Had the dealership reinstall the sunroof on the track for only the cost of labor

 

Hey...sorry late to the this but mine got stuck in the tilt position the other day also. I took the glass off to see where it was stuck but could not see where it was off track. The dealership was going to charge me $150 just to diagnosis it because I was out of warranty. I went to a local sunroof shop and they put it back on track and re-timed it for me. It only cost $50. So, if this happens to anyone in the future and you are out of warranty, try a sunroof shop. They should be able to do repairs on sunroof.

 

I've been reading from this forum since 07 when I bought my G and appreciated all the insight from people; I just had my sunroof get stuck in the tilt up position, as well, so I joined to pass along what I learned..hope it helps. Initially the motor would make a loud grinding/clicking noise whenever I would attempt to lower the sunroof from the tilt up, then after a couple attempts it would make one loud bang and appeared the motor itself was rotating down into the ceiling/sunglass holder. After reading all the posts, I took it into a dealer to have them look at it and the tech was able to fix it within 30 minutes. I have an 07 G35 coupe, and above the dome lights/sunglass holder, the motor is attached by 2 screws. He took out the light covers, dropped down the light casing and was able to look into the roof where the motor was. One motor screw fell out when he dropped the light case and the other was loose; the motor had also shifted away from the gears just far enough to make the grinding noise. He lowered the sunroof, aligned the motor, tightened the screws and it's worked perfect the last couple days. I'm not 100% on how much hassle this is, but like I said, he took 30 minutes with a couple basic tools and didn't have to drop the headliner to fix it. Hopefully this helps.

 

I just got this problem with the sunroof stuck and the motor off the rails today while driving to work. It's at the new Santa Monica dealership that opened not long ago. I'm out of warranty since I have a 07 G35 Sedan and they also asked for a $150 deposit. I don't have the time to work on this with anyone else since they forecast rain tomorrow so I left it there I'm gonna see what happens and will post back. It's not nice to have a problem but I'm glad there's so many posts here to provide info and experience on the issue and that almost everyone got it fixed and it hasn't recurred.

 

this also happened to mine a couple weeks ago and my original warranty is up but I have the elite extended warranty. When i took it in they said the motor was bad so ordered a new one then when it came they said the track was damaged so had to order a new one of those to. it was covered under my extended warrant so i didn't have to pay anything but told me it would of costed $1600 for repairs.

 

I had this same problem a month ago.. I went to the dealer and the told me the track gets loose, the screws get loose and stop the window from moving. My sunroof was propped open and it was pouring outside plus 20 degree weather. All in all it cost $300 for them to repair, including diag fee.

 

Did they replace the track or just charge you for labor? They quoted me the motor as being $700 if it needed to be replaced and I believe that's just for the part. I feel as if the dealership is charging extra labor since all the posts here and elsewhere seem to indicate that this is not a time consuming fix if they know what they're doing...which one would assume the dealer does. Since most dealerships charge $75/hr for labor I find it difficult to believe that this is really a 4 hour job.

 

Wow!!! Happened to me but I was still covered under warranty!!! $700 for just the motor sound extremely expensive! Sucks to know this happens a lot!

 

There is no emergency crank key hole on the motor to manually close the roof? Most German cars have this.

 

Not surprising considering how unreliable the electronics are in German cars. I actually had a friend trapped in her BMW 750 in front of a restaurant due to the locking mechanism malfunctioning. She ended up using a flashlight to break the window and crawl out with the help of some valets. She drives a Lexus now. (She said the Infiniti was a bit too fast in acceleration for her taste).

 

Got the car back yesterday and the roof seems fine. They gave me a break and cut the price to $225 from $300 (thanks to John in the service dept). However, they took apart the headliner to fix it and it looks like the headliner has crimps where it got pinched. I also found greasy smudges on the headliner and sun shade. They apologized and says they'll make this right so I'll take the car back to them in next week. I'm worried about the headliner.

 

actually, i think my old old toyota has that too

 

someone help me! my motor seem perfectly fine. but my window got stuck. titling up. is it because i have to line it up popularly?? or something like dat.

 

So the dealer fixed the motor and everything seems fine. They gave me a break and charged $225 total which is better than $300 which is about standard. But in the process they pinched the headliner and also left greasy marks when they put it back together. The dealer cleaned up the headliner and to make up for the pinching which is barely noticeable, they offered to give me any maintenance work for free.

I originally wanted the headliner replaced, but Jack, their service manager explained that the headliner is difficult to get as perfect as it comes from the factory. I thought about it and his argument made sense, it's not that they wouldn't replace it but their preference is to give me something else in trade as a headliner replacement is a lot of work and the chances of it being perfect is not high since they have to take apart quite a bit of the interior. So they're giving me a free brake job when my brake pads are worn down which should be by the end of the year. I appreciate them making things right and being fair about the deal. I'd recommend them.

 

I'm sure someone else has posted a solution for this but i didn't really want to take the time to look. Like other people my sunroof stopped working and made a loud grinding noise when i hit the button.
I used a flathead screwdriver to open the light shown in the picture and luckily noticed the screw right in front of me. I'm certain trying to find this screw will be difficult for many but if you can retrieve it then the rest of the DIY is simple. My pictures are probably out of order but you can figure it out. Next i gently pulled the middle part of the headliner down. No need to take it off. You'll just want it down enough to see what you're working with. See the other picture with the screwdriver. The third picture is important only because it appears this is where the screw goes back in but the proper place is shown in the picture. I hope this helps. You might need to reset the automatic closing again. i haven't done it yet but i saw where someone posted a sequence to get it to autoclose again.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...35sunroof1.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...35sunroof2.jpg

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...35sunroof3.jpg