Sunroof repair

[TobyU]

I would probably give up on it too, I'm not a fan of them anyway. You can see treetops from inside and they light up the console........big deal. Plus everyone looks at you more because you are all lit up.

Yes! I have to have the shade closed on mine all the time. I can't stand the light from the sun in the daytime and don't really like it at night either with the traffic lights and all that flash flash flash. I can't stand to have a moonroof open when it's warm out because it's just more comfortable with the AC on. I'm spoiled. The only time I enjoy a moonroof is at night time when it's cool and humid I like to leave it open even on road trips.
I just picked up a super clean Escalade a couple of months ago and drove it on a 3.5 hour trip up near Akron Ohio at night time and had the roof open the entire time.

 

[07navi]

Yes! I have to have the shade closed on mine all the time. I can't stand the light from the sun in the daytime and don't really like it at night either with the traffic lights and all that flash flash flash. I can't stand to have a moonroof open when it's warm out because it's just more comfortable with the AC on. I'm spoiled. The only time I enjoy a moonroof is at night time when it's cool and humid I like to leave it open even on road trips.
I just picked up a super clean Escalade a couple of months ago and drove it on a 3.5 hour trip up near Akron Ohio at night time and had the roof open the entire time.

I will have to try that, otherwise it stays closed.

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

Man up and fix it..........lol

I always looks at these things in terms of opportunity cost. If the job takes me 6 hours, that's $750+ worth of my time. To keep my truck running that's absolutely worth it. For a little extra airflow above me, nope.

 

[TobyU]

I always looks at these things in terms of opportunity cost. If the job takes me 6 hours, that's $750+ worth of my time. To keep my truck running that's absolutely worth it. For a little extra airflow above me, nope.

Nope. That's just one way to rationalize things out. I've heard it before, probably on this exact Forum about people doing brakes and stuff and working on their own vehicles. Saying that their time is worth far more because they make so much at work that it would be stupid not to just go ahead and pay the money to get their vehicle fixed.

We all rationalize things and make justifications to make ourselves feel better. I pretty much stopped doing it a long time ago. I just decided I don't need to make myself feel better. I'll just feel ******. Whether or not I fix my car or spend the money to get it fixed, I'll just still feel ******.

On the paying for your car repaired thing I tell these people... I'm not saying it's take off work Thursday and lose hundreds of dollars from all that gigantic salary they make just to save two hundred bucks labor in fixing their car. I mean do it instead of doing a couple of hours of whatever other leisurely activity or killing time, wasting time, sleeping, sitting in front of the TV Etc you do on your time off. Nobody works that much!

But in this case, of it just not being worth your time to spend five or six hours to get some air flow above your head tala. I can completely understand that!
I can even go one step better and refuse to buy vehicles with sunroofs because they WILL eventually leak or stop opening or closing correctly.
But if I have one, and if it messes up, I will get it shut or RTV it shut and never worry about it again. It's not that my time is worth so much more then the working sunroof it's just that I'm that freaking lazy.
I have plenty of more important more pressing things to do. But I'm okay with saying I'm too lazy. Doesn't bother me a bit.

 

[07navi]

Not a moon/sun roof fan but I think everybody has to weigh out whether to fix it, have it fixed, or forget it.. It all depends on a lot of things; How good are you at fixing cars, will it hurt the selling value, does your girlfriend/wife demand that it gets fixed, is your uncle a mechanic and owes you one, are you totally pressed for time, does your elbow hurt, the list goes on.

 

[TobyU]

Not a moon/sun roof fan but I think everybody has to weigh out whether to fix it, have it fixed, or forget it.. It all depends on a lot of things; How good are you at fixing cars, will it hurt the selling value, does your girlfriend/wife demand that it gets fixed, is your uncle a mechanic and owes you one, are you totally pressed for time, does your elbow hurt, the list goes on.

True, it's just that when people start talking about value on time or cost per hour that's obviously just nitpicking and rationalizing.
Everyone has to make a decision whether or not doing anything they do is worth doing it and I find that plenty of things are not worth doing that is why I am the king of procrastination. Procrastination is an art form.
Some things that are quite easy to do but only take some time... I eventually will choose to do instead of wasting some time doing something else or when I would be doing nothing anyways.
No one is always busy! Everyone has some time off or they could simply get up an hour or two early to make extra time but most people hang out at a club, meet up with friends and socialize, or watch TV wasting many hours per week.
So while I may be able to make more productive use of my time by fixing something... Sometimes I'm just too lazy and would rather not.
Yes, I've got the time to I just don't want to do it and I'm okay with admitting that. I don't need to say that I'm far too busy making x amount per hour to take off time and not make the money just to fix something.
People have the time to do things in the time frames that they're not going to be making money anyways.
Heck! Look at all the time people spend cutting their grass and doing lawn care and mulching and stuff! I say let all that crap slide or put half as much time into it or wait twice as long between times to do it. That gives you a lot of extra time right there!
But see it's priorities! I put little priority on mowing grass and bull crap like that.
In The Cutting season, I mow it every 15 to 24 days whether it needs it or not! Wait! That's not accurate. If it doesn't really, really need it I don't even mow it then.
I'd rather do other things but not hard car repairs. Just easy ones. The hard ones I put off forever also.
See... Judgement calls, rationalization, laziness... I think most all of us do it.

