CrackerJac

Ill try to make this short & sweet.

1. I can tilt the sunroof up and down with no problem.
2. When trying to open the sunroof, the sunroof is supposed to dip down about 1/4", then retract back. Mine gets stuck while trying to dip down.
3. If I get outside the car, and press down on the glass with about 1 lb of force, the sunroof will pop down, and retract back just fine. It will also close just fine.

I took the car to the dealer yesterday. Four hours later they called me and said it was fixed. I arrived 30 minutes later and tried it, and it was still 'catching' a tad bit...and then would 'pop' down on its own. So the problem was better, maybe by 50%, but still not fixed. The tech comes out, makes more adjustments and finally its perfect, just like factory.

I drive to my destination and try the sunroof out 3-4 times and it worked perfectly. I went inside my destination for an hour, came back out, and immediately tried the sunroof having my doubts. Sure enough, it was catching just like it was at the dealership an hour before hand. Now, the following day, its completely stuck like it was before I took it in for service all together.

Does anyone know what is causing this? It seems to be changing based on duration, or time. It makes NO sense to me. I do have an appointment for 8am tomorrow morning to address the issue yet again, but I was just wondering if anyone here on the forums has experienced this issue?

Thank you

03/04/16 Update

Got the car back and it still seemed like it was catching a little as it retracted down. The loaner IS I had was smooth as butter with zero catching. The service department told me they compared it with a brand new IS and said this was the same on their new one.

After about 2 hours later, I noticed it got a little worse and is causing a major 'thud' when popping down. I immediately called and scheduled ANOTHER service appointment for Monday morning.

03/05/16 Morning Update

The sunroof won't even open now. It gets completely stuck as it retracts down. Seriously... what is the freaking deal here??? Its like it keeps getting off track without even using it... Any advice? I feel like this is never going to end.

03/05/16 Evening Update

Tonight, I decided to look at the sunroof myself and see if I could figure this out on my own. I tilted the sunroof 'Up' and examined a light 'sticky' residue all along the black lip of the sunroof glass itself. I began to assume that perhaps this light sticky residue was causing the glass to 'stick' as it was supposed to come down & retract back. I got some white lithium grease (liquid in a rattle can) and sprayed it in a terry cloth and wiped down the black edges of the sunroof glass. I then tried opening & closing the sunroof to see if this helped... and it DID! The 'thud' noise as the sunroof comes down was instantly eliminated... but I noticed the more I opened & closed it, the thud started reoccurring ever so slightly.

I then tried lubing up the sunroof the best I could using the terry cloth and liquid white lithium grease and now the sunroof is opening and closing near perfectly. It appears it needs quite a bit of grease though as the black rubber surround on the sunroof glass seems to be absorbing the grease very rapidly... and if I could find some white lithium grease thats a solid base (solid like vaseline), I could probably lube it up enough to rectify the issue permanently.

How in the hell could Lexus not have tried this....?

03/14/16 Afternoon Update

Lexus has had the car since 03/11. They called me today and came to the conclusion that the sunroof glass + seal needed to be replaced. They claimed to call a technician (I guess at Corporate Office) and there has been two incidents of this happening where replacing the sunroof glass fixed the issue. They said the glass was on backorder but said it showed it was going to be delivered to them tomorrow. Very strange. But lets see if this fixes it.

Coincidently enough, the drivers door lock actuator also went out Thursday morning. So a new one goes in tomorrow.

03/15/16 Evening Update

The sunroof glass and seal has been replaced. The sunroof opens normal and appears to be fully functional again. Very interesting! The tech notes describe the issue as the seal having become warped and catching on the roof panel, which caused the 'thunking' and 'catching' of the glass on the roof.

Makool

No issues on my side, haven't hear anything in the forum either I could be wrong, keep us posted about what the dealer says, fixs it!

specONE

iTrader: (3)

I dont recall really opening my sunroof.

now you got me wanting to open the sunroof every day just to make sure its good before warranty ends

keep us posted if you get yours fixed

CrackerJac

I dropped it off at the dealer this morning at 8am. They gave me a '15 IS250 as a loaner. I've played with its sunroof out of curiosity, and its buttery smooth.

I've used my sunroof quite often the last 8 weeks of ownership. I would say 3-5 times a week until the issue popped up.

CrackerJac

I have added updates to the main post.

Vivid101

try recalibrating the sunroof. Hold the "up" button until the sunroof opens and closes completely/. You have to hold it the entire time so it cycles through.... it could be the sensor needing recalibration.

CrackerJac

The up button, to tilt up? I will give this a shot.

Vivid101

yep. thats it. just hold it.

CrackerJac

I tried this and held it for 1 minute. Nothing happened. It went up and stayed up.

I will say this though- I got out of the car and examined a little light 'sticky' residue all along the black lip of the sunroof glass itself. I got some white lithium grease (liquid in a rattle can) and sprayed it in a terry cloth and wiped down the black edges of the sunroof glass. I then tried opening & closing the sunroof to see if this helped... and it DID! The 'thud' noise as the sunroof comes down was instantly eliminated... but I noticed the more I opened & closed it, it started reoccurring ever so slightly.

I then tried lubing up the sunroof the best I could using this terry cloth and liquid white lithium grease and now the sunroof is opening and closing near perfectly. It appears it needs quite a bit of grease though as the black rubber surround the sunroof glass seems to be absorbing the grease very rapidly... and if I could find some white lithium grease thats a solid base (solid like vaseline), I could probably lube it up enough to rectify the issue permanently.

How in the hell could Lexus not have tried this....?

Vivid101

you would be surprised on what the stealer doesn't try. I had one sunroof that needed a bunch grease before it would work right. Recalibration was the issue on my daughters 328 BMW. I saw a video on youtube for the lexus recalibration and thought that might help.

specONE

iTrader: (3)

You should probably grab some of this Shin-Etsu Grease instead if the liquid white lithium grease doesn't work out for you again in couple of days.



I believe its a special formulated version of white lithium grease.
i've read a lot of people on internet swear by this for their rubber. Do Google search about this and you will see what I mean.

Sure enough it worked for me on my 20+ year old miata from stopping rain leaking from all the rubber seals from the convertible soft-top.
Somehow this grease makes rubber like brand new instead of hard and dry. But it is strange that a brand new Lexus, the rubber was not in good shape already?

CrackerJac

The liquid rattle-can lithium grease was already wearing off as of yesterday evening. So, the sunroof worked great for almost 24 hours which is the best luck i've had since all this started. It began to catch a little as the grease had already evaporated and disappeared.

I went to AutoZone and bought the tube style of white lithium grease which is thicker and applied it to the rubber. Since the sunroof is working perfectly again, I have canceled my service appointment with Lexus this morning and will spend the next few days testing this out. If all this fails, I will give your grease a shot.

CrackerJac

Updated main thread.

EZZ

It sounds like you got a Friday afternoon car

CLUM

yup Shin-etsu grease is commony used on S2000's for the rubber seals on the windows and hardtop seals. It's mainly used to keep the rubber seals supple and also keep the hardtop from squeaking due to rubber on rubber seal contact.

i'm going to keep an eye on this thread too since we don't use our sunroof that much...i'd hate for it to malfunction out of warranty.