My son's 1996 Explorer shows signs of water leakage on the headliner on all sides of the sunroof. I want to take a good look at the sunroof and see where I am having the problem at. Does anyone have any guidance on how to take out the sunroof so I can get a good look at it? It looks to me like the best way to get a good look at it would be to take out the headliner, although I don't exactly know how to do that. Also, I would like to take out the sliding sunroof cover (that covers the sunroof glass) because the covering on it is has separated and is hanging down and I figure this would be a good time to handle that issue as well. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Art.

 

Art,

I can tell you it can be a fun project to get it out. You have to remove the headliner to get to the sunroof rack, but to get to the headliner, you have to remove all the handles, the visors, the lights (both front w/ compass and center light), and also pull down all the plastic trim including the rear section panels. Then pull the headliner out the rear.

Once the headliner is down, you will see the bolts and nuts that hold it in place. You can take it totally out and work on it outside the truck.

As far as the sun visor itself, once you take the sunroof out, you have I believe 4 tabs on the visor section that have to be removed (don't have to be removed, but makes it easier). You can then pull it out through the rear tracks of the sunroof bracketing. If you are going to recover it, might I suggest making sure to use a thin material. If you put a thick material in there, when you reinstall it, you will have a very hard time pulling and pushing it back and forth (learned this the hard way...)

Hope that helps some. It is really not too bad to do, just takes a fair amount of time to get everything apart...



Something to add... Make sure to check the relief hoses that run down each side of the sunroof to the rear of the Explorer. There are water tracks in the sunroof bracketing that are attached to plastic hoses that run to the back. That is probably where your problem is...

 

Thanks for the information. Over the last couple of days, I did as you said and took out the headliner and then the sunroof. All four of my drains were draining fine. I believe my problem was in the front driver side corner of the gutter that surrounds the sunroof that catchs water that makes it past the glass seal. The seams in that corner had a slight leak and I sealed it with a polyurethane sealer. After putting it all back together and water testing it, no more leak. It did take the better part of a day to do it all, but was well worth it, both for the learning experience and the cost savings of doing it myself.

 

Sounds like a great job well done!

I don't know what a dealership would charge you to do it, but at their standard rates and the time it takes to do it, I know it would have been a pretty penny...