Thanks for being here. My Subie is a '96 Legacy, 4D, with almost everything. (Not the Traction option). She drives like a dream, and I love her. However, while the sunroof flips up alright, I can only get the retraction to "catch" every once in a while. Reminds me of a dying cylinoid (sp?) on my old Volksy. Anyway, my neighbor advised that it probably isn't the motor, as the dealership suggested, but the cables, which he replaced in his (non-Subaru) car for about a hundred bucks. So, local dealer said no go - had to buy a whole new unit for around SIX HUNDRED bucks! Rats. Any other solutions? I can't do a new one.

 

Thanks for any help.

U could always not open it... Is it all lubed up and stuff? This is in the totally wrong forum too... It should be in newer gen.

It may be the drive gear. Which may or may not be servicable. Where in Oregon are you? There are a couple of independent service shops in Oregon that you could go to and trust!

My 91 had issues, turned out it was a combination of a bad sunroof control unit (Junkyard time!) and a bad sunroof switch panel thinger, Replaced both of those and it worked just fine. Man I wish my 87 Turbowagon had a sunroof....

Thanks all. (BTW, I thought this WAS the New Generation of Subarus. My apologies.) It used to work fine. Then, one day, it didn't want to retract. I opened and closed the flipper, and released the switch just before it closed tight, and tried the retracting switch again. Doing this several times, the retractor finally opened. It now takes longer to "find" that "spot" where the retractor finally opens.

 

Yes, I've lubed (with Tri-Flow, a silicon based lubricant) and WD-40 too. It doesn't appear to be "stuck," it just can't find that one spot that brings the flipper all the way down and then retracts back.

 

I will look into the control thing (junk yard time) and the switch as well. I'm on the Central Oregon Coast. Newport, Lincoln City area.

 

Thanks, and

I had the same problem with mine and found one of the screws holding the rail had come partially out and caused it to hang up there. I didn't see it at first since it was under part of the mechanism. Try to catch up with some of the Oregon crowd (lots of them near Portland) if you can; they're mostly pretty handy and might be able to fix that without all that expense. I could suggest Richierich or his dad's shop for a more "honest" apprasial and repair.

Ooooh, I hope so! Sometimes it's just the little things, eh?

 

I'll give it a go, wish luck.