Loose sunroof bolts

[Erebus]

Last week while driving on the highway a truck passed going the other way, and the sunroof popped open due to the pressure wave. Pulled over to close it and found that the FRONT of the sunroof was open on one side, not the back.

Next day in daylight I looked at it and found the bolt that holds the glass onto the hinge was missing. With a little advice from Green1 (who had this situation when he got his delica), I removed the trim panel by removing the 2 screws on each side. (My trim I painted flat black while it was out, yours will be aluminium.)


Then removed the screws holding the latches to the glass.

This let me open the sunroof wider than usual, and the removed trim gives access to the bolt. I was lucky, and the missing bolt was laying in the track. Note that the bolt goes up, and the part on the outside on top of the sunroof is actually the nut.

So I put it back in and tightened it. I discovered the other one was loose too, and tightened it as well.


Suspect lots of other people's sunroofs have loose bolts, and might be worth giving a quick check. Green1's was missing so he had to find a bolt and nut to fit and look good.

[vanjuggler]

I just had this happen while driving in victoria. Thanks for the detailed instructions!

[Fishtank]

I just fixed mine two days ago, I recommend that everyone checks theirs if they notice play in their sunroof. If you take the time to get access to the bolts, you should use lock-tite on them in order to prevent this from happening again.

[vanjuggler]

I lost the top part (the article says this is the nut), so I guess I gotta buy one somewhere. Any suggestions on where to pick up such a piece? I think it should be rubberized, or have a rubber washer or something to protect the glass?

[Erebus]

I lost the top part (the article says this is the nut), so I guess I gotta buy one somewhere. Any suggestions on where to pick up such a piece? I think it should be rubberized, or have a rubber washer or something to protect the glass?

If you don't have the bolt part, then any nut/bolt combination would work. If you want to reuse the bolt, then you have to find a nut that fits, a washer, probably some rubber too. Not sure what Green1 used, maybe he'll tell us and/or post photo.

Best case would be to find a part number and order it. It doesn't have a part number on it. It looks like a rubber-covered acorn nut.

Here's what it looks like (surrounded by a reflected streetlight):

Sunroof.JPG (149.79 KiB) Viewed 4182 times

Studying the 2nd photo in my original post, I notice there is a rubber-looking gasket or washer between the metal hinge and the glass. Hope you still have that. If memory serves, it is more-or-less attached to the glass. There's also a metal washer under the glass that I think was actually part of the bolt.

[Green1]

I used an old bolt I had lying around, and a couple of rubber washers... the rubber washers are important, metal tightened directly against glass is a recipe for a cracked sunroof!!

[jwfchase]

A cautionary tale:

I read this thread a few days ago and thought, "hmmm, maybe when I get aroundtuit, I will think about checking this out on our Delica... maybe... someday..." Two days later, my wife reached up to close the open sunroof on the Trans Canada Hwy, as she pulled it down there was a "pop" and the sound of something bouncing back along the roof at 100 km/h... I didn't even have to look up to know what had just happened. So today I'm looking for parts to do a repair instead of preventative maintenance...

[Erebus]

Studying the 2nd photo in my original post, I notice there is a rubber-looking gasket or washer between the metal hinge and the glass. Hope you still have that. If memory serves, it is more-or-less attached to the glass. There's also a metal washer under the glass that I think was actually part of the bolt.

I was scraping the windows last night and I noticed that the parts that hold the side windows in place look exactly the same as the nut on the sunroof. So dealers parting out Delicas might have these nuts.