suginami

Are you using the MBZ lube specific to the sunroof?

Haasman

Where does one lube a sunroof for the tilt related mechanicals?

Yes. Mercedes only sells it in large quantities. My local MBZ independent provides it to me for free.

Rusty Cullens at *************** sells a nice 2oz can of sunroof paste for about $5. Beats $50 for a quart tin....

Sticky lift is still a function of lack of lubrication -- the side rails (lift angles) slide forward past the closes position and cause the sides to hinge, lifting the rear of the panel. If the slides are dry, it won't slide forward very well, and the panel won't lift properly.

Peter

Thanks Peter,

This is what I am targeting to repair. I am guessing the who setup needs to be lubed.

Can the rails etc be lubed without pulling the panel?

Haasman

Open sunroof and apply paste to slides and pads. If you cannot get the sunroof open, you will probably have to detach the headliner and push it back to get some lube in the appropriate spots.

Peter

The Exorcism Is In Process ....
 

I finally got the roof to move .... Yeah! I worked it back and forth using the manual crank setup in the left rear. I put some MBZ sunroof lube on the track.

It will now move under its own power, that's the good news ... but it is still slow. I figure I need to get to the gears and lube those and possibly the cable. So three questions:

1. How does one get the motor/gear assembly out? I see the two 10mm bolts, I took those out, but it still is held in there. What am I missing?

2. Can the gears be lubed without taking the entire assembly off/out?

3. If the cable needs to be lubed, what's the best way to do that?

As always, thanks in advance,

Haasman

Ah .... partial demonics are still there ..... after writing the above, I worked the panel some more and found that at about 3/4 of the way open the switch seemed to make it want to reserve direction.

Geesh! What is going on?

You must remove the headliner to get the motor out, I think, and the cable tube has to come out. May be wrong. Motor may slip off the cable tube once you have the cable out.

At least you will have to pull the cable to get the motor off, anyway -- remove from the bridge and run "closed" until it stops moving and will pull out. Do not use the sunroof paste on the "brush" on the end, there is a grease for that.

Chances are you either haven't gotten the slides clean enough or the motor is slipping, the latter is more likely if the manual operation is easy and smooth. I believe the clutch can be adjusted, but don't know the instructions for that model.

Peter

Update

(Thanks for all the help on this BTW)

The panel is moving back and forth. I removed the inside panel and figured out how to remove it. The underside of the sunroof mechanicals now exposed.

I lubed everything and it seems to operate well going forwards and back with three observations:

1. It does sound like it is scratchy sliding forwards and back. Does indicate dirty rails? If so how would one go about cleaning them?

2. The overhead switch doesn't work exactly how one would expect: Sometimes when the roof is open, by pushing the switch up the roof will close but not by pushing the switch forward. Is this a setting/adjustment?

The motor is heard whirring when the above occurs but the panel doesn't move. Does this mean the clutch needs to be adjusted?

3. On the driver's side, when after the roof is tilted and it is brought down it slams. I peeked up underneath and noticed one of the tilt pieces is broken. Can these individual pieces be replace? Easily.

Thanks again for all the help on this .... hopefully it will help others.

Haasman

Any sunroof ideas?

Get new lift angles -- about $100 each. Do both, if one broke the other is bent and will break soon.

Remove top panel -- held on by four bolts on the side, I think, after running the roof all the way back and removing the chrome rails.

run the frame back up, then unscrew the translation bridge from the lift angles. The entire lift angle assembly will rotate out of the frame if you lift up on it, then rotate the top edge outwards. Kinda fiddly, I had trouble and my brother just grabbed it and pulled it out....

New ones need to be lubed and installed. Make sure the side are even on the translation bridge and that the bridge is straight. Make sure the cable is straight and the retainer clamp isn't twisted or bent.

To install the roof panel, you will have to insert some 8mm allen wreches through the alignment holes in the fittings and into the new lift angles while tightening the bolts. YOu will probably have to pull the bridge back a small amount and push the panel forwards to get it to fit correctly -- it must push agains the front seal firmly so that the rear won't bind on the close at tilt operation.

Open the sunroof, install the chrome rails, and adjust for height closed by loosening the crosshead screws on the rails and turning the slotted screw on each side up or down to get the front level and within 1 mm of the roof level -- below, not above.

Once you get the front set, put the 8mm location pins back in, loosen the panel attachment screws, and adjust the rear edge to be slightly above the roof, within 1mm.

Deviations from the height specs can cause wind noise.

Peter

Thank you for the detailed response Peter. I will replace the broken pieces.

Any ideas as to why the overhead control switch is so weird?

"The overhead switch doesn't work exactly how one would expect: Sometimes when the roof is open, by pushing the switch up the roof will close but not by pushing the switch forward. Is this a setting/adjustment?

The motor is heard whirring when the above occurs but the panel doesn't move. Does this mean the clutch needs to be adjusted?"

Haasman

No, the broken lift angle causes severe drag. The closed position is set by microswitches in the motor assembly. Full open and full tilt are set by the slip clutch (that is, the motor will turn but the clutch will slip).

The broken lift angle will cause very hard operation, so the clutch slips. When selecting 'up', the motor will run as long as the switch is pushed, if pushed forward for 'closed', the bridge will move some and the motor will stop on the microswitch, but the pane will not be completely closed since it's only partly connected to the bridge.

Eventually the broken lift angle will cause the bridge to cock and jam, so don't use the sunroof until you can get it fixed properly!

Peter