• Seat bottom removed. You can see where it "snaps" into place towards the front.

• The black hole in the red sheet metal is where the side cushions for the backrest connect. There are no bolts holding them in.

• The black slot on the bottom left is the lower connection for the side cushions. Remove both side cushions.
• You can also see where the passenger side seat back is bolted in.
• Once you pull that bolt you can pull the passenger side bolt for the backrest you can pull that side out by pulling it off the dowel or pin that is on the driver's side seat back (pic below).

• Here's the nub that holds both seat backs. The pass side slide off this, and the drivers side slides out of the bracket that the nub/dowel is pictured in below.
• You don't need to pull the bolts for this bracket.

• Next is the trim piece below the rear shelf.
• Pull the plastic push pins out of the plastic trim and there will be screws underneath that hold the rear shelf in. one those are loose you release 2 push clips in the middle on either side and pull the shelf towards you and out of the car.
• You'll have to sigh the seatbelt through slots in the trim pieces, but they stay in the car.
• There are also a wire/wires to disconnect under the shelf (I had the sub and 3rd brake light)

• After that, remove the covers on the side panel to unbolt them and they will pop off.
• There were 2 clips for each panel if I remember correctly.

• Next, pull the tabs off the pilar covers and unbolt and remove.
• There are a couple of clips on the backside and the slip under they headliner at the top but are not connected.

 

• Now you can attack the grab handles in the headliner
• These are not bolted in and were super frustrating to get out.
• After popping the covers off, you have to depress the black clip on both side to release them from the roof.
• There's definitely a technique and after I got the first one, they got progressively easier.
• It was a pain and words were said...

• In the rear there are two clips that you need to remove as well.
• Same as everything else, pop the cover off and remove.

• The pillar covers pop off without removing any hardware.
• They "lock" into the headliner and the dash simultaneously so you have to gently maneuver them to free them.
• I've got the leather dash so I was especially careful and managed not to scratch anything.

• Not pictured is the removal of the trim around the mirror. It just snaps off/on.

• At this point you can drop the headliner.
• It's held by some small strips of velcro and pull straight down.
• I positioned it on the reclined seats (I reconnected the battery) and worked around it.

 

How did you drop the very rear section of the headliner. There are two retainer clips near the rear glass that I can’t figure out how to release.

 

• Here you can see the connection point of the tube and access the bolts on either side.
• They are held in by the (likely broken) tabs on both side and the motor (3 larger bolts)

• Here you can see the motor and connector that must be removed to pull out the tubes.
• there is an allen/hex hole on the motor that will move the sunroof manually (the shade has this as well)
• If your roof is open on one side you may be able to even it out with this before removal?

• Motor removed and cable exposed
• From here you unbolt everything and pull the tubes out
• Feed the cables into the new tubes (there is no orientation they just slide in)
• Bolt the tubes/motor back in.
• At that point I ran the sunroof reset procedure and operating everything a few times to make sure it worked

• Pick of rear shade after it was removed.
• You can see the "kink" in the bottom of the photo - the parts guy said this was fairly common as well. The metal strip that gives the sides strength was deformed.
• You do not get the side rails with the new shade and have to transfer them over (no big deal)
• The shade had a few bolts on either side holding it in.

• Sunroof glass I removed (NOT NECESSARY) I have to adjust it due to wind niose now.

 

como puedo quitar solo los dos motores ? me podrías ayudar porfavor

 

That's it. It took me two 3-hour days flying blindly and trying to avoid the S. FL heat. It could easily be done in 4 or less hours by a dealer tech in my opinion. I'm sure there are a few details that failed to mention, but this gives you an idea of what's involved in the project. If you are somewhat mechanically inclined and have the time to spare, I'd say go for it. I can try and answer specific questions, but it's been a few weeks and I did have a few beers during the process...

It's not a fun project, but well worth avoiding a $1k+ trip to the dealers. Take that money and buy some wheels from John4C (at least that's my plan)

The biggest thing is taking your time and being clean and careful. You don't want broken clips, or smudges and creases on your headliner from roughing things up.

