dfinnegan

Someone said:

"Easy. Open sunroof half way, pop front of headliner down, open sunroof rest of the way, remove the headliner".

Well, not quite so easy in every case. At least not in mine!

It appears that my headliner is caught on the lhs somewhere beyond where I can reach it. Being just about as careful as I can be I now have:

• The headliner stuck
• The headliner torn half way back on the driver's side
• The sunroof trying to push all the way up before it's all the way forward
• The sunroof unable to fully close

It seems like the sunroof has slipped on its drive mechanism so that it is further back on the drive than it should be. If that makes any sense.

I'm heading for the manuals and the search button, but any thoughts, instruction, hints, assistance would be appreciated.

This was all precipitated by my desire to find out why the sunroof seems to be loose. I can gently pull down on the front lip when half open and the back rises up. And the roof jumps and bangs when I go over bumps in the road.

It feels like the paint guy who removed the rust bubble around my windshield failed put some bolts back into the sunroof when he reinstalled it after painting around the windshield.

First off, I need to get the darn thing closed!

dfinnegan

Well, I've managed to get the headliner out.

And to close the sunroof.

The rear end of the sunroof is still loose, but at least it's back working the way it was.

Anyone know where I can get replacement headliner?

dfinnegan

Anyone have the sunroof section to the Shop Manuals. Section 60. My hardcopy goes from 57 to 61 or 63, I forget, but no 60. The pdf version also has no 60.

Rocket Rob

Sorry, my hard copy skips section 60 too. I hope someone else has it.

kleinbbc2

pm viperbob

dfinnegan

Here are a few gratuitous shots of the sunroof in the closed position.

Rhs, front, rear
Lhs, front, rear

I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like so I can't say if these are correct.

Just sharing pics.

RicardoD

So how exactly do you remove the headliner? I have a Polar Silver C4 as well and my sunroof headliner is sagging a bit. I just need to remove it and correct the sag and then reapply.

warmfuzzies

Pic one shows the "tang" for want of better words , it should be under the small guide pin with the rubber seal, it helps maintain pressure on the roof....
Pic two shows the knurled nuts, they are wound in and out to set the sunroof height at the front of the sunroof.
Pic three shows the rear height adjustment, the small 6mm screw inside the sunroof is used to set the height at the rear of the sunroof, be careful with this one as there is a captive washer and nut on the back, it is serrated so will only adjust height in notches. You can also clearly see the little metal rod I was talking about in pic one. you can also see in the last pic that there is supposed to be a small rubber tube on the rod to aid the "tang" or spring pressure.
Well that's how I set mine up and it's now quiet and working well


Kevin.

dfinnegan

Kevin, Thank you for the input. Can you explain a bit more, though. I'm not quite getting it.

I've attached another pic with red, green and yellow circles.

Is the green bit the "tang"?

And, is the thin straight rod in yellow the "guide pin"?

I found the rubber seal (like a bit of straw) on the seat. The drivers side (pic 4) already had it in place.

So, do I some how maneuver the guild pin up under the tang (strap looking piece)?

Is the guide pin part of the drive?

It seems like it'll be difficult to get that pin under the tang. Any hints on how to do this?

If I have this correctly it seems like this is the problem with the sunroof clanging around; no?

Thanks again,
Dave

dfinnegan

The problem I had with removing the headliner is that it some how got caught on part of the sunroof pieces. That jammed things up and caused a tear.

The headliner has 6 or 7 push-pins that snap into the front of the sunroof. See the square hole on the leading edge of the sunroof right next to the red circle in the last pic? That is one of the holes that the push pins go into.

I grabed the headliner with my eight fingers, between the sunroof and the headliner, four fingers either side of each push-pin, and then applied pressure with my two thumbs on the sunroof itself to pop each pin free. Slow and patient is the way to go. Mine were kind of tight.

I did this with the sunroof half open as indicated in another thread.

I then tried to open the sunroof a bit more and this is where I got into trouble. The headliner must have already been caught. If I understand Keven correctly I expect it got caught on the guide pin which is incorrectly exposed becuase it is not under the tang.

At any rate, the headliner got jammed up and as I tried, ever so gently mind you, to free it things got worse and the tear got worse.

I suggest trying to move the headliner forward (and back) a bit before moving the sunroof after freeing the push pins. This will ensure that the headliner is not caught up. My rhs was free all along and moved easily. It was my lhs that was caught.

Then move the sunroof back a bit. Just a bit. And move the headliner forward again. And repeat. In the end the sunroof should be fully back and the headliner fully front and you should be able to slide it out of the front of the tracks. I removed a stop on the front end of each track. There's a single philips head screw holding the stop.

I can take more pics if you need them as things are pretty well exposed once the sunroof is open.

dfinnegan

Oh, yeah, and the sag, if it's near the sewn seam, is easily fixed.

The headliner is sheet metal wrapped in vinyl. At the sewn seam in the vinyl there is a slot cut the width of the sheet metal. The back-side of the seam has the extra material pushed through this slot and glued to the inside of the sheet metal.

It seems likely that this glued section has come free. Once the headliner is out you should be able to re-glue it.

warmfuzzies

Red circle=front adjustment
Green bit = tang
Yellow bit = rear adjustment.
And yes if you get the thing straw type of rubber over the guide pin type thing, and then rotate the tang it will fit over the top, the last thing that quietened my sunroof down was the rubber strip at the rear of the sunroof itself, look on the PET diagram no:51, it goes across the rear of the sunroof and assists sealing, I hadn't seen this before, but I fitted it as per diagram, and it most certainly silenced what I thought were cables whacking around...



Play with the opening/closing when it's fitted back together it should be apparent how it all works, kind of difficult to explain 4k mls away...hope I can make it easy...you should see that if you leave the guide pin and tang thing seperated, they do nothing,...put them together and you should be able to see how the roof parts are tensioned...

Kevin

dfinnegan

Kevin, thanks. I got it when I figured out that the tangs rotate!

And, here are some more pics for future reference.

dfinnegan

It appears pretty clear that my headliner caught on the guide pin due to the fact that the tang was not covering it and shielding it from the headliner. This, of course, was due to poor installation after painting.

I guess I go plead my case for a re-paint/touch up to fix the scratches I now have on the sunroof and for a headliner replacement.

dfinnegan

Kevin,

Looking at my pics I see that the tangs were, at one time, rotated nearly 90 degrees. Is that becuase the are supposed to be tucked under the tiny tab next to the pivot point?