Civic EG

My moonroof seems sluggish, it makes a very tiresome sound when moving forward or back, and I've noticed that one side seems to usually lag behind the other, creating difficulties.

I've put some lube on the tracks but that didn't seem to help, has anyone ever done anything to their moonroof to help this? Or heard or seen anything done? I would suspect the motor is just getting tired but I'm not sure how to explain the one side lagging...

BAXTER_EJ1 wrote:lube

And I clicked this thread thinking someone posted something useful

I have the same problem with mine, I took it to a shop and they told me that it was lagging from one side because the tracks are dirty. I went home and took it apart and clean it and now is working a lot better.
It's still sluggish but now it doesn't lag from the sides. The sluggish can be fix by replacing a washer on the motor, I don't know if this really fix it because I haven't done that but that's how you fix it according to the manual. I still need to buy the arms that pushes up the glass and the springs so that part is on my future plans.

I cleaned and lubed up my badboy, slides back and forth soooooo easily now, no funny noises either

Oh, geez, well thanks lol. I have no idea how I'd begin taking it apart but at least that gives me somewhere to begin.

You can "lube" it up all you want, but that doesn't change how dirty the thing really is.
I'm actually in the middle of a serious moonroof rebuild myself. It wouldn't open or close properly without a lot of manhandling, so last night i took the entire thing out of the car and broke it down into it's most basic components. I found the problem, it seems to be wear on a plastic part that controls the timing between lifting and sliding back (should have been metal damnit ). But really, it's basically a disgusting mess of old grease and dust and sticky-icky in there after 13 years of neglect. Tonight i'm going to degrease and re"lube" every piece before reassembly.
After getting the thing completely disassembled, I think i can safely say that if your roof lifts correctly, slides correctly and closes without help, you're in good shape. If you're in the mood for a 5-6 hour project, you can improve it's performance dramatically and extend it's life by taking it out, breaking it down, cleaning it, lubricating it and putting it back together.

@ Baxter_EJ1:
If i'm feeling really patient, i'll take pictures of the whole process as i put it back together within the next couple of days. As it stands right now i've got a moonroof in the car that works with a lot less help than the last one and keeps the weather out (no blue tarp for me ) so i'm not in any real rush.
Basically if you are serious about it plan for a whole day of work. You will have to remove the seats, unhitch your seatbelts at the top, then take out the interior trim starting with the plastic that forms the rear armrests and windowsills. Next remove the plastic that forms a frame around the rearwindows, then pop off the a-pillar trim just enough to get the headliner (big flat piece covering the roof) out of the car (the a-pillar trim doesn't need to come all the way out). Now that your car is completely gutted you can remove your moonroof and get reallllly dirty. If you choose to take the thing completely apart (recommended for best sliding action) pay careful attention to how things came apart and try to keep all the various fasteners, brackets, etc. organized so as to avoid confusion when you put them back together. Degrease EVERYTHING and lube parts appropriately as you put them back together (dry lube for plastic on plastic, fresh grease for parts that slide on rails, NO wd40 please!) and repeat the entire procedure in reverse.
Sound like fun? it is, if you've got the time to waste...
I'll let you know how my reassembly goes, and see if i can get a how-to with pics put together in the next week or so.

MUCH appreciated!!!

Ill give you a working one if you collect it

feel patient and put up some pics , although there's a lot of people here that don't have moonroofs, some do and it'll be a great DIY to add to our collection.

about the little piece of plastic a guy from a shop told me that he could make them in metal. I'm calling this week to know, my roof is all scratch up from the glass when i slide it all the way back.

Yeah i hear ya, I know how much i would've appreciated a how-to before i jumped into this, so it would be the right thing to do... But i'm leaving for a massive road trip to Colorado on friday, so we'll see if i have the time. In any case, i 'll take some pics, i just can't promise a full step-bystep write up.
@yashep-
the little piece of plastic... evil little thing... yeah i thought about taking it to a machine shop, how much did he quote you? Since i am anxious to get mine working again i think i might try filling in the wear and "sleeving" it with a strip of aluminum to protect it in the future. My roof has some scrapies on it too... iall i know is i have GOT to get this type of ridiculous s#!% taken care of before I even think about fresh paint. Good luck with your roof, and let me know if you get the little bastard milled out of metal.

ejohnsizzle wrote:@yashep-
the little piece of plastic... evil little thing... yeah i thought about taking it to a machine shop, how much did he quote you? Since i am anxious to get mine working again i think i might try filling in the wear and "sleeving" it with a strip of aluminum to protect it in the future. My roof has some scrapies on it too... iall i know is i have GOT to get this type of ridiculous s#!% taken care of before I even think about fresh paint. Good luck with your roof, and let me know if you get the little bastard milled out of metal.

he said that it'll be around $10 for six pieces, i tried filling it with epoxie (very ghetto) and it doesn't work once he makes the piece i'll let you know if it works or not. I tried honda and they don't have it here . so we'll see.
Good luck with yours as well.

what happend when you filled it with epoxy? did you put any kind shield on it to keep it from wearing again?
Damn... ten dollars is nothing if it means you never have to open it again. If you weren't so far away i'd tell you to have him make extras and send me a set!

ejohnsizzle wrote:what happend when you filled it with epoxy? did you put any kind shield on it to keep it from wearing again?
Damn... ten dollars is nothing if it means you never have to open it again. If you weren't so far away i'd tell you to have him make extras and send me a set!

You know i didn't put anything on it to shield it, maybe that's why it didn't work. Anyways I'm gonna try with the metal part and see if it works and if it do i could send you a couple you just pay for shipping. I'm suppose to receive the parts on friday, i'll have time to work on it between saturday and sunday by then i can tell if it works or not or at least if it fix. only time will tell if it works on the long run.

So I hope there's still interest in a DIY for this.

I stripped my headliner today and will take pics tomorrow as I remove and service my moonroof. Finally home from "vacation" in Algonquin Park and can start working again