[LukaCrc]

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

 

[58Caddy]

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.

My sunroof did the usual "stuck open on one side" thing and the dealer charged me for 5 hours. They quoted me at $3000+ to completely fix the sunroof, so I asked to just close it so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Thinking now I may have been well over charged.

Thanks for the write-up. I'll need to pull mine apart eventually and fix it, but it's not a major priority right now.

 

[jmaric]

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...

 

[cgivre]

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?

 

[NRob]

My sunroof did the usual "stuck open on one side" thing and the dealer charged me for 5 hours. They quoted me at $3000+ to completely fix the sunroof, so I asked to just close it so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Thinking now I may have been well over charged.

Thanks for the write-up. I'll need to pull mine apart eventually and fix it, but it's not a major priority right now.

how much did they charge you just to close it? I don't care about fixing it, I just want it closed because it's hot as hell here right now!

 

[NRob]

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.

 

[AlfaAndy]

If you never use it, how did it open?

 

[IrishVkng]

• 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...

View attachment 146099 View attachment 146100

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

View attachment 146101

• 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.

View attachment 146102

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

View attachment 146103 View attachment 146109

• 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.

View attachment 146111 View attachment 146112

Amazing write up. Thanks!

 

[Turtle]

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 🙏

 

[Turtle]

If you never use it, how did it open?

Magic

 

[Turtle]

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 ✌

 

[cgivre]

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!

 

[cgivre]

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?

 

[AlfaAndy]

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

 

[alfan]

@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?

 

[fernando16]

• 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)

View attachment 146120

• 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?

View attachment 146114 View attachment 146115

• 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

View attachment 146117

• 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.

View attachment 146118

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

View attachment 146119

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

 

[RXtreme8]

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!

 

[AlfaAndy]

My advice, stop using the sunroof.

 

[stillhomeless]

can you remove and replace just the cracked plastic piece ? Lets say you had it re-made by a machine shop or something ?

 

[AlfaAndy]

Alfa is now supplying separate parts for the sunroof. My local dealer stocks some of them.