Hi all,
The Sunroof on my 2001 Expy is stuck in the open position. I was trying to put the water trough back in because we are planning to trade it off this weekend for a new Expy. I got the trough in, and tried opening the sunroof, and it seems to have forgotten where the stop point is because it kept going and jammed itself back. I was able to pull the headliner down and get the trough back out again, but now the sunroof won't close. It moves back, and then will move forward a slight bit (like 1/2 an inch) and then stops. It doesn't appear to be jammed, I don't hear the motor stuggling at all, it just moves up a little and stops.

I disconnected the negetive battery cable tonight thinking that maybe it thinks it's closed, and removing the power may make it "forget". I will try it again tomorrow night.

Does anyone have any suggestions besides take it to a dealer. I'd like to avoid the usually expensive repair bill associated with sunroofs. I have half the headliner down already, so there isn't much point to drag it to a dealer, I'll just buy the parts and fix it myself if I have to.

Damn, I hope we can find a new Expy without a sunroof. I never use them, and would rather not even have one on the vehicle. Unfortunately, most of the dealers around here always order them.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

--Mike

 

I thought that there was a manual crank for it behind the map lights...Not a crank but a place to put the socket.

 

No kidding, I'll try pulling that off tonight and see what's up there.

I was just wondering why most cars today don't have a manual backup crank for the sunroof. On my old T-bird turbocoupe, there was a plug in the headliner and a crank handle in the glovebox for that purpose.

Thanks,
--Mike

 

Bummer, well I just looked it up on Alldata.com, and I don't see any reference to a manual override crank. Since the motor is in the rear I kind of doubt they could put one in front.

Oh well, I guess I'll be pulling the headliner out the rest of the way tonight and removing the whole assembly. Oh what fun! *#*$&%@?!# sunroofs!

Thanks,
--Mike

 

That ended up being a $1600 ticket for me. Under warranty of course. It does appear that once you get the headliner down you can remove the cable that operates the glass and move it back to its closed position.

 

Thanks for the info

Well, after getting the headliner down, (WHEW!! what a pain!) the sunroof didn't seem as bad as I first thought. There is a small allen socket in the center of the drive gear case on the motor, which you can stick an allen-socket in and crank the roof back closed. I dont know why they couldn't have put in a small access panel for this "feature" in the headliner.

Once I got it all the way closed, I hooked up the switch and tried to open and close it. It worked normally, and stopped exactly where it should have. So I'm pretty sure the mechanicals of the motor and sunroof frame are intact.

Anyway, I got the sunroof closed again, and I then removed the glass. The parts that broke are the guides for the water trough, which are supposed to be replaced anyway when you do the TSB for the water trough coming loose. They are about 40 bucks for the pair. Unfortunately you are supposed to replace the water trough too, which the cheapest price I could find was 156 bucks.

So I guess tomorrow I will try to get the parts and see if I can get this thing working properly again.

Thanks again!
--Mike

 

I am not sure how long ago this was posted but I experienced the same problem with my sunroof today. I was very worried because I got home and it was alomost dark and the niebhors cats like to sleep on the roof of my truck and if the window is open they would love to snuggle inside. so I immediatly came to the computer to look up how to fix this and there was your message. anyways the point of this is I wanted to say thank you for posting this and posting your solution to the problem I did what you did and it is now closed. unfortunetly mine still sticks if you put it all the way open but thats ok I will worry about it next year after the snow.
Again thanks so much
Maria

 

*sits back and puts hands behind head* Another satisfied FTE user!

Welcome Maria! Glad the good folks at FTE could help.

 

Can anyone explain how to get the sunroof down?

 

My sunroof is currentlly stuck in the open position.

 

Just wanted to let you all know that I was able to get my sunroof / moonroof closed. It seems it went back too far and got stuck. Once I used the allen wrench to get the roof halfway out it worked like normal.

I ended up having to drop the head liner well I lowered it halfway. For the most part it was pretty painless the only hangups I had were.
1 - I ended up breaking the hanger hook. You think there would have been a easy / quick release
2 - I wish I could have taken off the pillar covers off or at least moved them enough to get the head liner down with out removing the seat belt assembely.
3 - The rear air vents twist then they come right out. I pryed the first one or two.
4 - Make sure you have a T-50 Star bit, see #2.
It took me all of about an hour and I would give it a 5 on a diffaculty scale to 10.

 

Thanks for sharing. Had the same thing happen with my 2002 King Ranch and following your advice, solved the problem.

 

Once I figured out what I was doing, this turned out to be an easy fix. Instead of lowering the whole front portion of the head liner, it is much easier to just lower one side between the back seat and the third row of seats. You can then reach an Allen wrench in an manually close the sunroof. I closed it about 1/3 of the way and then turned on the power and was able to close it the rest of the way with the motor. If I had known to lower the head liner just on one side toward the rear, I could have done this in less than an hour. I'm kind of ticked off though that the dealer refused to even look at it when it should have been an easy fix for them.

 

I, too, have benefited from the advice on this thread. My 2000 Ford Expedition became stuck open a few days ago, and everything I had tried was not working. Thanks to the great advice here, I dug into my tools to find a 5/32" allen wrench, popped the headliner down a bit, and manually moved the sunroof until the electrical bit started working again.

Thanks again!

 

I have the same issue as the rest of you. I fished out the tray put it back on hit the button and it closed great. Hit it again and it goes nowhere. I look up in there to discover that the plastic pieces that my shield mounts to are broken. So what is the purpose of this drip shield? I'm not an idiot I understand the concept. Do I really need it. Does it just catch water when I open the roof after a rain or car wash? Cuz if that's the case I will wait till its dry. If it truly serves a purpose like my roof actually leaks and this helps catch the water I might be interested in repairing it. Now where do I get the parts for it ? I tried sunroofdoctor.com and the kit that they talked about doesn't seem to be what I need. Right now a tube of silicone and a caulk gun seem to be the answer. Thank you for reading and any help in advance.