 

Incredible right up, but it really burns me to think this amount of work, because some jackass had to squeeze a few cents out of a manufacturing cost.

 

Awesome job dude! Saving for future reference.

 

Do you have all the part numbers needed?

 

Part numbers and pricing from Alfa in Stuart, FL on 7-6-23

68317368aa - rear manual sunshade in grey - $339.99
68317369aa - rear manual sunshade in beige - $386.99
68466385aa - motor kit (included both motors sunroof and sunshade which are the same) - $470.99
68317624aa - sunroof shade cable tubes (this part looks almost identical to the sunroof cable tubes just "reversed" $157.99

68317365aa - sunroof cable tubes - $62.99 <-- the only part I needed to fix the sunroof issue

 

Thanks for the write up and for confirming my decision to never ever buy a car with a sunroof.

 

Thanks for also confirming for me that my purchase of my FCA MaxCare zero deductible extended warranty was the correct thing to do. (Just this week the low pressure fuel pump was replaced under my MaxCare extended warranty, at no cost to me).

 

I will never use my sunroof!!

 

Impressive writeup and a reminder for me to pull the fuse for the sunroof.

Yep, mine broke too and thankfully had the extended warranty.

 

At least the replacement part is much stronger and shouldn’t cause any failures in the future. I’m using the sunroof on my 2018 as much as I can so that it will break under warranty and get a permanent fix for it.

 

Thank you, this is going to be super helpful!

I was confused by this part here though:

• The black slot on the bottom left is the lower connection for the side cushions. Remove both side cushions.
• You can also see where the passenger side seat back is bolted in.
• Once you pull that bolt you can pull the passenger side bolt for the backrest you can pull that side out by pulling it off the dowel or pin that is on the driver's side seat back (pic below).

View attachment 146091

So after you remove the side cushions, do you unbolt the passenger side backrest from the bolthole in the square, and then pull it off the nub/dowel?

I was also confused by this:

• After that, remove the covers on the side panel to unbolt them and they will pop off.
• There were 2 clips for each panel if I remember correctly.

View attachment 146094 View attachment 146095

Which side panels are supposed to come off here? It doesn't mean the ones with the airbag, right?

 

Thank you, this is going to be super helpful!

I was confused by this part here though:

So after you remove the side cushions, do you unbolt the passenger side backrest from the bolt hole in the square, and then pull it off the nub/dowel?

Correct. Pull the side cushions, then remove the outermost bolt on the passenger side and that section of the backrest is ready to be removed from the car.

I was also confused by this:

Which side panels are supposed to come off here? It doesn't mean the ones with the airbag, right?

The tan panels that are held in by bolts that are accessed underneath the "Airbag" tabs. Those do not contain the curtain airbags (you can see where the airbags end in the last photo in post 3).

 

Thank you so much! I couldn't have fixed my sunroof without your DIY posts and help!

A few things for anyone trying it themselves:

1. Unbolt the rear sunshade (one of the two metal bars sandwiching the motors and tubes) but be very careful that you don't damage the foil that guides the sunshade onto the tracks. This will give you the room you need to pull the cable tubes and install the new ones.
2. All the roof torx screws are size 25 except for the two holding the plastic clips to the track, which are size 20. The big ones holding the rear seat backs and the seatbelts are size 50.
3. You can also loosen the forward sunshade bar on the driver's side if you need a little more room to get the sunroof tubes into place and draw the cable through. I didn't have any issues with the passenger side.
4. Make sure you check the cable track and remove any plastic debris.
5. You don't need to open up the rear seat trim or rear shelf; the headliner can just be tugged out and then pushed back in.
6. I used painter's tape to hold up the motors and sunshade bars when I was reinstalling them. It really helped a lot.
7. Use needlenose pliers are the grab handle and rear seat clips, but be careful because the metal clips used on the grab handles can be flimsy. Two of them broke, but I think that was because I had to use my nondominant hand to unclip them and was clumsy. They snapped back in with no problems though.
8. Managed to lose only 1 screw (for the side trim), but it's probably still in the car somewhere. A magnetic grabber will be very helpful when you're dropping screws from the ceiling.

