While shopping for my roadster, I skimmed over the problems experienced by owners. One of the issues was headliners falling down. I currently have a Sebring with a convertible top Headliner. So I had the impression that a convertible also had a Headliner issue. But this car that i just bought doesn't have one. I now I'm thinking , maybe they just don't have a Headliner. Can someone confirm?

If they were not equipped with a headliner, has anyone ever tried to add one to quiet down the car

 

No liner in a crossfire roadsters. I just replaced the top on my roadster and I don't think you could gracefully install anything. I don't think it's that much more noisy than my coupe.

 

Hope you don't mind me asking where you got the new top?

 

Several forum members did a group buy from GAB International in the U.K. It was a great deal. Sorry you missed out.

 

Convertible tops have been rock solid with one issue: the hot south seems to result in failed glue on the rear glass and it falls out. Here in MI, top is wonderful.

 

Glad to hear your rear window has stayed put. With all due respect, though, the adhesive has failed nationwide in a variety of weather conditions, low miles, always garaged etc.
Blaming the failure simply on the weather was a "smoke screen" by Chrysler Group LLC. As I've noted before, the Company admitted the product defect (service bulletin) and then chose only the group of (our) imported cars, by Vin#, that were shipped to 9 specific States: to cover 100% under a special warranty (10 years/100,000 miles for '05 model year only). They even skipped over several neighboring States with essentially the identical climate.
Despite the obviously unfair business practice, the Federal Trade Commission told me that the issue was essentially too $mall for them to $pend any of "their" (our) resource$ on.

 

New sheriff in town, might be worth a try again? Just a thought.

 

My window fell out within the first week of me owning it. Not very good luck. Although I familiar with convertibles and this topic. It was likely just a matter of time, but I was hoping it would be at least a few months into my ownership.

 

I don't want to start a brouhaha, but the new "sheriff" has not shown himself to be on the side of the consumer...or the environment. The CFPB is gone, dumping mine trailings into rivers is kosher again (just like the good old Love Canal days), coal is roaring back to provide that nice acid rain again, the internet providers can sell your data, etc.


I did not realize the top problem extended beyond the hot south, although obviously there is hot weather everywhere. It is just hotter, longer down there and that plays into the adhesive failing.


I'm fortunate - my roadster has been garaged all it's lfe and I generally put the top down in May and up in November, so little mechanical wear/tear as well.

 

Yes indeed, there are so many factors. We have a 2005 roadster with only 13,000 miles, always garage kept, in Florida its entire life, and the back window is just now starting to fall out It was originally shipped to New York (then immediately brought to FL), so unfortunately it was not covered under the warranty.

Has anyone tried a Class Action Lawsuit?

 

Yes. It fell flat.

 

What varieity? I've been an Roadster owner (had three of them so far) in nine years, I've never heard of a car that was in the north it's whole life experiencing a window failure.

It is well documented, MANY of us have come out to our car (myself included) with the car sitting in the sun and finding the window coming loose. The glue actually turns soft and looks like chewing gum, stretching from the fabric to the glass. (In my case, the car was in my storage unit last summer, it was 105F in there, and as I walked past the car, I saw it.)

It is obvious, they used adhesive that breaks down in the heat.

 

We live in Hemet, part of what is called the "Inland Empire" of Riverside & San Bernardino Counties/So. Calif. (just west of the mountains that separate us from Palm Springs, the Salton Sea & the low desert). Daytime highs will reach triple digits sometimes in mid May thru late Sep/early Oct., & consistently near 100, give or take a few degrees, half of June thru most of Sep. Some high humidity comes & goes but is not consistent like east of the Rockies, thank goodness. We see 90+ occasionally in virtually any month.

Certainly heat (& humidity) are major contributors to the adhesive failure. Our car was parked outside 4 days a week and it took nearly 8 years to fail (2012), remarkably the top material was still in excellent condition. The main point being that there is no known difference in the adhesive (the root cause) used in virtually all Roadsters.

As to "variety", I've referred to documentation from '09, provided to NHTSA by Chrysler during that time. I requested this info from NHTSA & received a partial disclosure. At that time period, Florida had by FAR the most failures, followed by TX,AL,CA,MI,NC,GA,AZ,PA,NJ,SC,TN,VA,(top half of list) & some reports in UT, NV, WI,NY,IL,OH,OR,CT,MA,& a few more (much fewer in bottom half but actual numbers were not given in a graph chart). Part of the failure rate must be attributed to actual numbers of vehicle sales by State (interestingly MI had twice the volume of cars of #2 FL with a much lower rate of failure, which does make sense).


As others have said, a "class action lawsuit" would (have) required deep pocket$ and would typically benefit the lawyers pocket$ the most. But I previously suggested that a small claims case by anyone who was turned down for assistance, should (have) been winnable if properly presented, INCLUDING Chrysler's own documentation. (Especially their Letter, now on NHTSA's website, & their Service Bulletin). Of course, their Warranty was only good for the '05 model year and the 10 year time limit has presumably expired on all of those sales.


So it is all pretty much "water under the bridge" now. In hindsight, we all should have directed our complaints to the FTC (& our Congress People), rather than the NHTSA, might have worked...
(Don't mean to hijack this thread)