The sunroof on my C250D (W202 body), is stuck closed. The motor operates, but only moves the roof about 1/2inch. When i move the switch to tilt, the back right corner lifts, but the back left corner doesnt move. the motor on the 202 is in the roof, near the int light, above the windshield. How do I get in to it?. Does the inner cover of the moving bit come off?. I tried pulling the headcloth down a bit but this didnt help. Thanks in advance for help. Great site you guys.

Sounds like a lift/angle bracket broke. Time to roll up the sleeves, read the work instructions and pull the panel for a look.



Joe

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Project Smoker, '87 603 powered wagon
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Acme Automotive Inc.
Raleigh NC
919-881-0364

Hi Joe

Thanks for the reply
Ok,pull the panel, do you mean the panel under the roof. How is it held?, Clips? I cant see any.Bear in mind that Ill have to remove it with the roof closed.

I posted a few weeks ago asking how to get into the sunroof mechanism on a 95 W202. As nobody answered my plea for help I rolled up my sleeves & took a deep breath…… First, the PROBLEM. The roof was stuck closed. The electric motor works OK but only moves the roof about ˝ in back, then stalls. It seemed that the motor is only moving one side of the roof. To get access I tried dropping the headcloth. This does not give any access to the sunroof mechanism. Next, I tried removing the inner sunroof panel (the one that moves with sunroof). The inner & outer panels are held together by 2 plastic pop fasteners at the front edge of the panel. As the roof was only open about 1/2in, I used a hooked tool to pull the inner panel down at the front edge. This pops the fasteners & allows the inner panel to be slid back. Now you can see the six 8mm nuts & two screws that hold the outer roof panel to the slides. Now were getting somewhere. This outer panel comes off easily but watch for shim washers. Now you can see the slide & tilt mechanism. After studying the slides I found that they were out of sync.The slides are driven from the motor (above the sunroof switch/int lights) by 2 flexible racks going across the car& curving down the side of the sunroof frame. You can see them if you unbolt the motor(10mm bolt & 2 Torx bolts), but don’t unbolt the motor unless you need to re syncronise the slides. I found a few broken & bent parts on the slides, & the rack teeth were worn where they meshed with the motor gearbox. This seems to be the root of my problem, the rack jumping some teeth & allowing the slides to go out of sync, then damaging parts of the slides. Ive not been able to repair it yet but it now closes & its watertight.
Incidentally, while trying to drop the headcloth, I couldn’t see how the rear view mirror/alarm sensor is held to the roof. After reading the posts about the problems of faulty bulbs affecting the central locking etc., It would be good to know how to get at them. Anybody Know?.
Hope this helps somebody else