has anyone ever replaced their sunroof motor?

[BrianSD_42]

Hi,

My sunroof motor is basically non-functional. It has been slowly dying for a while now. The actual sunroof works fine, it is just the small motor that is located above the map lights/switches.

The Toyota part supposedly costs $330 :wtf:


I don't want to spend that much so my only hope is to find one from a recent wreck or used.


ANY IDEAS???

:bat:

 

[Singtoe]

I have one, that works great. $40 shipped to Cali.

 

[BrianSD_42]

PM on its way!

 

[tallhouse]

3rd generation sunroof motor limit relay

Seeking a 2001 sunroof motor and relays. My roof will not open or tilt.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I have COBs sitting in my garage. I should probably install it soon since summer is almost here.

Unfortunately I will have to drop the ceiling and that will take 2-3 hours.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Anyone have a DIY guide for this job? Is dropping the headliner 100% necessary or can it be done by just dropping the map lights, etc?

 

[BrianSD_42]

[MENTION=6721]4running[/MENTION]Daily told me it is not necessary to drop the headliner.

I admit I've been lazy; I still have my replacement motor sitting in the garage.

I think I have a link somewhere that shows how to do this.

 

[BrianSD_42]

BOOM !!!!!



http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/148512-3rd-gen-toyota-4runner-moonroof-disable-mod.html


:thumb3:

 

[SCHUNTER1969]

Need a Motor!

Does anybody have the sunroof motor that would sell?

 

[volkinator]

Does anybody have the sunroof motor that would sell?

I've actually got one. I'll put it up in my FS thread, send me a PM if ya want

 

[brian4t]

Hi,

My sunroof motor is basically non-functional. It has been slowly dying for a while now. The actual sunroof works fine, it is just the small motor that is located above the map lights/switches.

The Toyota part supposedly costs $330 :wtf:


I don't want to spend that much so my only hope is to find one from a recent wreck or used.


ANY IDEAS???

:bat:

I got this wrong on mine. Thought the motor was going out and bought a new one. Turns out it was the factory grease that had gotten old and was gumming up the rail and more importantly the tubes the sun roof wires ran. Got to pull the whole headliner, take about the sunroof and clean out those tubes. Same motor back in and sunroof is good as new. You may already know your motor is bad but if you're looking to speed up the roof this would be a 2 part process. New motor and cleaning out the tubes.

 

[SCHUNTER1969]

Sunroof fix

Ok so I went to a local pull a part and got a new sunroof motor. I bench tested it before installing it and it worked great. Installed the new motor and still nothing...

So I started doing some more digging. With the motor taken off the sunroof should move freely. Well mine would not at all! Now when you take your motor off you can see where the motor gear goes into a little box where you can see two cables. I disassembled the box and found 4 copper tubing's, 2 on each side. There is a cable for the left track and a cable for the right track. You can pull on the cable and they will come out, the excess cable goes into one copper tubing while the other end goes to the track (hard to explain you would just have to see it.). I took some pliers and tried moving a cable manually and my left side of the sunroof moved, but the right side was locked up. I saw the cables were looking in rough shape so I decided what the heck I will tear this thing out and restore it.

1)So to do that i had to drop my liner (needed cleaning anyways).

2)Inside your 4runner looking up at the sunroof there is a plastic piece on each side of the sunroof, not front and back but left and right. I took a small knife and popped these off. This gives you access to the 4 bolts that have the actual window secured to the sunroof rail. Take the nuts off and push your window up off to the side. Move the window out of the way in a secure spot.

3)You will see 4 clear rubber tubes connected to your rail system. Take those off.

4)For the map light over the passenger seats there is a wire is held up by two clips on the sunroof rail, pull the clip down carefully and work the wire out of both clips.

5)Now you can drop your sunroof railing system. It would help if you had an extra person helping you because the rail system itself is bigger than what you think. There are several bolts all around the sunroof, take your time and be careful.

6)Put on a table preferably waist high. I took pictures of everything to remember how to re-assemble. Be careful there are A LOT OF PLASTIC PIECES and other pieces that can break! Slowly take the entire thing apart, mark what pieces go were and track everything.

