Sunroof repair - quick Qs I think

PopsRacer · 03-12-2025, 10:17 AM

Thanks to some great posts here I was able to remove my completely jammed sunroof and start looking at whats going on. The PS cable pulled out of the sliding bracket it is crimped into. I was able to open up the hole with a drill bit, stick the cable back in and re-crimp it.
But…
I think someone has been in here before because I *think* I have 964 cables? And if so they not only didn’t remove the felt but they also greased them. I have never seen the original cables so I am not 100% sure. (pic of what I’ve got) if they are the 964 cables I need to remove them fully and get all of the felt out as well as de-grease them?

I removed both guide rails and used degreaser and a toothbrush to clean them up but the tubes in back are probably nasty. The cables move but feel stiffer than I would expect. Is there a decent way to clean them in the car or should I just remove them?

PopsRacer · 03-12-2025, 01:06 PM

i uploaded a pic of the cable I’ve got, the URL was added to the post but it doesn’t seem to have showed up. Is this a timing thing (waiting for approval?) or ?

JSV798 · JSV798's Garage

I replaced the cables on my car back in 2008. It's the plastic bit that breaks and the replacement are cables for 964. There is a a "How to" article on this. Out of the box the 964 cables are too big and have to be filed down slightly but they are the only ones available. I didn't know that they were 964 cables at the time but could see they needed filing down to get a fit. These later ones are all metal so should last longer than the original. Maybe the slider part in your cables need a bit more filing? Suggest you read the "How to" article on replacing sunroof cables.

Roy

PopsRacer · 03-13-2025, 01:38 PM

Thanks, I did read the how tos (several very good ones!) and none have a pic of the old style cables vs the 964 cables which is the core of my Q. I tried to post a pic of the cables i have but maybe this site doesn't like my browser? No idea.

Did the original cables have no felt at all (just steel wrapped around steel?) before I pull the thing all apart and remove whatever fuzz there is I just want to make sure. I dont have plastic bits on the end, I have steel 'sliders' that bolt to the sunroof, and the cable is crimped into a tube on the side of them. I hope that makes sense. Thanks!

PopsRacer · 03-13-2025, 02:22 PM

PopsRacer · 03-13-2025, 02:24 PM

this is the cable I’ve got in the car. It looks like the picture of the 964 cable in the catalog. I am trying to confirm that I need to get all of that felt out of it, and degrease it before I make anything worse.

john walker's workshop · 03-13-2025, 06:53 PM

Yes and yes, if you have the original polished guides. Doesn't look like the 964 cables have been ground down to fit the polished guides, so they must have used shortened 964 guides, which was a dealer suggestion. In that case just degrease and leave the fuzz

PopsRacer · 03-14-2025, 08:47 AM

Hi - thanks! I have black annodized tracks/guides, so I guess that is the 964 part(?). I found a Joe Engineer video which seems to confirm that these are 964 cables as well (he shows both styles) so if these cable ends/glides have not been ground down I will just remove and degrease and leave the fuzz. I was surprised to see the car he was working on had plain aluminum guides.

Do you know of a good diagram that shows where all of the parts go on the sunroof panel? For ex, I have 2 plastic guides in teh panel, the parts catalog shows one in the drawing (#49) but then lists them as Q4 (as does Pelican) no idea where the other 2 go. Ditto the felt strips. They are all missing (1 long, 2 short) I think the short ones go under the front of the tracks? Does the long one go under the air deflector?

PopsRacer · 03-15-2025, 01:46 PM

one other note - the 3M super trim adhesive (pn: 08090) was listed as “cannot be sold” at my local auto parts shop. It didn’t have a superceded number. Never seen that flag on a part or whatever. Luckily the guy found it at another warehouse and was able to get a bottle for me. Pricey, but just happy to have the right stuff to install new seals. If you are planning on doing this work you may want to grab a bottle sooner than later if it may become hard to get. jm2c.

PopsRacer · 03-31-2025, 08:12 AM

Just to close the loop, I went with the black adhesive in a tube, just seemed simpler to use for me. A little messy but it works.

I wound up removing all of the felt from the cables as it was in bad shape, just disintegrating. Used a dental pick, a brass brush, degreaser and lots of scrubbing for the bad stuff (some of it came off intact) I also scrubbed out the guide tubes and the main guides. McMaster Carr has long brushes that are great for this, along with lots of hot water and purple zep. Someone in the past had really glopped on the grease and it did not go well.

For the 3 wide felt strips, the long one has holes in it to go under the wind deflector. I stuck it to the car, not the deflector. I put the two short ones up near the front of the rails (as per the parts drawing) They were missing completely on my car (just some of the fun missing parts…) so I took a guess. In hindsight I wonder if they go towards the rear of the rails since the roof curves downwards (?) idk. I couldn’t find any answers to where they go or pics, just people asking questions.
Are they there to prevent rattles or cut down on wind noise?

The one pro tip I came away with as a tallish guy is to remove the driver’s seat when you’re doing this work. It was *much* easier to get comfortable. (6’2 here)

Net net, the front is a tiny bit high, probably the felt… and the rear doesn’t always come fully up by itself so I have some tweaking to do. Overall my first seal job isn’t too bad. My front corners snuck up a little which is a bummer so I’ll get to fix them sometime in the future. But for now its fine. What a huge help to have these boards to see what other folks ran into and how they dealt with it!