I never want to do this ever again.

 

Never mind, I figured out why I couldn't just get the cables free. When you "unbolt everything" you must unbolt the rear sunshade as well. Otherwise there will not be enough clearance to remove and replace the cable guide tubes.
Now how to bolt that back on with just one person...

 

Never mind, I figured out why I couldn't just get the cables free. When you "unbolt everything" you must unbolt the rear sunshade as well. Otherwise there will not be enough clearance to remove and replace the cable guide tubes.
Now how to bolt that back on with just one person...

Hi, when you say: you must unbolt rear sunshade as well, do you mean that i need to remove rear sunshade down from roof, or it is enough to just reposition it a little to back side of car. Yesterday, I remove headliner from car, and now tonight i will proceed to replacement of tubes...

 

Hello everybody,

I want to say hi everyone at this forum I just registered.

Today I just started the same project on my Giulia. I would like to ask couple of questions before I proceed if possible.

So long story short. I had battery replacement and while they replaced battery my sunroof was left in tilted possition. So when I tried to close it down it closed all the way down but motor just kept spining indefinetly. After that nothing… I could only press close button.

So today I started to disassembly everything and I found out that both side plastics that hold metal tube are broken(not really broken they are just pushed out from plastic housing). I suppose that is main reason why sunroof is not working.

So my questions are:

Is it possible to re-weld or glue plastic housing to metal tube?

If not then replacement will be done.

Second after repair or replacement how did to reinitialise sunroof again?
I think after i replace tubes the motor will spin endlessly again haha.

Third I have also wind noise issue but only on highway over 160kmh. And i noticed if I try to pull sunroof down more with my fingers wind noise is gone. @highmileage Can you please explain me how did you fixed that.

thanks
Luka

 

Thanks a lot for posting this. I just had my cable guide break and also the dealer wanted thousands to fix. I'm going to take the plunge and do this repair, but I was wondering why is it necessary to disassemble the back seat? Can you drop the headliner w/o doing that?

 

Follow the instructions Above. The rear seat won’t come off unless the bottom one is removed. The rear seat it required to be removed in order to get the side panels off in the back in order to take off the top panel. If you can manage to get the rear seats off without the bottom seats being removed first let me know ✌

 

Does anyone know how to just get the sunroof down? I don't want to repair it right now, as I never use it anyway.

 

If you never use it, how did it open?

 

Magic

 

Thank you very much brother. I’ll charge myself free 99 to do the labor of this. Only thing is I think you left out a couple beers in each step of this . Other then that you hit the nail on the head 🙏

 

Thanks A LOT for posting this excellent tutorial. I just completed this repair (also in the summer in South Florida) and have a few comments and observations that may help others. Firstly, this job is a pain in the butt, but it's not really difficult if you're patient. What I did was I took a week and every night, I'd remove a few more components from the ceiling until it was time to remove the whole headliner. Here goes:
1. I found that to get the grab handles off, you need a small needle nose pliers. All you really have to do is stick the jaws in the holes for the grab handle and squeeze the clip together. Once you've done that, pull gently on the grab handle and if you're doing it correctly, it will come right out.

2. I didn't have to take out the back seat or even the rear pillar covers. I started at the front and took those pillar covers off first. Then I did the driver's side b-pillar cover and from there was able to lower the whole headliner without damaging it.

3. You have to remove both the front and rear shades before you can remove the sunroof tubes. I messed up here, but it's important to remember the order in which you removed them. If I remember correctly, you have to first remove the front shade, then the rear one, then the motors for the front and rear shades. Once that's done, you can swap out the sunroof tubes. Once you've replaced the likely broken tubes, you have to first reinstall the front shade, then the motors, then the rear shade. The order matters otherwise you won't be able to get everything back in properly.

