The sunroof on my car went wonky yesterday. I think a sensor has gone haywire. It won't close all the way. It will SORT OF close, like you know how you can either have it slide back or have it tilt up? It's stuck tilted up. It will close until it's on the last degree of tilting closest to being entirely shut, but when I turn the dial to close it all the way, it shuts and then opens back up all the way.
I have the, um, under the moonroof...sliding....inside thing....slid shut. But I don't want water getting inside and wrecking my leather. Should I be worried? Can I tape a trash bag on it? If so, how do I make sure that the tape won't mess up my paint?
I'm getting it fixed, but they couldn't fit me in until 8am tomorrow.
posted
I doubt you're in any great danger, but yeah, why not put a tarp or something over it? That's a nice car, as I recall -- I remember worrying about guilt if I got Michael's bloodstains all over it.
Say hi for me! Heh. He's a good kid.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Fasten the plastic by closing each end in the doors or windows. Then tie two lengths of rope from bumper to bumper to keep the unfastened sides from blowing up. Make sure the unfastened sides extend to points on the roof lower than the moonroof - preferably much lower, say onto the rear and front windshield.
If you don't have rope, and if your windshield wipers stay in the "up" position when you turn the car off while they're still on, you can lift the wipers and place the edge of the plastic under them. If you time it right, you can get the front and rear wiper to be up at the same time.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
If you get a big enough piece of plastic, you could tape it to the windows on the sides, front and back.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Hmmmm. WAIT! It just occurred to me that the sunroof itself is glass. Yeah, I know, I'm slow today.
Maybe I could....um...dammit, I had an idea, and now it's gone. It did also just occur to me that I don't know if the windows will close while there is something in between them and the car. They have the crazy sensors to keep the car from taking off your hand, too, which I think is what's wrong with the sunroof. Which means tape will be necessary...
I think I need to get some rope. Um, to what am I tying this rope, exactly?
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Just call me Dagyver. (wonderful picture, JPV)
Usually I have to do it myself, not tell someone else how to do it.
Slicing the garbage bag open doubles the area.
One thing I forgot - if the bag sags over the opening, you will get pooling and eventually the bag might break. The moonroof cover will help, but if you can mound it up with something like crumpled newspaper, even better.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:I don't know if the windows will close while there is something in between them and the car. They have the crazy sensors to keep the car from taking off your hand, too, which I think is what's wrong with the sunroof. Which means tape will be necessary...
Then close the bag in the door instead.
The rope can tie to the bumpers or the bumper fasteners. There must be something down there to tie a rope to.
The wipers might be enough, but I worry about the bag blowing in the wind.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I suggest you get a golf umbrella, open it, lower its handle down through the gap in the sunroof until the umbrella's rib-tips are resting on the car roof (cushion them with something if necessary to avoid scratching the finish); and then inside the car, tie down the umbrella handle tightly to the emergency brake handle or seat frame.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
All right...I've got the garbage bag and tape, now I need rope. I don't suppose those bungee things would be long enough. I don't have those anyway. But hey, I have to stop by Lowes for paint brushes already.
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pH, my sunroof comes with a little crank, that you get out of the glove box and crank the thing closed if the motor ever won't close it. Do you have one of those? I would suggest that as plan A. Then go to the more creative ideas of Dagyver for plan B. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Tatiana is on the right track. All the sunroofs (sp?) I've ever seen had a small removable panel nearby that covered the motor assembly (or a dedicated emergency crank point). Sometimes the crank handle was located under the cover, sometimes it was in the glove box or even in with the jack/spare tire.
If you can't find the crank handle (but have located the the place at which to crank), an allen wrench or socket wrench will usually do the trick.
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The cover you need to open will probably NOT be in the glove box. Look around the sunroof itself. (is the sunroof switch located in the roof? look around that) The cover will pop off with a flat-blade screwdriver.
If you can't find a likely suspect near the sunroof, check the trunk (no kidding! I had one located in the trunk once)
Also try checking the owners manual, it should have something in there.
Posts: 692 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
My crank looks like a little metal tube, bent in a couple of places. It has one end that fits in a little fitting that's near the sunroof on the inside of the car. You have to open something to expose it, some plastic cover or something. You fit the crank into the fitting, and turn it, and the sunroof moves. I believe it handles both slide and tilt.
The salesman showed it to me when I bought the car. I'm going out to look at mine again right now.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Yes, there's this little crank thing, about the size of your hand or a little bigger. It's a solid tube of metal, bent 90 degrees in two places to form a crank. On one end is a squared off tip, that fits into the mechanism. Mine was in a plastic bag marked "Sunroof Wrench" in English and Korean.
On the interior roof of the car, about a foot behind the opening for the sunroof, is a little round plastic button about 3/4" in diameter. That pops off and then the squared off end of the crank fits up inside there, into a socket, similar to the way an Allen-head wrench works, if you've ever seen one of those.
Turn the wrench handle gently while probing with the squared off end in the middle of that hole. When you feel the wrench-end slip firmly into the socket, then you are ready to turn the handle with more force. Turning one direction will open the sunroof and turning the other direction will close it. I'd be very surprised if your sunroof doesn't have something like this (it may not be exactly the same as I've described, but it will be fairly close).
Good luck, and tell us how it goes (went). Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Turns out, all they had to do was reset the sunroof. Don't ask me what that involves; I have no idea!
Also on the plus side, my boyfriend asked them to look at one of my headlights, since it's not angled propertly. They said that they can't do anything about it because it's from body damage (I was in a fender bender). Why is this good? Because my parents have been stalling on having the body work done for a YEAR (despite the fact that my brother wrapped his sports car around a tree, and they bought him another, spiffier, newer sports car within a month or two ). My dad was all paranoid about the light to begin with, so now I can have it taken care of ASAP.
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I still would have liked a picture of you driving around with an umbrella on the roof, like those observation bubbles they used to have on the Transcontinental Railway.
Come to think of it, it could have been a clear umbrella!
Glad it is fixed.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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). My dad was all paranoid about the light to begin with, so now I can have it taken care of ASAP. 
