Just bought a 2001 Exp. Eddie Bauer with factory moonroof. When the sunroof is open I noticed a rattling sound. Upon inspection there is a metal plate, the width of the mooroof that is not attached to anything. There is one hole on either end that appears to attach it.
Where and what is this part attached? What type of fastener(s) is used? It appears to be a shield or deflector that is located in the rear portion of the moonroof.
Thanks

 

It's the plate that pulls the shade back into the roof when you open the sunroof.

There should be a plastic piece with the little hex head screw still in it. (take a look at where it's attached on the other side. The only way I could get to it is to do the rear tilt-up thing with the sun roof, and you should have enough room to get in there from the outside, loosen the screw, and slide the bar back under it. It's just a u-shaped hole on the crossbar, so you shouldn't have to remove the screw completely. I can't remember the size of the screw off hand, I think it was a 6mm or 1/4" or something small like that.

Make sure you hold the bar when you are tightening it, otherwise it will tend to walk back out again.

--Mike

 

Ford should know the screw size. This is a common problem on 01' w/moonroof. Mine came off at 38,000 miles. Make sure you use a "star" lock-washer when you re-install or you'll have to do it again in the future. Got 95,000 on the expy now and the screws are holding tight.

 

Thanks to both jschuddekopf and ExpyJeepin. Your advice was right on the mark. I installed star washers and hopefully I won't have to cross that bridge again.

 

This just happened to mine yesterday. I got the plate thing pulled out of the roof and went to the dealer. They said I would have to take it to a place that does headliners, because the headliner needed to be dropped to get that back in place. Is that true? It looks like it also seals the moonroof, so it will have to go back in. Any ideas? Have not had a chance to take a good look at it yet.

 

That plate pulls the inner moonroof (the one with the upholstered cover) fully open when the sunroof is retracted.
There are 2 very small 1/4" black hex screws that fit into the slotted openings in the metal cover. As others suggested, the addition of a star washer will keep the plate from loosening up again. Best done from the outside (I stood on a ladder) using a 1/4" drive with a swivel. Took me about 10 minutes.

 

Took it to the headliner place, guy took a quick look at it and just said, its broke, go to the dealer and get a sunroof "kit". Dealer had no idea what the kit was, so he made me a printout and picture of all the parts, so back to the headliner shop.. Guy said I need a new trough (bent out of shape a little bit, will cause the roof to leak) and a left and right cable-clip thingamabob. Parts - trough is almost $200 and clip things $30 each. Dealer said it was the first time they had ever seen that piece fall off like that, really strange.

 

It's causing a leak??

If we're talking about the same thing, the long "bar" that straddled the sunshade, mine (on my '01) came loose 40,000 miles ago, rattled like a SOB for a long time until I finally took it the rest of the way out. Other than having to manually move the shade back when opening the roof, there is no other damage done.

Small price to pay. Much better than the rattle, much better than spending money on it. BFD, reach up and move the shade (if it's not already open) when you open the sunroof.

YMMV, but for me, this is a no-brainer.

 

It must be the same piece, now I have to move the shade manually, but with the roof closed, I am seeing a little gap of light between the rubber around the glass and the roof. There is a piece of rubber on the plate that fell out so I thought that somehow it was sealing the glass. Have not taken it back yet and it hasnt rained lately, so I will see what happens.

 

I am having the same problem....I went out to tilt the moon roof but there is NO way to get in there. Any other ideas....Sounds like something is gonna fall on your head! Gotta get it fixed! Is there anyway to post of picture of how you can get in there? Thanks!!

 

Yeah that piece broke loose on my Navigator too. I took the path of repairing it instead of just removing the metal guide. There's two plastic retaining clips that break off and the hold down screws are in slotted holes. Without the plastic retainers the metal guide is able to slip out from under the hold down screws. What I did was take 2 small washers and bend the edge on each one just a little bit. Then I installed those washers under the hold down screws for the metal guide so that they would grab onto a lip there, and so far so good.

 

I'll be darned, less than three days after I read this thread this exact problem happens to me.
Well, I was prepared.
As we're returning home from Home Depot tonight I push the switch to close the moonroof and 'clank, rattle, rattle' - my wife jumps and says "What was that, what happened!".
I calmly turn to her and reply, "Oh, that's just the Sunroof Drip Moulding deflector plate that has come loose, no problem it's just two screws".
Man, that was great! Mr. Know-It-All......

Of course I'm not happy I have a problem to fix but knowing what caused it and how to repair it is one of the shining parts of reading this forum.
The little side issue of that particular moment of me being a smarty pants was a nice bonus.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that I don't have any more 'problem' moments.....

Edit:
I found the exploded view of the whole Sunroof/Moonroof on Ford parts showing all the parts w/#'s.
I've got the plate out at the moment, it was really jammed in there, good thing the Moonroof would flip up so I could get at it.
Will continue with it tomorrow.

 

It might be great but it doesn't count unless she got real hot and took care of business right then and there when you demonstrated your vast knowledge.

 

I'm not a kiss and tell sort of guy.......

 

I got around to fixing this today.
After three different Threads about this in the last week I had plenty of great advice (and even pictures) to make the job go smoothly. Thanks for all for the help everyone!
I took the sunroof window off, after marking the Torx screw positions and reinstalled the bar. One of the wire 'trough guide rods' was bent and popped out of it's slot, fixed that.
I used alloro's bent washer trick to hold the bar in place, worked great - thanks.
The whole repair took less than an hour, and I work slow.

After seeing how this whole mechanism works I'd say that slamming the sliding shade panel back against the stop (drip bar) is not good.
I've not used this sun/moonroof very much and after this little fiasco don't plan on using it much in the future either.