Teach me Broken sunroofs.

Yeah.... this is why I typically would never purchase a car with one... but when you buy used, sometimes the deal is too good.

So, this morning it's 10*, I go to grab my sunglasses and hit the "tilt up" button by accident and am greeted with a BEAUTIFUL plastic gear grinding/crunching sound. SUnroof at the drivers rear is down about one inch. It still lowers and slides backward. It just will not fully close on that side. The rear tilt also does not work. So my guess is the tilt motor stripped the gears... would that be a good assumption?

In reply to Bobzilla:

Hope & pray it only toasted the gears......I had one actually break the entire chassis it sits in by doing the same thing. That was a rediculous repair bill requiring a new cartridge.

already been pricing out motors and cables.... it's already getting ridiculous.

They suck.

Also if you have to install a whole sunroof chassis, NEVER EVER operate it without the glass installed. It will wreck the linkage on many cars. And then you need another new assembly.

WOW Really Paul? wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: Hope & pray it only toasted the gears......I had one actually break the entire chassis it sits in by doing the same thing. That was a rediculous repair bill requiring a new cartridge.

To be fair, for many/most cars with power sunroof, the ONLY way to service them is as a sunroof assembly, no matter if it is a cable or a motor or broken glass or linkage.

Who thought it was a good idea to put a heavy, complicated assembly (and matching HOLE) in in a perfectly good roof? Sunroofs are stupid, and standard options on far too many cars. Nothing like having 80lbs at the highest point in the vehicle. /rant

Caulk. Tubes, and Tubes of caulk. Preferably big black caulk.

In reply to Tyler H:

90% of the water intrusions we deal with are plugged sunroof drains (sunroofs don't "seal", they just sort of route the water to gutters) or drains that got misplaced and drain back into the car.

And in some cars, the drains run into the rockers Merkur XR4Ti. So by Darwinian evolution, eventually all remaining cars will be non sunroof, which is kind of a plus but sucks if the only ones ever made had sunroofs.

Well, looks like I"fixed" it. It appears the drivers rear lift motor has skipped a tooth so when it closes, it comes down too far. So the "solution" is to manually position it with hte switch until it's closed. Pulling the fuse when I get home and this solution is done.

Probably.

Bobzilla wrote: Well, looks like I"fixed" it. It appears the drivers rear lift motor has skipped a tooth so when it closes, it comes down too far. So the "solution" is to manually position it with hte switch until it's closed. Pulling the fuse when I get home and this solution is done. Probably.

From a myriad of experience dealing with thousands of different mechanical devices, considering your intended usage of this mechanism and the cost of a repair, my recommendation is to NEVER HIT ANY SUNROOF BUTTONS EVER AGAIN

tuna55 wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: Well, looks like I"fixed" it. It appears the drivers rear lift motor has skipped a tooth so when it closes, it comes down too far. So the "solution" is to manually position it with hte switch until it's closed. Pulling the fuse when I get home and this solution is done. Probably.

From a myriad of experience dealing with thousands of different mechanical devices, considering your intended usage of this mechanism and the cost of a repair, my recommendation is to NEVER HIT ANY SUNROOF BUTTONS EVER AGAIN

Amen to that. Puling the fuse and may even unplug the damn switch. I just KNOW the wife will try to play with it one day.

In all honesty, considering it still moves correctly, just too far on one side it's likely it can be adjusted to correct this issue. Will I do it? probably not for a while. If ever.

I owned three cars with sunroofs; A 1978 Ford Fiesta, a 1973 Capri, and a 2000 Contour. The Fiesta was just a "unlock and remove" style. The Capri was a manual crank and even though it was years old when I bought it, it worked fine and didn't leak water into the car. Unfortunately the drain hoses from the sunroof emptied into the rockers of the car and they were totally rusted out. The Contour was of course electric and worked fine about 1/2 dozen times that I used it, then the plastic gear in the motor stripped and it then just made noise. It could be fixed with a new motor at $200+ from Ford or for about $70 you could buy a new gear which lasted 2-3 operations and then failed again.

After that I just left it closed. If I want an open air feeling I'll buy a convertible.

How to fix a broken sunroof?

In reply to BlueInGreen44:

I can't decide if I want to do that with my e36 or just drill out all the spot welds and make a mold for a 1 piece carbon one.....

In reply to Bobzilla:

What kind of car are we talking about?

