johnstof

I just bought an 06 Cayenne. I heard rattling overhead whenever I took a hard turn. It turned out to be pieces of the original sunroof glass sliding back and forth. The original owner must have broken the roof and some pieces of glass were left behind when the new roof was installed. So....I put the sunroof in the fully tilted open position and removed the 6 screws holding it in place. the sunroof then came right out. I then fully retracted the sunroof to move the sliding shade into the fully retracted position. I was now able to find all the glass pieces and remove them.

I thought the tricky part was over.... I thought wrong.

I want to reinstall the sunroof so I thought putting the sliding arms back into the fully tilted up position would be fairly straightforward. But when the arms slide forward they get about half way and then reverse and retract back into the roof. I can fiddle with the rotary switch and get the arms to inch their way forward but they eventually stop at about the halfway point and then reverse direction. I can't get the sunroof back on.

I put the sliding shade in various positions in the hope that was triggering the reversal of the arms. No luck.

Is there a way to override this such as a manual crank that will allow me to move the arms fully forward and tilted up?

Thanks,
John

ltc

IIRC, the owners manual details the manual sunroof option in the event of a motor failure.

johnstof

I could not find anything in the owners manual about opening the roof manually. I could only find the info about opening it with the rotary switch. Any idea where I might find it documented?

Thanks
John

johnstof

Nevermind....I found the section in the manual about how to open it manually. I found that it gets stuck when closing it and after a closer look I found some more small pieces of glass (from the original sunroof) in the track. That must be the problem. I try to blow them out and see if that clears it.

Thanks for showing me how to close manually.

John

Andy E.

John, you've got to have "cahiones" of steel to work on sunroof systems.

The instructional factory course for servicing the sunroof mechanism is usually a full day and most dealer techs avoid taking it as the patience level required to inspect/service/adjust/align these units is tremendous. Usually, there is only one, maybe two techs at the dealership that are qualified to work on them.

I would not dare open one up without a service manual by my side.

ltc

What about working on Panoramic roofs or the dreaded Targa top

johnstof

Well removing the glass was easy...just 6 screws. But all the bits of glass in there has fowled things up. I removed about 20 small pieces but can't get the sliding arms to go back to their fully closed position. When I crank it manually I get to a point where it resists (stuck glass I think) I stop.

I'll bring to to the Porsche dealer tomorrow. Hopefully since it was another Porsche dealer that replaced the original sunroof (and left all that glass behind) this will be covered under warranty.

Fingers crossed.

johnstof

The work will not be covered under warranty. The dealer says he'll need to remove the headliner to gain access to the sunroof tracks/mechanisms in order to clean out the remaining glass pieces.

Question: How difficult is is to remove and reinstall the headliner? If it's reasonably straightforward I may remove it and clean out the glass myself.

JBrown

I have done a number of sunroof repairs on german cars and it is a pain in the butt. You have to remove the headliner then the sunroof unbolts and you can work on it on a table.. You really should have some exsperience to do this. It is not easy to remove the headliner. most cars you have to remove the front seats also to get the headliner out without bending it to much. I would say for a beginner it would take about 2-3 hrs to remove all you need to get the headliner out.

johnstof

Because the Cayenne is an SUV and the rear seats fold down I suspect I might be able to slide the headliner out the back of the vehicle with a little tilting and coaxing. That said, I am not sure I even need to remove it from the car. I am hoping I can just drop it down a bit and vacuum or blow out the glass pieces from the sunroof once I have access from beneath. I'd really prefer not to have to remove the sunroof.

Once I get all the ceiling hardware off I don't know what else holds the headliner up. Is it a bunch of spring loaded clips and does the liner just pull down or are there tricky clips, latches, tabs, etc? I don't want to pull when I should be sliding for fear of breaking something.

JBrown

I have never did a porsche but many BMWs. I would think they are similiar. remove everything that is attached to the headliner and it should just come down. At worst there should be some clips you have to pull on.. Once you get it down you might as well pull it out it makes it alot easier to work with it out.
Some liner do come out the back. I forgot it was a truck. It should come right out. believe it or not the sunroof is just screwed up there and once the headliner is out it comes out pretty easy. I like to work on it outside the car but for what you have to do you might be able to leave it in..

johnstof

I like when things end well. My sunroof is now fully functional again. It was not broken pieces of glass after all. So I am sharing this for anyone else who removes their sunroof glass window.

There is a spring loaded plastic deflector that the glass slides beneath. The glass keeps this plastic in its proper position as it slides by. So when I slid the arms back without the glass installed the plastic deflector dropped downward 'cause the glass wasn't there to hold it up. This deflector prevented the arms from moving forward again. So all I needed to do was pry the deflector upward as I hand cranked the arms forward. I reinstalled the glass roof and presto, everything works perfectly again.

Just saved myself a few hundred dollars. (Now what should I spend it on?)

Thanks for the help everyone.

John

Andy E.

Damn german engineering! Glad it worked out for you.

$300? Take a look in here. I'm sure you'll find something you like: http://shop4.porsche.com/usa/car/cayenne/