Today I went to close the sunroof and about halfway closed, a ratcheting sound came from the pulley, similar or exactly like the timing belt was jumping teeth. The sunroof stopped but could be pushed manually while operating the motor, but only to the pop-up position. Operating the mechanism manually only drives one side of the sunroof. How do I access the drive after removing the operating console? Do I have to remove the entire headliner? Is the timing belt available after-market or only from the dealer? Thanks for your help.

 

pop out the light panel( overhead control panel) and then you can see the 2 motors. one for the sunshade and one for the roof. ive replaced the motor for the same issue your having and it fixed the problem. but inorder to replace the motor you do need to remove the A pillar panels, ocp, mirror, sunvisors and grab handles. then pull down headliner pretty forcefully to accesss the 3 screws holding in each motor.

 

OK, but what does the motor drive? Is it a plastic timing belt? And is that easily changed if the teeth are broken? I'll undo everything as you stated before I purchase anything just to be sure because the motor itself does operate.

 

the cables are metal and there are 2 of them and youll have to remove the whole sunroof frame to do them and they are a real pain in the ***. something the dealer wil have to do.

 

Ok, perhaps then since there is no timing belt but a cable, the problem could be that the mechanism that moves the cable has worn. I will first access the gear drive attached to the motor itself, open the box and see if there is anything worn or caught in the drive. Even when operating the mechanism using the hand crank, the drive "jumps", just like it does under power, but of course more slowly. That is why I suspect there is something caught either in the cable drive box or somewhere else in the cable track. Do you know of any parts diagrams showing an exploded view of the assembly?

 

Chassis: After removing the three screws to the motor, does the motor simply come right off? Can you explain when I mount new motor how to align gears from new motor to whatever gear component it contacts from the guide tube (the worm gear perhaps)? Is it a simple matter of just screwing in the new motor and the gears simply meet at the correct position when installed and tightened?
Thanks

 

my sunroof symptoms sound exactly like yours. did the new motor fix the problem or was major surgery involved? this whole thing sounds very expensive.