Front sunroof won't raise.

[bawalker]

Hello all,

 

I have an issue I have been researching over in the last 4-5 weeks. Currently I have a sunroof over the front seats that will not raise up when I press the button to raise the sunroof. However when pressing/holding that button, I can hear the sunroof motor work in the back roof of the vehicle. While the motor does not raise this sunroof, it unlocks it so I can raise it by pressing upward with my hand. But if I"m driving over a bump in the road, the jarring of the car causes the sunroof to fall shut.

 

The interesting thing is that the rear seat sunroof will slide open without any problems. This problem developed only a few weeks ago and I'm not exactly sure what part would be causing this. Because I can raise it up with my hand and it falls when the car drives over a bump, it seemingly tells me that something has lost the tension to take the power from the motor to raise it and sustain the window open.

 

Does anyone know what the exact name of this part might be? I'm checking this out on https://www.subarugenuineparts.com.

 

Bradley

[gbhrps]

A little over 3 months ago I went where you are now going. My 02 OBW LTD did EXACTLY the same thing, just after I developed a leak in the roof assembly that let water find its way into the front overhead reading lights and the roof switch console. What happened to the front sunroof, I believe can be traced back to opening it one very cold winter day, after a night of rain and freezing rain. I believe that I stripped the front scissors/track assembly that raises the front sunroof. Yes, I could put it up by hand but it would fall back down going over a rough road, and the rear sunroof worked as usual. I pulled the entire headliner out myself (you'll find the writeup in the archives) to save money, and let the dealership drop the entire sunroof assembly. They discovered that the front sunroof drive assembly (scissors/track assembly) was stripped ($214 CANDIAN), ordered a new one (special order part), installed it the following week, problem solved, and I reinstalled the headliner, mouldings, Overhead lights and handles, etc. Not cheap, but what are the alternatives? Good Luck!

[bawalker]

Thanks for that information. Is it possible for me and another person to drop out that front sunroof assembly and replace the scissors/assembly if need be? What all is involved in that?

 

I'll search for that URL on removing the headliner... if you have a URL for it definately feel free to post that as well!

 

 

 

A little over 3 months ago I went where you are now going. My 02 OBW LTD did EXACTLY the same thing, just after I developed a leak in the roof assembly that let water find its way into the front overhead reading lights and the roof switch console. What happened to the front sunroof, I believe can be traced back to opening it one very cold winter day, after a night of rain and freezing rain. I believe that I stripped the front scissors/track assembly that raises the front sunroof. Yes, I could put it up by hand but it would fall back down going over a rough road, and the rear sunroof worked as usual. I pulled the entire headliner out myself (you'll find the writeup in the archives) to save money, and let the dealership drop the entire sunroof assembly. They discovered that the front sunroof drive assembly (scissors/track assembly) was stripped ($214 CANDIAN), ordered a new one (special order part), installed it the following week, problem solved, and I reinstalled the headliner, mouldings, Overhead lights and handles, etc. Not cheap, but what are the alternatives? Good Luck!

[gbhrps]

Do a search under "front sunroof", and when the topics list, scan down the page to the thread "How to fix 01 OBW front sunroof". Look for my entry (gbhrps) partway down that series of entries, where I go through all of the steps to remove and reinstall the headliner.

I've got to believe that someone with a fair amount of mechanical savvy could replace the front sunroof drive assembly, after the entire assembly was out of the car. That is the only way it can be done, out of the car. So that means, drop the headliner out of the car. Before that look back up at the rear of the front sunroof and pull by hand the two plastic covers that hide the two scissor assemblies. You'll see a 10 mm nut on either side that fasten the scissor assemblies to the glass. Remove them. Then disconnect the wiring to the sunroof motor, disconnect all 6 drain water tubes, and undo all the nuts down both sides of the car that hold the entire sunroof assembly (drive tubes, drain tracks, rear sunroof glass, and motor assembly) and remove through the tailgate opening. Once on a bench the front sunroof drive assembly can be separated and replaced with a new one. Be careful of the rear windshield washer fluid tube on the pasenger side. Its fastened up there in and around all of the bracing and sunroof attach points. Don't want to break that when dropping the assembly from the roof.

How the system operates, may explain how to go about the repair. The drive motor for both sunroofs is dead centre of the rear of the car. It has a large drive gear, about 3 inches in diameter, that pushes (closing) or pulls (opening) 2 drive cables (one on one side of the gear and the other 180 degrees across from it). The drive cables are encased in hollow steel tubes (pencil diameter), one that runs down the passenger side of the car, the other down the driver's side. When they reach the rear of the front sunroof, they turn towards the opposite side of the car, and continue until they are just short of the tube on the other side. The two drive cable tubes will be about half an inch apart, parallel to each other, just behind the front sunroof. On each tube there are 2 fingers about 2 inches long. They are directly across from each other, one pair on either side of the sunroof. The fingers (or scissors I've been calling them) are rivetted together, so that when the drive motor pulls the two cables towards the rear of the car, the fingers being on opposite tracks, and being rivetted together at the end, raise up, pushing the sunroof to its up position. Reverse the motor, the cables go the opposite direction, pulling the fingers in opposite directions, the scissors collapse, the front sunroof closes. I recall that this whole front section drive assembly can be disconnected as one piece and replaced. I think I recall a bunch of screws being all that are necessary to remove and replace it from the rest of the drive tubes. So what you'll be replacing, I think, is the two drive tubes just before they turn towards each other and become parallel. This will include the two scissor assemblies as well, all in one unit. Once replaced, use a 12 volt power supply to ensure that the scissor assemblies open and close properly. BUT BE CAREFUL!!!!! You know that pushing the sunroof switch once opens the front sunroof. MAKE SURE that you don't push it a second time and move the rear sunroof out of alignment. IT MUST REMAIN CLOSED (I would think that to move the rear sunroof while out of the car would be a no-no, I don't know for sure, but why take a chance?), so that when you put the entire sunroof track assembly back into the car, the rear sunroof will fit properly back into its roof opening, sealing properly without binding, and aligning all of the tracks and drive tubes and fastening points down both sides of the car , front to rear. Good Luck if you try it yourself, and get back to us and let us know how you make out.