I guess I'm an outlier in this. I love sunroofs and have never had a problem with them breaking. Unless it's a strictly competition car, I like to have the ability to open the roof, get some fresh air in, and see the sky. Fortunately, I'm not a big guy, so headroom (even with a helmet) is rarely an issue.

My BMW has over 170K miles and nearly every time I get into it, the first thing I do is open the sunroof. It's never broken, never leaked, and never been anything but a pleasure. I had the same experience with the sunroof in my 87 325is. My father's cars have also nearly always had sunroofs that never broke, and never leaked.

With all this sunroof hate I figured I'd offer a dissenting opinion, as I know I'm not alone. I get that some folks hate them, and that's fine, but some of us like a big hole in our roofs. To each his own, Carry on.......

edit----- I lied. I freaking hate Honda / Acura sunroofs. They barely open at all, don't let much light or air in, and are generally worthless.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

No no, I love sunroofs too, and I have never had a broken one, but if I did break one, I would never use it again out of fear and cost.

Woody: THe 2010 Forte.

Joe: I have liked the sunroof, but I view it as one of those items that will break with age and added weight over my head for an auto-x car sucks. Plus, at 6' with a helmet they do take up headroom. Working dealerships for 13 years, sunroof issues were ever-present in all the brands.

good to see I'm not alone.

Targa roofs and T-Tops.....I can live without those. Well, unless I was going to go full-70s and buy an 79 Trans Am, or a C3 Vette. Then you sort of need to have them..... and silver interior! Disco inferno baby!

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Same, the only sunroof car I ever had was a $400 96 Pontiac E36 M3fire, all I ever did to the sunroof was rub some dielectirc grease on the seal and clean the drains every few months. Never leaked, never had a problem with it, I used it about every other day.

Joe Gearin wrote: With all this sunroof hate I figured I'd offer a dissenting opinion, as I know I'm not alone. I get that some folks hate them, and that's fine, but some of us like a big hole in our roofs. To each his own, Carry on.......

To me a sunroof is a pale imitation of a convertible. If I want open air motoring I'll drive my Miata, and I'd be perfectly happy to have a solid roof on my sedans. Alas, they don't come that way.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

I was going to agree with you until the last bit about Hondas. Wife's accord has a sunroof and won't drive anything without one. I couldn't fit with a helmet in it, but that's not what that car is for. My only gripe has been sunroof burn on the top of my ear and side of my face.

Im indifferent about sunroofs. I enjoy them when I have them but don't buy or not buy a car because of them. But I am very passionate about my annoyance towards people that buy sunroofs and then bring them to the dealer because they hear a slight rattle when going over bumps or a slight creak when the chassis flexes. There has never been a sunroof, at any price point, in any car, that never makes a noise under the right conditions. Its a dang-gummed hole in the roof filled with noisy glass and plastic! And before you say the 1973 TunaSlapper 5000 you had for 25 years never made a noise, you just didn't find the sweet spot to make it rattle or creak.

This applies 10 fold to panoramic sunroofs.

This applies 100 fold to hacked aftermarket installs.

Maybe this should be in the rant thread.

My disco has two sunroofs.. both work flawlessly and while I only use the front one in winter, I use them both as often as possible. Unless it is raining, snowing, or way below freezing, the front one is open.

A lot of times, I even leave it open at work.. the joys of having a parking garage to keep anything from coming in while it is open.

With both sunroofs open and all four windows down, I have used the aircon all of twice in the time I have had my disco. Once to check and see that it worked, and once when my niece was having an allergy attack

logdog wrote: Im indifferent about sunroofs. I enjoy them when I have them but don't buy or not buy a car because of them. But I am very passionate about my annoyance towards people that buy sunroofs and then bring them to the dealer because they hear a slight rattle when going over bumps or a slight creak when the chassis flexes. There has never been a sunroof, at any price point, in any car, that never makes a noise under the right conditions. Its a dang-gummed hole in the roof filled with noisy glass and plastic! And before you say the 1973 TunaSlapper 5000 you had for 25 years never made a noise, you just didn't find the sweet spot to make it rattle or creak. This applies 10 fold to panoramic sunroofs. This applies 100 fold to hacked aftermarket installs. Maybe this should be in the rant thread.

That's honestly something this car never has done is make noise from there. It has other places for that (somewhere behind the passenger side of the dash at just the right RPM, suspension loading and temperature). This is a car that lives on a gravel road, auto-x'd to the point of a measured 1.5G peak and driven daily in pot-hole heaven aka Indiana.

Althoughm technically it makes noise now.... a wonderful crunch-grind when you push the button!