7)I got to the last bit and found that one cable was completely seized. I had to soak it in WD40 for a day, can back and after a lot of cursing, banging, and swearing I got the cable to come out of the copper tube.

Now the cable is a steel cable with a spring like coil around it (that is what the gear in the motor grips) and then there is a plastic coating.

On my cables the plastic coating was gone or getting there. I think the shredding plastic coating caused the cables to jam. Because the plastic was still coming off I decided to removed all the plastic off the cable. To replace the cable is $130 a piece, which is crazy. I think the plastic coating is to prevent rust.

Once I got the cables cleaned of the plastic coating I soaked in WD-40 for another day, then came back with a steel brush and cleaned these things until they shined. And then I soaked them with White Lithium Grease.

8)Clean all the parts, coat everything in White Lithium Grease, re-assemble.

The big thing with a sunroof is maintenance. It is good practice to clean your drains regularly, especially if you go muddin' like I do! Retract the sunroof (exposing the rails) and spray white lithium grease on every part of the sunroof mechanism.

I know this sounds like a lot of work. I don't care what people say on here I like my sunroof and use it for :AK47: . This was a bigger project that what I expected going into it but when your sunroof is stuck open, you have to do what you got to do.

 

[volkinator]

Ok so I went to a local pull a part and got a new sunroof motor. I bench tested it before installing it and it worked great. Installed the new motor and still nothing...

So I started doing some more digging. With the motor taken off the sunroof should move freely. Well mine would not at all! Now when you take your motor off you can see where the motor gear goes into a little box where you can see two cables. I disassembled the box and found 4 copper tubing's, 2 on each side. There is a cable for the left track and a cable for the right track. You can pull on the cable and they will come out, the excess cable goes into one copper tubing while the other end goes to the track (hard to explain you would just have to see it.). I took some pliers and tried moving a cable manually and my left side of the sunroof moved, but the right side was locked up. I saw the cables were looking in rough shape so I decided what the heck I will tear this thing out and restore it.

1)So to do that i had to drop my liner (needed cleaning anyways).

2)Inside your 4runner looking up at the sunroof there is a plastic piece on each side of the sunroof, not front and back but left and right. I took a small knife and popped these off. This gives you access to the 4 bolts that have the actual window secured to the sunroof rail. Take the nuts off and push your window up off to the side. Move the window out of the way in a secure spot.

3)You will see 4 clear rubber tubes connected to your rail system. Take those off.

4)For the map light over the passenger seats there is a wire is held up by two clips on the sunroof rail, pull the clip down carefully and work the wire out of both clips.

5)Now you can drop your sunroof railing system. It would help if you had an extra person helping you because the rail system itself is bigger than what you think. There are several bolts all around the sunroof, take your time and be careful.

6)Put on a table preferably waist high. I took pictures of everything to remember how to re-assemble. Be careful there are A LOT OF PLASTIC PIECES and other pieces that can break! Slowly take the entire thing apart, mark what pieces go were and track everything.

7)I got to the last bit and found that one cable was completely seized. I had to soak it in WD40 for a day, can back and after a lot of cursing, banging, and swearing I got the cable to come out of the copper tube.

Now the cable is a steel cable with a spring like coil around it (that is what the gear in the motor grips) and then there is a plastic coating.

On my cables the plastic coating was gone or getting there. I think the shredding plastic coating caused the cables to jam. Because the plastic was still coming off I decided to removed all the plastic off the cable. To replace the cable is $130 a piece, which is crazy. I think the plastic coating is to prevent rust.

Once I got the cables cleaned of the plastic coating I soaked in WD-40 for another day, then came back with a steel brush and cleaned these things until they shined. And then I soaked them with White Lithium Grease.

8)Clean all the parts, coat everything in White Lithium Grease, re-assemble.

This is awesome! I've got a second assembly that I'll do this to as well! Hopefully get some pictures along the way as well and make a write-up for others. This is an all too common occurrence on these! Glad you got it all back! And thanks for bringing this info!

 

[SCHUNTER1969]

Sunroof fix

No problem.

I would really advise taking the plastic coating off. I am going to lubricate the rail once a month to prevent the cable from rusting.

