First post! woohoo

Now to business. I've got a 01 Screw with the power sunroof. Today I noticed a metal against metal banging noise over my head...not a good feeling since I've only had this truck since April 1 this year. Turns out there is a metal bar that attaches to the sunroof. You can't see this bar from inside the truck unless you look into the gap with the roof in the up position, or look down from above the truck. This bar seems to be what keeps the cloth cover inside the truck from opening up to far, as well as brings the cover back within reach when closing the sunroof after having it fulling opened...hope I'm making sense here! I've found two small screws that look like they are made to hold this bar in place, 7/32 head with a philips option. I've re-attached this bar twice the best way I can see how and everything seems to work fine until I open the sunroof. Then I experience a few problems. The cloth cover doesn't open with the roof anymore and seems to get stuck in the closed position as well. When I try to open the cover the bar falls off again and bangs around. Another thing about this bar is it has two rectanglular holes in either side. I can't figure out if these are suppose to have a purpose. Have any of you experienced this problem or can you look at your truck from above to see how this is attached? Perhaps I haven't made a lick of sense, if so I'll be more than happy if you are willing to ask me what the heck I'm talking about.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you guys can offer!

 

Is there anybody that can give me a link to a diagram of the sunroof or perhaps a close up picture of one where I can see through the glass? Anything?!?!? Second night of working on this thing and it just isn't working the way it should. Can somebody put theirs in the flipped up position and take a picture from above I so I can see down inside? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

edit: I've added two pictures. Both taken from the drivers side. Can't see as much as I had hoped in the picture as you can with the naked eye. My fear is a part has fallen off and I don't know because it's back in the roof somewhere. This is how I've re-attached the bar, and it clearly isn't working....hence my pleading for help here

 

Added one more picture, this is the bar completely removed from the sunroof. It's not in my budget to have a dealer look at this so if nobody has any clue about this problem I guess I'll just go without the sunroof working correctly. Gonna be tough since this truck isn't even two months old to me yet Thanks in advance for any link to a picture or advice...anything.

 

There is a tsb for expeditions with this problem, i dont know if it applies to screws or not. The fix is new slides for the sunshade, and a new crossbar without "slots for those little screws. If it were me, id just drill some holes a little forward of the slots, and bolt it in, it ought to work. (The rail acts as a dripchannel when you open the roof, so leaving it out is not a option...) Hope this helps....

 

Thanks for the info! I figured this was gaurd against water based on it's shape so I really wanted to get it back into place. Not to mention it seems to control the inside cloth cover when opening the roof up. I'll see what happens when I drill a few holes. What I can't seem to figure out is why the inside cover seems to get jammed up and no longer works with the sunroof when opening. If I push the "auto" button for the sunroof to open the inside cover doesn't open and seems to be hanging up on that bar. I'll fiddle with it somemore tonight. I could probably figure this out if I removed the glass but I'm afraid that once the glass is removed I'll never get it to seat right and I'll have leak problems when it's closed. Thanks again.

 

Have the same problem with my '01 S'crew. I did take off my glass...and it was no big deal at all. Finally had to use some jb weld to get the screws to hold. But so far....so good!!

 

I have been pretty busy with work and family so I was planning on working on this tomorrow or Friday. Did you have the problem with the inside cloth cover getting "hung up" on the bar when opening the sunroof? My fear is if I drill new holes or something then I'll get this hanging problem again and really be...uh...screwed because I won't be able to open the cloth and the sunroof motor isn't strong enough to force itself all the way closed again.

 

I have a '01 S'crew and have the same problem as Sharkman. Do you have to remove the headliner to fix this yourself?

 

Well, Sharkman I have not had any problems with it "catching" the cover like it is supposed to. It operates as it is supposed to now.....I have entertained the thought of drilling new holes if this thing happens again and my jb weld breaks!! I will say that the piece of metal is a "drip rail" of such....and if you get caught in the rain or car wash it will begin to leak around the handles on the pillars next to windshield. SO it would be best to avoid those circumstances if possible. But know about that family thang too! They just don't seem to understand when you have to spend time with truck!!! Good Luck!!! And yes the dealer or any aftermarket installer will charge you dearly for this. But do not hesitate to take off the glass, just be careful...they can be expensive. It was no big deal, really....this lil' girl did it just fine

 

Dang, I search, find nothing, post this THEN find your thread.

I have the EXACT same problem!

Thanks to the descriptions above, I "fixed" mine. It's a very bad design, though, and I expect to have the problem again soon

 

It's been awhile sent I asked for help on this but I wanted to let you know my final result. I got a chance to work on this last weekend and got everything working properly again. I took shedev's advice and removed the glass in order to see what was happening. The problem I was having was when I tightened up the factory screws the bar tilted forwarded and that caused it to slip past the inside cover and no longer function correctly. Since I had removed the glass I was able to drill two new holes just big enough to thread my new screws in place slightly toward the back from the original slots in the bar. I also drilled small pilot holes in the plastic I planned on attaching too. I used some VERY short sheet rock type screws with over sized heads to reattached the bar, and of course put the original screws back in place even though they really do nothing for me. The only thing I wish I had done differently was photo document the steps for anybody else having this problem. I highly recommend removing the glass if you have this problem.

 

I had the same problem with mine. I have replaced the screws several times, tried locktite, etc... I ended up removing the bar and just open and close the sun shade by hand now. My bar came lose and was stuck back behind the glass. It was a MAJOR pain removing the glass and hardware to get the bar out.

 

I'd go ahead and drill some new holes and put the bar back in. If you look at the plastic pieces that the bar rest on you will see that there is some flat area back of where the factory screws go, that is where the bar rest primarily. If you drill some holes in the bar, just big enough for the "short" screws you can find, then a smaller hole in that plastic piece as pilots you should be fine. This went off without a hitch for me and has been a very stable fix to this point. Everything works as designed and I'm a happy camper knowing my fix won't come apart....well not unless the screw back out which is unlikely. The screws I used were roughly 1/2 inch long. I also didn't have a problem removing the sunroof. I only had to remove four hex head screws, which I used my cordless drill to remove and used the torque setting on my drill to re-install, getting ever tighter to make sure I didn't strip one out. Hope this helps some.