dammit! I got in my car, the sunroof was all the way closed.... I hit the 2 window buttons with my left hand as always, and the sunroof one with my right....

2 seconds after hitting the sunroof button it starts making the noise like its done closing and your holding the button too long, only I was opening it and it was already 1-2 inches open.

I let off the button for a second then continue to open it and i hear kind of a scraping noise... Now I know for sure its broken... I was just worried about if it will close or not seeing as how its going to rain here soon and I dont have garage coverage.

I get out to see a spring sticking up at about 45' from one of the little black plastic tabs... (this is so hard to describe) The spring is about 2'' long and the little black plastic tabs that are in the rails have no visible spring in them that I can see, yet this one is bent at the first few circles where it attaches to the black plastic thing and the rest is just hangin out in the air. The sunroof opens and closes (I only did it once!) only it makes a terrible noise and the spring gets crushed. I have no choice right now, I have to leave it closed but...

What the hell did I do? Has anyone had any experience with this or just 4th gen sunroofs in general? I am at college so I have limited tools/time but I really need my sunroof to operate normally. Please help me!

 

Bump for some much needed help! I dont even know how to begin disassembling the sunroof!

 

Had the same problem on my fourth gen. I ended up breaking the springs off. Not sure if that was a good idea or not but I was miles from home with no tools and it was about to rain so I had to get it closed. It still works fine up till now.

 

i had a similar problem but my spring didn't pop out it just came off the little pin that it sits on and then it kinnda bent and prevented the sunroof from opening. i just had to take the sunroof off to fix it. i didn't have to get any parts i just had to put the spring back in place. from the sound of it you may need to get another spring. but to fix it all the tools you need is a ratchet and 10mm socket and maybe a 3 in ext. and a phillips screw driver. first just crack your sunroof open and then unscrew all the screws for the cover(you may have to move the roof back a little to reach some of them). then just pull forward on the cover cause it is in a little lip in the back then just slide it out the back thru the crack. then you will see the 10mm bolts on each side. just unscrew those and the roof should come off. just be careful cause there are shims on each side just keep track of how many were on each side. you will have to figure out the rest of your problem from there cause i don't know for sure what you were sayin but this way u'll be able to see whats makin the noise and how to fix it. when you put the roof back in i just put it on and tightened the bolt finger tight then i opened and closed the roof and adjusted it till it opened fine. if you don't do this it may get a little crooked and open really hard. then you can put the cover back on which is usually the hardest part. there really is no good trick for it. just **** with it till you get it in place. if you have any questions i'll keep an eye on this post. good luck

 

well, seeing as I had not too many tools on sunday, and It looked like rain (which it did) and I had no covering to work under, and its raining today... I decided to take the route of bgm93srv and just cut the spring off right where it was crushed then take plyers and pull the rest of it out.

The sunroof opens and closes as normal, doesnt really make any sounds (hard to tell with all the other age-related noises in my car ) and it seems to be water-tight still.

The little black plastic pieces (male and female) that are in the rail on the passenger side are no longer spring loaded, duh, but I do not see how it is affecting the sunroof at all.

When I go home sometime, if i feel up to the challenge, I will disassemble the sunroof and buy a spring and attempt to re-assemble but given my situation right now, it would make little sense to attempt it.

Thanks a lot for the replies bgm93srv and ludeman92... very helpful info. I looked up the procedures for swapping a 5g glass sunroof so I have the basic disassembly instructions with pictures... kinda like what ludeman92 told me. So thanks again!