hey everyone-Sunroof is in tilted up positin and will not cooperate

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COLandCrusher

COLandCrusher

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Apr 21, 2009
Threads
43
Messages
175
Location
Colorado
We took the Crusher up to Dillon this weekend, and went to open the roof so my wife could get some great scenery pics. well... when I hit the button I accidentally hit the tilt up instead of full open and when I tried to close it it would not budge. Now the roof is stuck in tilt up position. I push the button and it engages the motor for about a second, starts to close and stops. It moves about 1/4 inch then goes right back to open.

Anyone advise?

1998 Land Cruiser
 
I assume you are pressing the button to "untiltit" and not the button to close it.

You must make it flat before you can close it

Assuming thats true, have you looked up there to ensure there isn't something stuck in the mechanism that you can see?
 
hmm, this is not going well...

so I came home tonight and after trying to reinitialize it, and manually trying to pull or push it closed - nothing. I removed the sunroof cutout trim, then pulled down on the headliner to see if I noticed anything off. really that was no help. Then I unbolted the sunroof motor from the frame and tried to push and pull and persuade the glass down. - nothing.
Then I undid the two brackets that hold the cables into the brass or copper tubing and tried to pull them or push them. The one closest to the roof cutout did slide back and forth in the tubing but the other one would not budge.
I then reassembled it all and proceeded to bang the passenger side back corner down and eventually it went down. Of course it is a tad bit off kilter now, but it is down.
So here's the main question now: I cannot get the glass out. I do not know how to remove the glass to get to the tracks to see if something is stuck or not. I am assuming the way it is acting there is something on the passenger side that is messed up.
I tried to remove the screws toward the back of the glass but only one of the two screws unscrew. One just will not move at all.

SO here I sit. Frustrated as I do not know how to properly diagnose this situation. And my OCD is bugging me since I know it will sit in a messed up state until I either pay to fix it or someone gives me some instructions to remove the glass.

I did have a problem last year where water was getting into the cabin, and aftre a major ordeal of dropping the headliner down far enough to clean piles of leaves out of the tracks - its been good. But I do not want to have to remove that :censor:headliner again... please help:bang:
 
Start basic - prior to trying to slide it back, you tilted it down first, right? The motor is working so it's not a fuse. Is there anything obstructing the movement? Are the mechanisms that pop the roof up aligned correctly and not bent?
 
Nothing looks bent at all. Everything looks correct. When I stick my finger in and around the tracks i cannot feel anything. But as I mentioned, I want to removethe glass so I can get a better look. How do I do that?

When I unbolted the motor and hit the buttons, the motor did have full operations so my motor is fine. :mad:
 
not be be anal, but you havent directly answered that you have used both buttons on the sun roof. One tilts it back and the other moves it. Could you just confirm as the same thing will happen if you don't use the right button. Doubt that's it . . . . but as my daughter tels me "I'm just saying . . ."
 
Was this ever resolved?

The sunroof in mine was closed on a branch the other day and was then hesitant to close afterward. This morning I bumped the tilt button and now it's stuck in the up position. It closes most of the way and then opens back up. From what I could see and feel as I drove, everything seemed to be in good order - nothing bent and I couldn't feel anything obstructing it.
 
I know this is an old thread....but I'm having the exact same issue and was curious if you found a solution??
 
You're in luck, I just happened to be in here tonight. I was able to fix mine with these steps. I had managed to get mine back down by pressing on the sunroof while pressing the button inside to tilt it down (this would have been much easier with a second person).

The steps:
1. Removed the wind deflector and threw it in the trash where it belongs.
2. Removed the plastic trim from the sides of the sunroof inside the truck.
3. Loosened all four of the nuts that hold the glass to the sliders. These are gold, and face down. They're pretty obvious.
4. Moved the glass around until it was well aligned with the roof - this is not a subtle sort of thing, I just grabbed it from top and bottom and shoved in each direction a few times. The rubber gaskets along the sides did a pretty good job evening everything out.
5. Tightened the bolts.
6. Slid it back completely.
7. Cleaned all the debris out of the tracks. There was some hidden stuff in there that I was able to blow out. I used my breath, canned air or a compressor would have been better.
8. Ran it a couple times in each direction to make sure everything was operating smoothly again.
9. Went out on the highway with the roof and windows open. This blew out a ton of debris that had managed to find its way in there.
10. Cleaned the tracks again.
11. All finished, and will definitely not be parking under trees with it open anymore.
 
Thanks for the info, i tried a few of those but not all. I'll definitely give that a go tomorrow. How hard did you press down to get it to close initially? I tried that as well but was afraid to push too hard as something else might break before it starts to close. Thanks again!
 
Harder than I preferred. However, thinking about it now, you may be able to change the order of some of those steps. Mine got stuck open when I was on the way to the airport to go out of town for a few days, and it was snowing. So I had to get it closed right away, and I didn't have any tools.

You might be able to remove the interior trim and move the glass panel so that you don't have to shove it down to get it into place. If you watch as it tries to close, you should be able to see where it's getting stuck, and I would think you'd be able to adjust a bit based on that to get it closed.
 
Tilting the sunroof moves a 2 piece slide that pivots up. Make sure nothing is stuck in the tracks. Pivoting tracks can get stuck easier than normal tracks like the slide function. Maybe try to push the pivot points with a screw driver to help them fold and lay flat.
 
I got it working, thanks again for the help. I ended up removing the glass and pushing down until that slider moved freely, them blasted the everything down with the air compressor to clean out all the gunk, them applied a fresh layer of WD-40. Seems to be working smoothly and just in time...the rain's a coming.
 
reviving an old thread. I had a similar problem. Wrong time of year for problems with the sunroof.
Mine was stuck in the tilted up position. I unbolted the 4 gold bolts and lifted off the sunroof to discover that a tab on the guide track assembly had broken off and was jamming the slider as it tried to tilt back down. Simple 15 min fix including vacuuming debris out of the drain area.
 
Yea, this is why messing with the sun roof is off limits !! :rage:
 
I'm long overdue to fix mine... The "tilt" switch is expressly forbidden to be used in our truck... When it's hit the roof tilts up cleanly, but when you try to lower it, it gets halfway down, detects an obstruction, and lifts up again... My "on the fly solution" was to leave my high cap suction cup dent puller in the center console.

When the switch is accidentally hit, i pull out the suction cup (and cast aluminum grip), apply it to the bottom of the sunroof and cycle it down.... At the bottom before it detects resistance it gets a stiff yank down, and it seats itself down. I then look at the offending party and say "THAT's why we don't use the that switch."

Maybe a repair is in order to avoid any more strife. Haha.
 
Im having the same issue where i tilted my roof up and now it does not want to go back flush. I got it down but its not flush . Not sure what to do . The motor seems to be working but it sounds weak. Any advice
 
fisherman978 said:
Im having the same issue where i tilted my roof up and now it does not want to go back flush. I got it down but its not flush . Not sure what to do . The motor seems to be working but it sounds weak. Any advice
Click to expand...
Probably rusty cable or cables. They get that way from clogged drains, and bad maintenance. I had to remove my glass, spray a ton of PB blaster so it ran down the cable tubes, and beat carefully on part of the sunroof frame a bit with a rubber mallet while operating the sunroof motor switch, until it mostly got to where I wanted it. Then I replaced the glass, and pulled the sunroof switch plugs. I estimate it is about $400 and a full headliner removal to fix mine, and I just don't care about the sunroof, so not going to do it.
 
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