Diabolic sunroof issues

burnsson · Oct 22, 2020

Hi.

I only know i know nothing.
But i'm not as far gone yet to tear the roof down.

My battery died, i replaced it. Everything's fine. Until i opened the sunroof a couple days later. It opened up fully but wouldn't close. Quick research, easy fix, reset the sunroof. Yeah well, that didn't work out.

Smart as i am i thought i could outwit the sensor that maybe thought the sunroof would be closed already so i disconnected the battery for a couple hours and tried to reset it again after reconnecting. Naaaah! Same behaviour by the sunroof. Tried to pull a tiny bit on the Glass itself while pressing the switch forward, tried pulling a bit on the shader thingie below the glass. Very gentle though of course, i'm old enough to have learned (many times) how easy you really break stuff trying to find out what's broken.

Would you please have a look at the video and give me your thoughts? Could this be the behaviour of some finger saving feature?

Greetings
Bjorn

adventurenali92 · Oct 23, 2020

First off, hello and welcome. Read your introduction thread! Anyways the GMT800 design for the sunroof is terrible on GM’s part. It looks like the widely common failure issue that will plague every GMT800 SUV with a sunroof at some point in its life. My 2006 did it a year and a half ago. The family I live upstairs from has a 2005 escalade esv and her sunroof got stuck all the way open like yours did. It happens because all the track and slide mechanisms that attach to the glass and move it along the track, are made from cheap plastic. They get brittle after use and eventually snap. And the reason the sunroof won’t shut is because when a piece breaks, it will lodge itself somewhere in the track, and then when the glass finds the broken bit, it snags on the bit and will get stuck. I got lucky in that the broken bit was in the front of the track, and the sunroof wouldn’t open beyond its first little drop to slide back. But it would still close.
I decided to tackle fixing it. Ordered a kit from TGautomotive.com with fresh track pieces. Took the glass off the assembly and then had to take all the track pieces out. It was NOT a fun adventure and it took several hours. I learned half way through that it’s much easier if you drop the headliner and disassemble the sunroof track assembly from the roof itself to make sliding all the track pieces out much easier.

JonnyTahoe · Oct 23, 2020

My 2000 Tahoe Sunroof never had any problems. When I owned it I rarely opened it all the way just for that reason.

burnsson · Oct 26, 2020

adventurenali92 said:
First off, hello and welcome. Read your introduction thread! Anyways the GMT800 design for the sunroof is terrible on GM’s part. It looks like the widely common failure issue that will plague every GMT800 SUV with a sunroof at some point in its life. My 2006 did it a year and a half ago. The family I live upstairs from has a 2005 escalade esv and her sunroof got stuck all the way open like yours did. It happens because all the track and slide mechanisms that attach to the glass and move it along the track, are made from cheap plastic. They get brittle after use and eventually snap. And the reason the sunroof won’t shut is because when a piece breaks, it will lodge itself somewhere in the track, and then when the glass finds the broken bit, it snags on the bit and will get stuck. I got lucky in that the broken bit was in the front of the track, and the sunroof wouldn’t open beyond its first little drop to slide back. But it would still close.
I decided to tackle fixing it. Ordered a kit from TGautomotive.com with fresh track pieces. Took the glass off the assembly and then had to take all the track pieces out. It was NOT a fun adventure and it took several hours. I learned half way through that it’s much easier if you drop the headliner and disassemble the sunroof track assembly from the roof itself to make sliding all the track pieces out much easier.

yeah, i feared just this had happened. i still hoped for someone coming up with a secret switch code like push 3 times forward and 2 times backward while stepping on the brake pedal to the rythm of the drum fill of "in the air tonight".

dropping the headliner it is then... thanks alot anyway!

stevedonato · Oct 26, 2020

You wonder why GM has such crappy engineers or, maybe it is to save a penny on plastic tracks. I must say Japaneese engineers seem to better qualified and have better ideas. I had quit a few old 4Runners and Pathfinders (1991-2002) all stck shift 4x4's. All had sunroofs all had over 200k miles and thousands of open/closes of sunroof and never failed. May be as simple as metal tracks? But GM is not alone my Brother in California just gave me his 1991 BMW 850i V12 Pillerless coupe. Sunroof stuck open. His Garage mechanic in California dropped the headliner, got it closed manually and disconnected the sunroof electronics so it is permenently closed. This car cost $90k when he bought it it 1991. he also did a ****** job of replacing the headliner now dropping a bit. So In Florida I do not need to open it anyway. A $90k car should not break. Good luck with your sunroof project. Cost me $1,750 to get it to Florida. Let us know how it goes. I'm glad my 2000 Silverado runs fine wifh no need for sunroof. Also everybody stay away from ALL GM 2007 vehicles, the year they went bankrupt. A great resource is carcomplaints.com for Any veichle, any year complaints and recalls.;-)

Ben_ · Oct 26, 2020

I had to repair the sunroof on a 2005 Buick Rainier. I dropped the headliner to remove the sunroof assembly. I used some ratchet straps going over the roof and through the vehicle to hold the headliner but allowed it to drop down giving access to remove the sunroof assembly. One strap through the driver's seat area and another through the second row seat area, & a prop rod device to hold the tail end up. I recall using Torx bits during this job. There are some videos online that helped with the actual repair of the sunroof. It was the plastic track parts that broke on mine, as mentioned above. The job was more time consuming than difficult, but it works like new again. I check the track for dirt, debris, and adequate lubrication now more than before because I think mine developed excessive resistance and the plastic wasn't as strong as the motor. I also try to keep it closed on windy days when debris is flying around. Good Luck! Welcome to the forum! Ben

adventurenali92 · Oct 26, 2020

burnsson said:
yeah, i feared just this had happened. i still hoped for someone coming up with a secret switch code like push 3 times forward and 2 times backward while stepping on the brake pedal to the rythm of the drum fill of "in the air tonight".

dropping the headliner it is then... thanks alot anyway!

Yeah unfortunately no magic process lol. I wish it that were the case though haha

TheAutumnWind · Oct 26, 2020

Oh damn now I am worried about my sunroof.

burnsson · Oct 27, 2020

TheAutumnWind said:
Oh damn now I am worried about my sunroof.

for a reason!

Mechanic421 · Oct 27, 2020

Just ln case

Diabolic sunroof issues

Roof has to come down?

no way! you can do it like this......

it'll take ages but there's no other option.

kill it with fire!

burnsson

TYF Newbie

adventurenali92

Full Access Member

JonnyTahoe

Full Access Member

burnsson

TYF Newbie

stevedonato

Member

Ben_

TYF Newbie

adventurenali92

Full Access Member

TheAutumnWind

Full Access Member

burnsson

TYF Newbie

Mechanic421

06 Denali XL

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Latest posts