Unable to Close Sunroof on 1990 Subaru Legacy LS Wagon

[jellyculligan]

Howdy folks,

 

I just bought an old Subaru Legacy wagon, 1990. I love this car. Of course it has some warts, but man even if I were rich I would just keep on replacing the engine on this thing and fix it up. At any rate, one of the unfortunate warts I discovered yesterday, was that my sunroof/moonroof, will not close now. It wasn't working at all when i bought it, so I never tried to open it until yesterday, one of the first sunny days in seattle, it decided to work! Needless to say I was excited, I then thought about the fact it may not close, so I clicked close, and it retracted again so I thought we were all good and my sunroof was resurrected from the dead. my joy was hasty, because an hour later after parking I went back out and now when I click Close or Open I just hear a clicking sound, and of course it rained last night and likely will for the next few days (oh the joys of sopping seattle). I need to get this closed and not try opening it again until I have it looked at, but is there something I can do myself with tools to close this?

 

I would really like to avoid going ghetto and putting plastic on top until I can get it fixed.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide,

 

Sincerely,

Kelly "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" Dugan

Edited June 6, 2010 by jellyculligan

[2.5_IMP]

There may be moisture in the controls, or moisture in some of the electrical connections. A can of compressed air will work well for drying things out.

[john in KY]

Located somewhere in the headliner is a plug. Behind the plug is something you can turn that will manually close the sunroof.

[jellyculligan]

thank you very much john and 2.5,

 

appreciate the replies. I have spent the last couple hours taking out the headliner, and looking for the fabled allen wrench hole to manually close, but for the life of me I'm not seeing it. I l'll look again. can't seem to find any schematics online that would show where it is, iI see some wiring a panel that houses the sunroof, some motor like elements in the back. the clicking I hear though seems to come from closer to the dome light, not in the back where the motor appears to be. anywhoo, I will bring compressed air too, it's interesting because it worked to open and close a little yesterday when it was sunny, and stopped working when it was the same dryness, but I know these electrical things can be quirky. now i have my whole headliner torn out with no progress to show for it but perhaps I need a little more patience. any ideas of where this allen wrench hole might be on a 90 legacy?

 

Thanks for the tips guys,

 

Cheers,

Kelly

[WoodsWagon]

If you have the owners manual, it gives you good directions on where the allen key is stored, and where the access plug is to wind it back.

 

It's the same allen key to wind back the automatic strangler seatbelts. You should not have had to remove the headliner to get to it, however now that you have it out you can look to see if the relay or the motor is causing your problems.

[Markus56]

The allen key is under the center console armrest. Flip it open and you should see it there

[RedRum]

on my old legacy GT the allen key hole was in control switch housing. My sunroof controls were mounted on the headliner. If I popped off the cover I could see the motor/mechanism and right there was an allen key hole.

 

When my sunroof stopped closing it was the result of a corroded switch from moisture. I took the switch apart and cleaned the contacts and put it back together and it worked for a couple months.

[jellyculligan]

you guys rock.

 

I have good news to report, the score man: 1, machine: 0. or maye I should give the machine a half point because I cut myself on the plastic shards of the sealing panels). I looked again more closely, I actually had to take off the headliner, because, unless there are two locations (to clarify I did have the allen wrench, was just looking for the crank hole), this one was in the mid section of the car, about a foot or 2 behind the center light panel. So not sure how I could have gotten to it with out taking it off as it is covered by the headliner. however, maybe there is another wrench plug somehwere? I don't see why that would be the case, but subarus seem to have a lot of extra practical easter egg goodies. the only downfall is a cracked a couple things on the lining, but I guess thats' the price I pay for tearing apart an old headliner. and now my left front overhead light wont' work (the right one wouldn't either, but I screwed it in tight the wiring finally took hold it get it juice). no luck on the left one though. oh well.

 

I would like to get that moon roof working and thanks for the suggestion on the contacts, I'm assuming you mean the white plstic box with wires that feed into it, and it plugs into the module? at any rate, at this stage i'm just glad it isn't raining in there.

 

my main concern is alleviated and I want to thank everyone for the guidance, and zach, the coolest subaru dork at shucks auto supply who has given me gold nuggets of insider information on repair resources, tips etc.

 

subies rule

 

and now time to wipe the blood and grease off my hands

 

cheers,

kelly

Edited June 7, 2010 by jellyculligan