Not sure if this is the right place for this or not, feel free to move it if need be.

I let my lovely mother borrow my 2001 4runner to take to the Oregon coast. Unfortunately she left the sunroof tilted up over night during a nice windy night and ended up blowing sand into the car and getting sand in the tracks of the sunroof. (Obviously we know what kind of problems this causes, not to mention the crunching noise it makes opening and closing)

I've done everything I can to vacuum/blow it out with a air compressor but obviously I won't get it all out unless I can take it all apart and clean it out behind the headliner.

What's the best way to go about cleaning/servicing the sunroof? I tried searching bug haven't found exactly what I'm looking for.

If I take the headliner out will I be able to get to the entire tracks of the sunroof? Even the parts where the sunroof slides all the way back into the headliner?

Thanks in advance guys.

Yes, you will be able to unplug and drop the entire sunroof assembly/tracks. From there you can remove it from the car and pull the glass and fine tune/clean the tracks and all the little crevasses that may and or probably have sand granules in it.

Edit: Its important to mention that whenever you mess around with the sunroof you run the risk of needing to have Toyota reprogram the run on it.

I've been to the Oregon coast. Not sure how fine the sand is in your Runner, but we go to Lake Mcconaughy every year. Strangely, that's some of the finest sand I've ever seen. Once a vehicle is in the sand, it never completely goes away. Just driving it and bouncing it around is the best way I've found to shake it loose.

perfect that's what I needed to know. All the other threads I read weren't very clear if I could drop the whole thing.

Is this reprogramming the run something that will cost a lot? How is it reprogrammed?


Fine enough that every time I turn on the heater the vents blows out sand. I have a feeling that I'll be vacuuming sand out for a few months.

I think they usually charge 1 hour shop labor. I would just pull your neg batt cable so it will lessen the risk that it recognizes its been disconnected. I doth know the exact process but they usual have to use their Toyota programmer and do a run test/pich test to reset it. Also, I would drop your cabin filter and make sure there isn't sand in the bottom of it that keeps slowly blowing out. Also, you can use an air compressor to push pressurized air through your vents and clear out your vents of as much as you can.

This might be a dumb question but where is the cabin filter. The other day when I was vacuuming I was trying to find it.

Cabin filter is behind the glove box. Drop the glove box and you'll see some venting that separates and there is a filter in it.

Ive not looked for it in my 4runner yet, ill look tomorrow and let you know. But, it is usually at or near the heater core. Its probably behind or near the glove compartment or in the passengers footwell area at the bottom of the heater core by the fan.

Only 2003 and up have cabin air filters. Don't know what year u have.

It's a 01. Explains why I didn't see it. Then again I didn't drop the glove box out of the way.


Today I pulled all the plastic pieces off to get the headliner out. Tomorrow I'll drop the entire sunroof. Looks like it's just a few bolts/nuts and unclip the connector and it'll be easy to drop out. Oh and also the drains need to be popped off too.

The only pain in the ass are the hand holds on the front driver and passenger side. I had to drill one out because my steering wheel was in the way for the impact driver.

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate the help.

and thats why when you have snow all over the car and turn the fan on you end up with snow up your nose