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Sunroof Removal


chrisb
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Hi

Can anyone tell me how hard it is to remove the glass sunroof?

My other half's 2000 Sport doused her in water the other day from behind the headlining :lol: .

It was the sunroof drain grommets in the A pillars, bunged solid. Had to take them off to wash them out (and to get the water to drian with a big gurgle). This means that to reattach them, I think I'll need to get at the top end to get enough free play. I need to do that anyway, as the sunroof is stiff, and doesn't close properly unless you help it, so I guess it needs cleaning and lubricating.

Damned VW, it's only 13 years old...

Does the headlining need to come out? I can't see fixings from above. Found this, which might be useful.

I have the ELSAWin manuals somewhere, but not sure where, so any help appreciated.

Chris

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elawin should sort you out, after all it's from the same people who made your car. the reference you have above is how to remove the full headling ie not from a car with the sunroof in, which is a bit more complicated. find your elsawin or a new one from ebay is only £6, you'll get step by step info. I've never done a lupo sunroof so that's the best advice I can give you. we've just got the peasant grade solid tin roof, which is much simpler. good luck, geoff

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You may able to feed some stiff pipe up from the lower A pillar drain point , disconnect the rubber outlet , feed the stiff pipe in and up, (pushing the original ) it may give you enough at the sunroof side to reconnect , then with luck push the whole lot back thru and reconnect the lower drain,

I try to avoid disconnecting the drains , use a net curtain flexi wire , great for clearing blockages , I use them regularly on my MX5 roof drains , silly cheap too !

Might be an idea to get a long length and feed that in first , it will prevent you loosing the pipe route

Edited by Bigplum
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Cheers both, the top end is still connected, but I've removed the rubbers at the bottom: they were so choked with mud there was no hope of clearing them in situ- I've washed them out. The drains at the top are clear, as are the pipes, as the water gurgled away when I removed the rubbers.

I now have two problems, though neither are serious for now, and at least the car won't fill with water.

1. I need to refit the rubbers in the A pillar, but there's not enough play on the pipes to do that, I reckon. They're too short to pull out through the hole in the pillar and put the rubbers back on,, so I think i need to acess the top, tape them to something like the net curtain wire you suggest, drop them a bit, refit the the bottom, then reconnect the top, after fixing.......

2. The sunroof is stiff anyway- it opens, but shutting it needs a helping hand, or it jams and re-opens. I reckon it needs cleaning and relubing. As another poster has said on here, I hate cars with sunroofs. PITA.

Chris

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I got ELSA, and I've reconnected the drain hoses.

Getting the headlining out is not too hard: Hardest bit is removing the lttle hook that the sunvisors clip into- the cap that covers the screws is *very* stiff to remove: I've sratched one. Other than that, it's a case of removing the c-pillar trim (which just pulls), removing the sunvisors (including the mini one in the centre), removing the sunroof control and interior light, and the 4 grab handles.

The trim just unclips around the sunroof opening- ELSA says to use a special tool, but I managed just with fingers. The headlining then pretty much just drops out, and squeezes out through the tailgate. You can then unclip the drain hoses from the sunroof, which gives enogh slack to re-attach the drain grommets. There's 2 grommets at the back, behind the rear lights, as well as the two in the screen pillar. In my case, the rear ones were only partially blocked, but as I said, the fronts were solid. All of tem are clean now.

I still need to remove the glass (which is suprisingly easy- four screws hidden under trim) to check adjustment and lubbricate the slide.

After that, it's clean the headlining, put it back, then fix the jammed heater flap, then clean up the stains from the sunroof leak....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update: lubing the sunroof didn't work. The VW grease is expensive too, but apparently using normal grease will wreck it. I came to the conclusion the machanism was jamming- the motor runs OK- and fell lucky on a complete mechanism with glass on ebay. Fitting it is a breeze, as the headlining was out- just pull off the drain hoses, and unbolt it. I did make sure to use the horribly expensive grease (G-000-450-02) on the new mechanism, and it is now together, working perfectly, and not leaking. Predictably, I broke a sunvisor clip, so I've ordered a pair.

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