Regardless if you lubricate the rail or not the plastic coating will break off after repeated use. The loose plastic pieces will get jammed in the copper tubbing and cause problems eventually. The sunroof motor gear is metal. Metal vs plastic, metal will when every time.

 

[AlwaysOffLine]

4Runner Sunroof motor - HELP NEEDED!!

Hi there!

I JUST got through disassembling and then reassembling my '96 4Runner sunroof. Yes, you need to take out the headliner, which only takes about an hour if everything goes well. Taking out the sunroof assembly and dissecting it takes another 2 hours, if again everything works right. I wire brushed the coating off the cables, regreased the heck out of everything, and reassembled. The cables, as per many other posts, were all gunked up and wouldn't budge before I stripped them down.

PROBLEM: Now that I reinstalled it, and powered it up, it seems the motor is out of sync with the window... so much, that when I hit the "Tilt" button, the window slides back about 3 inches, and when I hit the "Slide" button, it closes and tilts upwards.... ARRGGH!!

ANYONE know how to calibrate/synchronize the motor with the actual window position??? HELP!!!

 

[Johnnie]

I just took the motor out of my 99 I removed the motor from the gearbox and the brushes were shot, I could bang on the ceiling to get it to close. I would love to get just the brushes. any ideas ?

 

[neokhz]

Thank you for the right up. I am going to save this for when I tackle mine which is locked up as well.

 

[SCHUNTER1969]

Re

You probably reassembled the tracks wrong and when engaging the motor the tracks do not have the correct path.

 

[bkw]

Hi there!

I JUST got through disassembling and then reassembling my '96 4Runner sunroof. Yes, you need to take out the headliner, which only takes about an hour if everything goes well. Taking out the sunroof assembly and dissecting it takes another 2 hours, if again everything works right. I wire brushed the coating off the cables, regreased the heck out of everything, and reassembled. The cables, as per many other posts, were all gunked up and wouldn't budge before I stripped them down.

PROBLEM: Now that I reinstalled it, and powered it up, it seems the motor is out of sync with the window... so much, that when I hit the "Tilt" button, the window slides back about 3 inches, and when I hit the "Slide" button, it closes and tilts upwards.... ARRGGH!!

ANYONE know how to calibrate/synchronize the motor with the actual window position??? HELP!!!

First, get the window into the parked position however you can, or as close as you can.

Expose the motor (pull the headliner off). Pull the motor assembly off the track, leave wires attached. Reconnect the switch panel to the hanging wires. Use the tilt and slide buttons to run the motor and observe the pattern:

Tilt ----- Parked ---- slide 1/2 ---- slide end.

Both tilt and slide buttons just run the same motor. The only difference between tilt and slide is just crossing over a certain imaginary point along the track, marked "parked" above.
When the motor is one one side of the parked point, only the slide button works and the tilt button does nothing.
On the other side of the point, only the tilt button works and the slide buttons are ignored.
Also when you are sliding from parked to open, the motor runs in one continuous run from parked to open as long as you hold the button, until the end of the run. It stops on it's own even though there is nothing stopping it. But when sliding from open to closed, it stops at the half way point and you have to release and press slide forward again, and it runs the remaining half way to the parked position.

Run the motor through all those positions a few times and get the pattern and figure out where you "are" at any given time.

Now just put the motor in the parked position.

Then put the window in the parked/closed position. Manually move the tracks. pay attention to how level it is from left to right.

Put the motor back on the track.
Run the window through all positions and look for even levelness from left to right, look that it parks closed in the right spot, centered in the roof opening. That it doesn't seem to be straining trying to go beyond te stops at either end. If it needs adjustment, just park it, pull the motor, nudge one or the othe track a tooth or two by using a flat head screw driver in the hole where the motor gear normally goes. Put the motor back in and test again.

Then just put the headliner back.

 

[Mammoth Man]

Sunroof Motor For Sale

In case anybody is in the market for a sunroof motor, I have two that I'd be willing to sell. I have the problem where the tracks and cables are all gunked up and I decided I don't care enough to fix it. I have tested them and they both work fine. Located in Redondo Beach, CA. PM me if you're interested.