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

Nope. That's just one way to rationalize things out. I've heard it before, probably on this exact Forum about people doing brakes and stuff and working on their own vehicles. Saying that their time is worth far more because they make so much at work that it would be stupid not to just go ahead and pay the money to get their vehicle fixed.

We all rationalize things and make justifications to make ourselves feel better. I pretty much stopped doing it a long time ago. I just decided I don't need to make myself feel better. I'll just feel ******. Whether or not I fix my car or spend the money to get it fixed, I'll just still feel ******.

On the paying for your car repaired thing I tell these people... I'm not saying it's take off work Thursday and lose hundreds of dollars from all that gigantic salary they make just to save two hundred bucks labor in fixing their car. I mean do it instead of doing a couple of hours of whatever other leisurely activity or killing time, wasting time, sleeping, sitting in front of the TV Etc you do on your time off. Nobody works that much!

But in this case, of it just not being worth your time to spend five or six hours to get some air flow above your head tala. I can completely understand that!
I can even go one step better and refuse to buy vehicles with sunroofs because they WILL eventually leak or stop opening or closing correctly.
But if I have one, and if it messes up, I will get it shut or RTV it shut and never worry about it again. It's not that my time is worth so much more then the working sunroof it's just that I'm that freaking lazy.
I have plenty of more important more pressing things to do. But I'm okay with saying I'm too lazy. Doesn't bother me a bit.

I have a FT job. When I am not working that job, my free time is split between leisure and a small business (for which I get paid at least $125/hr). The time for myself and my family is already spread extremely thin and I sure as hell don't have an entire day's worth of time to take from it, so any large jobs (like replacing the sunroof track) would be done during time I would otherwise spend doing that second job. The job also requires my truck, so I can't just do a little bit of the job here and there like I would when working on the house, etc. Regardless, it is always a matter of: "How much is my time worth?" Sometimes I do my own brakes and other times - if shit is really hectic - I'll just pay the local shop the $75 to do it for me. If you enjoy doing this stuff, that's an entirely different animal.

 

[07navi]

True, it's just that when people start talking about value on time or cost per hour that's obviously just nitpicking and rationalizing.
Everyone has to make a decision whether or not doing anything they do is worth doing it and I find that plenty of things are not worth doing that is why I am the king of procrastination. Procrastination is an art form.
Some things that are quite easy to do but only take some time... I eventually will choose to do instead of wasting some time doing something else or when I would be doing nothing anyways.
No one is always busy! Everyone has some time off or they could simply get up an hour or two early to make extra time but most people hang out at a club, meet up with friends and socialize, or watch TV wasting many hours per week.
So while I may be able to make more productive use of my time by fixing something... Sometimes I'm just too lazy and would rather not.
Yes, I've got the time to I just don't want to do it and I'm okay with admitting that. I don't need to say that I'm far too busy making x amount per hour to take off time and not make the money just to fix something.
People have the time to do things in the time frames that they're not going to be making money anyways.
Heck! Look at all the time people spend cutting their grass and doing lawn care and mulching and stuff! I say let all that crap slide or put half as much time into it or wait twice as long between times to do it. That gives you a lot of extra time right there!
But see it's priorities! I put little priority on mowing grass and bull crap like that.
In The Cutting season, I mow it every 15 to 24 days whether it needs it or not! Wait! That's not accurate. If it doesn't really, really need it I don't even mow it then.
I'd rather do other things but not hard car repairs. Just easy ones. The hard ones I put off forever also.
See... Judgement calls, rationalization, laziness... I think most all of us do it.

No I am the king of procrastination.

 

[TobyU]

No I am the king of procrastination.

No Sir! You are not. Lol

Maybe we both hit the top tier.

