Damn 1200 miles and I go to open my sunroof on this nice sunny day and is goes cruuuuuuuuuunch, cruuuuuuuunch---I look up and its tilted all wacky and can only make it halfway back--so I have to help it close and it crunches back--crap!!!

 

That sucks! I've heard about this happening to GX's on a number of different occassions. Apparently the sunroof track is not of the best quality - lots of plastic. I hear to fix it the dealer has to replace the entire track assembly.

 

Yeah, plastic is not the best material for a sunroof track.

 

Only 1,200 miles, that's insane. Way back in '99 or '97, this has happened to a previous car of mine, an Infiniti J30t, the sunroof track needs to be replaced and it costs $1,200. I had a chance to discuss it with the repairman and according to him, it happens to a lot of cars regardless of brand. Most of the time, nobody uses it in winter, and then come summer time or when the weather clears up, that's the time that most sunroofs are useful and gets derailed because it is stuck on one side. He continues on to say that the sunroof needs to be used at least once a month.

From then on, it sort of became a habit that whenever the car is washed, I open and close the sunroof just to make sure the grease in the railings are not getting sticky. Not sure if this is a real preventive measure or just psychological.

 

Thats good practice malmon, I excise my sunroof in the winter when ever I can and the AC too. With most modern cars, the AC turns on with the window defroster.

 

Happened twice on my '04. Once in Colorado 800 miles from home. I had it open and it started to rain. Tried to close it and it started kind of grinding and barely closed. Took to dealer they said it was "fixed". Then it happened again a few months later and they said they were going to have to replace everything involved. All under warranty. But still every time I am way off on a trip out in the boonies I am a bit hesitant to open it because what if it got stuck open and you got in a monsoon and were no where near a Lexus/Toyota dealer? It has yet to happen on my '09, but I don't trust it 100%.

 

It happened to me on my 04 GX too... The glass ended up tilted and it made a grinding noise. They replaced the whole thing under warranty since it was two years old at the time. The repair order that I signed that went to Lexus from the dealer was for over $1700...

Makes me think about getting the extended warranty if I keep my 08 past the standard warranty. It only takes one problem like this to cover a good chunk of the extended warranty cost.

 

The Lexus guy looked at it today and ordered up a whole new sunroof rack/frame/motor! the whole shabang----Just hope it doesnt happen again.

 

YIKES, I better get home and start exercising my sunroof!

 

Ahhh Got my baby back and she is all good!! Sunroof is perfect and the Tech did a wonderful job on it.

 

Booyah, did your sunroof start off making a moaning/creaking noise when opening and that got progressively worse or did it just start grinding and fail? My sunroof was making this weird moaning noise when I opened it the other day. I opened and closed it a few times and it worked okay, but continued to make the moaning/creak noise. All I could think about was getting stuck in the rain with my sunroof open.

 

No mine went like right now..lol went to open and it tilted crooked and popped, grinded to about halfway back and stopped--It would not move itself back closed and I had to help it close---she was done.