The two **** things, the left one missing the bushing, whose broken pieces I found while taking it apart:



These are the tracks that the ***** ride on, if the bushing is broken they bind up. Note the broken bushing stuck inside the track.



And here are the stupid plastic bushings. One broken, one still good. On the passenger side I found them both to be broken which caused it to stick until I pushed it up to free it. On the driver's side only one was broken but it was good enough to not require a push when I pulled the cable independently.



And there you have it. All caused by some stupid *** plastic bushings, thanks Mazda Now to see if the dealer carries these...if not I'll have to go to the junkyard, take a part an entire sunroof assembly and pay for the good bushings...

 

ok you could have some made

If you give me the dims I can make you some out of delrin/nylon/aluminum/ whatever.

 

I'm certain that time has certainly destroyed those bushings, but our S5 TII we purchased new, wouldn't tilt without a push from the first day we picked the car up back in May '89. Never got any worse, just needs a little help to get moving. I certainly wasn't going to let the dealership dive into the sunroof when it was under warranty, so just lived with the situation

 

if only removing the sunroof could be done without breaking brittle interior parts...

 

that's funny because my 88 works like a charm. no assistance needed.

 

needat2: Thanks, I'll have to keep that as a last resort since I want to minimize downtime. I just put some new parts into the car (rear camber adjuster, new diff mount) and can't wait to drive it.

LOL! wtf! ******* Mazda, thats some BS. Maybe just lack of lubrication on your car, who knows. I'll report back with results after replacing these, from my search I found most people just live with it and I'm not surprised with the amount of work you need to do to get to these things.

 

I'm always reluctant to do major interior diagnosis and repair on a 20+ year old car. When you pull big things apart, they never go back together quite the same. Some clip bends or breaks, some plastic chips. And then it doesn't fit as well and starts rattling or some other such bs.

 

Yeah and this was a major concern for me since I wanted this project to cost me pretty much nothing ($15 in parts cleaner so far). In this particular job though theres nothing major you can break. Maybe some tabs on the A pillar and real sail panels or whatever but nothing big that'll keep it from going back on tightly. Getting the headliner and sunroof out is fairly easy. The hardest part for me was staring and playing with the sunroof assembly to figure out how it works and how to take it apart

 

My sunroof was so stuck, I couldn't even move it with the hex key and I basically obliterated the entire mechanism and half the overhead interior removing it. I even replaced it with a full mechanism, but it won't open without the hex key (the motor can close it though). I gave up on getting a working sunroof after this disaster. I never want to do a sunroof again.

 

Just an FYI: Mazda does NOT carry these The piece that has them is like $200. I made my own from some brass bearings I got from ACE hardware. The sunroof does tilt up on its own now and works flawlessly. Best part is, nothing major broke in my interior and everything including my headliner is on nice and tight.

 

thats cool.

I am so very used to pushing the end of my sunroof on my gxl.
I dont feel like breaking more brittle parts again lol

 

Good Job. Did you take pics of the brass set up?

 

Thanks, and no But I have an excuse! haha. The smallest brass bearings sold at Ace Hardware are just a wee bit larger in diameter than the original bushings so it requires a bit more effort from the motor. I had the assembly hooked up via the harness and the ground was a jumper cable from the door latch lol. It would work great until I put the heavy *** metal sunroof panel on top, then it would need a push again so I thought the DIY-ghetto-rig bushings were a complete fail Hence why I didn't bother taking pics. When I put it in the car though the cleaner ground connection was able to provide enough voltage to the motor to open it fine.

This isn't really worth doing unless your sunroof is very slow and needs a thorough cleaning (3 years ago mine was slow but lithium grease held it off until now). If it is slow its better for you to clean it out as opposed to killing the motor eventually from the extra work required to push it through the dirty tracks.

 

Very interesting. Mine has to be pushed up AND helped all the way back. Maybe i'll pull it apart and replace those bushings one day.

One day...

 

I'm done dealing with my sunroof. It leaks, never worked on its own, it's rusty... I'm going to get some sheet metal, form it, weld the hole shut, and call it a day.

Sorry I'm such a sunroof kill-joy... It's just not worth it to me.

 

Hey khan I live in Florida to. Would you mind doing the same thing for my t2?

 

Sure, hit me up.

 

What holds the bearings on?

 

The stock bushings have a lip on the inside which retains it onto the ****. You can remove them with your fingers. The lip isn't needed though since the piece with the ***** are forced into their tracks when they're both inserted into the main tracks.

 

Hey Adnan, You can come up here and help me out with the Turbo someday. By the way, my Buddy Theo bought your friend Chris' old red car. Good Deal there, Dealer Plexi sunroof, Trust Catback, Finish Line kit. etc. Are those your old seats in that car?

 

hahaha...yeah they are! His seats were all torn up and I got some TII ones for the support...I told him to paint them because the burgundy looked weird with the gray...lol. Thats good news though that car was in rough shape last time I saw it, he didn't care much for it even though he lucked out on a lot of things. The undercarriage on that car was freaking mint. What are your buddy's plans for it?

And yeah I might be returning to VA in a couple of months if this job falls through, I'll have to hit you up for sure, maybe hit up some nice roads for a change.

 

Know any more about these? I got one on my car that came with it. Is that one bronze tinted?

 

Yeah, It's Bronze tinted. As Far as I know they are one of the most rare USDM FC parts. They came with Plexi in the early years, and glass in the later years. I'd never seen one first hand until this one.

Adnan, As far as the car goes, we found some bad rust. The plan is to part it and then scrap it due to the rust and all the dents/holes in the body. It needs tons of body work. He sprung a leak in one of his oil cooler lines and said it needed a rebuild in the FS ad. We brought it back here, filled it up and started it. The engine ended up being good, it just floods out due to leaky injectors. Theres no oil control ring smoke or anything. I just figured you were his saving grace with that car and he doesn't seem to know much about it.

 

Ha, thats funny it must have been a steal then. I remember the body on that car was rough, bondo everywhere and ****. It was a complete eye sore. I offered to work on it but he was never willing to put the money (which wasn't much) into it.

 

Sunroof ftl... I'm tanking mine out and filling in the hole...