 

[69Rustang]

Our 2014 Expedition dealt the broken moonroof to us a year and a half ago. Fortunately we had an extended warranty that covered it. Rarely used and I wouldn’t have bought the option, but at the time we wanted Nav, so with that you get the Moonroof. Fast forward to last month and the 2014 is totaled, we buy a replacement with...the stupid moonroof. Is the moonroof still the same crap design through the entire 2009-2017 series or did Ford get a better idea and improve it over the production run? Lubing the track and seals is a great idea, it just means I have to open the darn thing and put myself at risk.

 

[oldpaddy]

Just did mine a couple weeks ago...took about 10 hrs, had to remove DVD player and all seat belts..there is a re initialization process for the sunroof motor once reinstalled. Parts were only 120 bucks..Sucks but way better than 2500 quoted by the stealership.View attachment 31704 View attachment 31705 View attachment 31706 Good Luck!

Mine broke a year ago. Tiny plastic pieces of the track fell out one day and I had a devil of a time closing it. Your photographs and description is exactly why I haven't fixed it.

 

[Dennis_H]

My son has an Escape and the plastic parts broke also. Looked at the repair and got it closed up, RTV'd, and switch disconnected.

 

[Fasttimes]

Finally got over my procrastination and dread of doing this job after buying a repair kit in Sep of last year and did this job over the weekend. I had purchased a cheaper knock-off kit from Amazon not wanting to pay the Sunroof Doctor kit price. This may come back to haunt me, but we'll see. Thinking of selling the truck, so needed to cross this off the "need to fix" list.

Taking my time it took about 11 hrs. Would have been quicker had I not been wrapping up the job and putting the glass back on the car and remembering I did not re-attach the 4 drain tubes and had to partially take back down the headliner.

No pics here but from the posts previous pics you can see how it looks. The video seen on Youtube is what is needed. It's on an F-150 so there are some slight changes for an Expy, but it's pretty obvious. You'll definitely need an extra set of hands a few times, putting down the headliner and putting down the sunroof assembly, and of course in reverse.

Honestly other than your time, it's not that difficult. It looks intimidating with all these interior trim parts removed and the headliner laying in the car, but it's all simple stuff. As long as you got the tools it goes pretty smoothly.

Now, here's where I wish I hadn't gotten the knock-off kit. It came with no instructions and what looked like regular automotive grease in comparison to the Sunroof Dr kit has instructions I believe and the grease they have is white in color (maybe lithium). For the most part, the pieces looked the same as what came out of the car. But when I was all said and done and inserted back the sunroof glass with the 4 torx screws it seems to sit just a little lower than before. As much as I tried adjusting the height of the glass I couldn't get it to an ideal state flush with the roof at all 4 corners. I ultimately had to nudge it up with the "tilt_up" button to get a better seal. Now I don't know if this is because the kit is cheap or my installation missed something, but now I'm wondering what happened. Water tests had no leaking, but I don't see my self opening this sucker any time soon.

Now on to the dreaded lower blend door actuator. Not looking forward to this one either.

 

[tommyddsr]

And this is why I will never own a car or truck with a sunroof. That and I find them kinda useless.....

 

[RobE]

My sunroof stopped working. I forced it close to the sound of crunching plastic, then pulled the fuse. I like to open the shade occasionally, but rarely open the sunroof. I use the rear wing windows and roll down the side windows. I have the replacement part, but I may never install it.

 

[Aspen03]

Oddly, the expedition is the first vehicle I've owned in about 15 years without a sunroof. I've never had a problem with one. One of the cars was even older than my expy. I find them nice at times, it vents the heat out in a hurry when it's miserably hot outside and gives you a sense of freedom on long drives. Our navigator has one and it helps to brighten the inside with the shade open, having a black interior and all.

 

[oldpaddy]

I liked having a sunroof. I used it all the time.

 

[Boostedbus]

I haven’t had any trouble with my sunroof in the Expy yet. I did however have one in a 79 XR7 Cougar that dumped a crap load of water right on my head when the drains clogged once. I also had a sunroof on my 88 XR7 Cougar that was trouble free as well. So far I’m 2 for 3 with no troubles. My 69 Cougar Eliminator doesn’t have a sun roof like my other 2 cats had. Only the Hertz rent-a-racer Eliminators had sunroofs...... actually all of them were ordered with sunroofs, but no big blocks. I’ll take my big block over the sunroof all day long.

 

[Boostedbus]

Actually I lied.....I’m 3 for 4 trouble free Ford/Mercury sunroofs, I had one in an 88 Bronco 2 that I forgot about. It sucks getting old and forgetful!

 

[Aspen03]

My first car was an 84 thunderbird elan and had one, never failed me. It also had a perfectly functioning digital dash despite me getting it at 14 years old and 165k. Bought it for $700 with an EGR issue and severely needed a "tuneup".