells me that Honda (you) pay him fix cars. There would be no motivation in him misleading me about the fact that he simply cannot fix this. Though he will not admit to me that it is a flaw or a defect, he admits that the noise is there and that he cannot do anything to fix it. He says that he cannot simply throw parts at the problem, or try to redesign the moonroof himself. I thank Allan for his time and drive over to the dealership to pick up my car. Chris informs me that a new rear panel is coming this week to replace the one that they cracked during repairs. Not sure where this leaves my creased leather seat back. I thank her for her help and drive off. Not surprisingly, the moonroof is as loud as ever, but the sound from the rear-deck does seem to be gone. Looks like they might have gotten it this time.

 

CL owners go through the same thing with their roofs...the fix is to install some felt tape around the edge of the panel.....

Car and driver indicates that the sun roof does this becuase of the extra flex that is introduced into the unit body.......... (a CL is Acura's version of the Accord coupe)

 

Can you provide a little more detail about the fix? Maybe this is something I can do myself... If not, maybe point me to the source so that I can point it out to the Honda mechanics?

Thanks!

 

it's actually a TSB for a 6th gen accord and the 01-03 CL's but it may solve the problem for you

TSB #100102 -- LEAKAGE FROM MOONROOF GLASS WEATHERSTRIP. HONDA SERVICENEWS. *TT (NHTSA ID #10005920, OCTOBER 01 2002)
TSB #00095 -- VEHICLES MAY EXPERIENCE THE MOONROOF SQUEAKING. *SLC (NHTSA ID #631709, MARCH 26 2002)
TSB #00095 -- ON SOME VEHICLES, THE MOONROOF SQUEAKS WHEN THE SUNSHADE IS OPEN, THE MOONROOF GLASS IS CLOSED AND THE VEHICLE IS MOVING. *TT (NHTSA ID #615720, DECEMBER 12 2000)


These are from the 01 accord but it is something to look into

TSBs are listed here

TSB #03003 -- MOONROOF DOES NOT CLOSE COMPLETELY. THIS BULLETIN DATED 06/24/2003 SUPERSEDES 03-003 (TSB ID 100000995), DATED JANUARY 14, 2003. *TT SUPERSEDES 03-003 DATED JUNE 24, 2003. *TT (NHTSA ID #10002095, JULY 02 2004)
TSB #032204 -- SUNROOF OPEN/CLOSE FUNCTION. REQUEST FOR VISIT. *TT (NHTSA ID #10006774, MARCH 22 2004)
TSB #111303 -- REQUEST FOR VISIT - SUNROOF RATTLING. *TT (NHTSA ID #10005343, NOVEMBER 13 2003)
TSB #060103 -- MOONROOF VISOR INSTALLATION. *TT (NHTSA ID #10002709, JUNE 01 2003)
TSB #03003 -- MOONROOF DOES NOT CLOSE COMPLETELY. *TT (NHTSA ID #10000995, JANUARY 14 2003)
TSB #010103 -- MOONROOF GLASS DOESN'T FULLY CLOSE. *TT *JB (NHTSA ID #10001787, JANUARY 01 2003)
TSB #1202 -- FAULTY MOONROOF MOTOR LIMIT SWITCH CAN STOP THE MOONROOF MOTOR ABOUT 2 INCHES BEFORE THE GLASS IS FULLY CLOSED. *TT (NHTSA ID #10002576, DECEMBER 16 2002)
TSB #100102 -- LEAKAGE FROM MOONROOF GLASS WEATHERSTRIP. HONDA SERVICENEWS. *TT (NHTSA ID #10005920, OCTOBER 01 2002)

link to all of them for 03

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/A...003/tsbs.shtml

 

Inherant in the design.... Sounds like the old saying "It's not a Flaw it's a Feature" I find it amusing that they out right told you a new one wouldn't have this problem but it would develop the same issue, I've got a 94 accord with 140k miles on it that doesn't do that.... Perhaps yeu has you on the right track and one of the service bulletins will fix the issue, that makes sense to me, keep us posted and best of luck to you....

 

i had a 94 lx with an aftermarket roof (ASC) and rattled but that was due to a worn latch mechanism. all roofs will move up and down a little when you hit severe bumps (by design) but you should not hear it.......