a bunch of interior questions!

[djmtsu]

Wow. All I can say.

[Pete_89T2]

Before doing all that work to take apart the sunroof, does it open & close fully with a little manual assistance? In other words, if you push up on the back end of it from inside while holding the switch, will it go up OK, and will it open & close all the way if you help it along (not forcing it - just a little push)from the inside?

If so, a good thorough cleaning & lube of the track mechanism may be all you need to do. With the sunroof fully open & all the way back, you can get to most of the lenght of the tracks, and with it closed but popped up all the way, you can get to the rest. To clean, I used a little brake cleaner applied by rags, Q-tips and/or rags wrapped on sticks/pencils or whatever works to get in there and clean all the accumulated crap out of the tracks. Once that was done, I lubed the tracks with a little silicone spray, and ran the sunroof back & forth a few times, lubing a little more on each pass. I've been doing this drill once a year since I got my '7 used in '99, and it's been working fine since.

[RETed]

Originally Posted by Pete_89T2

If so, a good thorough cleaning & lube of the track mechanism may be all you need to do.

You're lucky if this is the case...

I've found that the majority of them have either one side linkage corroded into the guide tube or both.
In this case, you'll need to disassemble the whole thing anyways (or at least replace the bad parts).

If anything, it's nice to just clean up the old grease and relube everything up nicely.

It's a tideous job, but it's not impossible.
If you're willing to try, give yourself a day for this job.
You'll need to keep track of all the screw and springs in there, and the two-stage lift assembly can be a puzzle to remove and reassemble.


-Ted