alright i've done a search on the stuck sunroof and was wandering for any more ideas
the situation
only the driver side of the sunroof works, not the passsenge side(only one side raises up) . i've removed the glass and have pushed and tugged but the damn thing wont bugde. the motor churns and occasionally the side looks as if it wants to move, but i guess its just a tease. how can i remedy this. i was hoping someone might have some specifics, costs to fix.

 

I'm working on that same problem right now. In fact my car is sitting in my driveway with the headliner off (I took it off tonight). The roof comes down sometime in the next couple of days...I'll let you know how it goes


If you've got your roof fixed I'd appreciate anything you found or any advice that relates to the problem


In the meantime I'm using this http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/robshomepage/sunroof.html

 

I had that EXACT problem...........
it ended up to be that one of the cables that drive the sunroof was broken. Approx. $170 from Mazda. And its a PITA to replace. This can happen by previous owner/someone else holding the button down, and making the sunroof try to keep opening when its all the way already.

 

What kind of lube are you supposed use to grease the tracks? Is it ok to use a dry lube? Thanks

Steve

 

My father use WD40 (against my will, More like shut up son.............and learn!). Well I don't have to push the sunroof anymore in order to open it, cool!

 

I had the same problem - broken drive cable - cheapest fix is to take your allen key to the junkyard and find a complete sunroof assembly that works - then swap your tin lid and fit the replacement into your car.

 

i had that problem but i used teflon lube and it fixed it...it has a slight hesitation sometimes but the car doesnt get driven right now...

 

I used teflon too... and now it won't open. That's why I was wondering if I needed to use some sort of wet grease or something. It goes up, but it won't slide back.

Steve

 

If you decide to pull the whole sunroof assembly out, make sure you have someone in the 7 with you to help you lower it after you pull all the nuts off. I did it by myself 2 years ago and smashed up some of the interior plastic when the ******* thing fell on me!

 

I have had good results with silicone spray lube. I re-lube it every couple months.

 

I swapped sunroofs in my 89 gxl by myself, wasn't too heavy, thought it is a hell of a lot easier with more people! Putting it back in by myself was anything but easy!

 

I had a problem where my sunroof wouldn't open or slide back on the driver's side unless you forced it to by hand. The passanger side worked just fine, though.


After taking out the entire sunroof assembly, cleaning the rails with brake cleaner, greasing the rails/cable with silicone grease, the problem persisted.

I took off the motor and started to really look at it and how it made contact with the drive cables. Turns out, the drive gear on my sunroof motor was really warn down in the middle, where it should normally make contact with those cables.

All the gear teeth were kinda concave, instead of being straight across. So I picked up a used sunroof motor from a junkyard - made sure the gear teeth were in perfect condition first. I installed it, and the sunroof was back to normal operation again!

So I think most sunroof problems are really two-fold: a dirty/clogged cable system and rail, which then leads to unnecessary strain on the motor. In my case, the gear teeth got worn down trying to open a balky sunroof.

By the way, I did swap a series 4 sunroof motor in a series 5 car - they are the same. Make sure you follow the shop manual's proceedure for reinstalling a sunroof motor - you have to pop open the sun roof, then line up the gear teeth a certain way.



Shawn