Other than that, good luck!

 

Thanks A LOT for posting this excellent tutorial. I just completed this repair (also in the summer in South Florida) and have a few comments and observations that may help others. Firstly, this job is a pain in the butt, but it's not really difficult if you're patient. What I did was I took a week and every night, I'd remove a few more components from the ceiling until it was time to remove the whole headliner. Here goes:
1. I found that to get the grab handles off, you need a small needle nose pliers. All you really have to do is stick the jaws in the holes for the grab handle and squeeze the clip together. Once you've done that, pull gently on the grab handle and if you're doing it correctly, it will come right out.

2. I didn't have to take out the back seat or even the rear pillar covers. I started at the front and took those pillar covers off first. Then I did the driver's side b-pillar cover and from there was able to lower the whole headliner without damaging it.

3. You have to remove both the front and rear shades before you can remove the sunroof tubes. I messed up here, but it's important to remember the order in which you removed them. If I remember correctly, you have to first remove the front shade, then the rear one, then the motors for the front and rear shades. Once that's done, you can swap out the sunroof tubes. Once you've replaced the likely broken tubes, you have to first reinstall the front shade, then the motors, then the rear shade. The order matters otherwise you won't be able to get everything back in properly.

Other than that, good luck!

Can confirm, there's clearly no way to pull the tube out without pulling the shades.

 

I have another observation. I've seen several people post about taking their Giulias to the dealership to have the sunroof repaired and the dealer replacing the tubes, and front and rear shades. Here's my question: Why are they replacing the shades when most likely, the only thing is broken are the tubes? Are they looking to charge customers and extra $600-$800 for parts and who knows how much for labor? This seems like a rip-off to me. Thoughts?

 

It’s the way it’s written up in their manuals. They’re instructed to replace everything. I told them to only do the tubes on mine and they reluctantly obliged.

 

Some shades have been ruined by the malfunction, some not. Some Dealerships only replace what is broken. Some ream you bloody.

 

@highmileage has provided us with a wonderful write up which I'm saving for reference. It is interesting to note that it appears he replaced the rear tubes only. Is that correct? And if so, is it always the rear set of tubes that fail or are the front tubes just as likely to go?

 

I just replace the sunroof ones alone and during the calibration / initialization procedure, the sunshade ones also popped. I have to do some disassembly for the second time and to pull the tubes for the shade I had to remove the bar or cover for the shade. That tube is bolted differently (68317624aa - sunroof shade cable tubes). Did you do that ones as well? Any extra instructions?

 

My sunroof stopped working about 1 year ago, but luckily in the closed position with sunshade open. After watching weeks of YouTubers rebuilding wrecked cars, I finally got the courage to attack this project myself, because touching the headliner has always scared the sht out of me on any car.

Thanks to this thread, it took about 2 hours to drop the headliner. Did not need to remove the rear seats, just pull the screw from top of rear plastic covers and the headliner slides out.

Found the culprit quickly amd was exactly as expected. When sunroof reach full close the cable tubes came apart and motor just kept pushing cables out. Since the system thought sunroof was still open, it would not allow the sunshade to close either.

Not a fan of my nearest AR dealer and no one had these in stock online so I decided to give it a try just epoxying the tubes back together. Cleaned/degreased the plastic fitting and tube end, and then epoxied them, and reinstalled the tubes in place so they dried in correct position. Let them sit overnight. The sunshade reinstall was a PITA. Found best result if I installed the motor and manually turned it (so cables extended evenly) about 3 inches, then slide one end of the shade and cable together, then the other.

Next day I reconnected battery and then ran through the sunroof reset procedure. Sunroof and sunshade work perfectly. Also had the same kink in my rear sunshade. Used my heatgun and some massaging to smooth it back out like new. Reassembled the car (including regluing some spots of 7yr old headliner coming apart).

1 week now past and sunroof still works perfectly!

 

My advice, stop using the sunroof.