ivangene

OK, so after searching and reading I thought I would try and repair my super slow moving sunroof. The stuff I took pics of are things I thought might help someone in the future. In the end my sunroof doesn's work in the "slide open" mode but does pop up. The reason is too much friction in the roof during sliding. I am sure something could be done if I was willing to remove the headliner and get in there...but I am not willing to do that (YET)

So the dome light is removed by pulling down on the area closest to the windshield. It will pop out on that edge and the rear has hooks. Dont pull down on the rear edge or you could break the hooks off.

Second the 2 alien eye things pop right out. There is a notch on the front edge that you can use, or just your fingernail on the edge. Easy.

Then there are 2 screws (see pic) remove them.

Next the rear section (long edge towards rear of car) just pops out of spring clips (see pic) dont yank too hard because there are still hooks in 3 places holding it on at thet are delicate.

wiggle the entire cover forward (look thru the dome light hole) and the front hooks (slots) will come off of the plastic part that is attached to the roof. Then 2 side hooks will be off already so you are done.

OK motor assy: I removed 3 screws (see pic) and took off the cover. Then pulled the large gear off (easily) with a pliers, the other gear and spring and spline part pop out, so be ready.

Once the motor is unhooked you can operate the roof with an allen wrench and the pot metal part but be careful not to break that part, it is pot metal!!

Open and close as desired. Once the roof is open part way you can just puch on the roof itself to slide it fore and aft. Clean, clean clean, light lube and whatever else you want to do. Mine has WAY too much resistance from something and that is causeing the motor to work too hard to open and close properly. My guess is something in the rear is dragging and I would need to remove the headliner to access it. Not gonna happen today.

Last, since re-teach wont be an option for me as I cant slide... I just manually put the roof back where it was when i started this whole thing. put the gears in and tested the "tilt" and close... looked well aligned so I buttoned it up.

Hope the pics are helpful to anyone wanting to get in there for figuring out where the clips and hooks are on the trim.

FS 99' C2 with TILTING sunroof !!

Tippy

Good stuff Ed!

medtech

Thanks Ed!

redridge

Ed,
Mine moves pretty good at first... then 25% into opening/closing, it's meeting a resistance somewhere. One passed that point its starts to free up and moves fine again.

ivangene

I read about 20 threads and there is an underlying theme of crappy, slow moving sunroofs. In my case the resistance is really high and moving it by the hand crank I almost snapped the little turning gear off, then I would be stuck,.... opted to quit and call it a tilt roof. There is something I cant see in the roof and taking it all out might not be bad, but getting it all back in might prove to be a real challenge. I am calling off the search for the cure

Jim in Southlake TX

I had similar problems a couple of years ago. Lube may not do the trick. There are a couple of thin plastic "runners" that can come loose and bind the sliding pieces. The parts are cheap, but lots of labor hours.....