Sunroof Issues!!!!

joetogo90

Member
:
Mazda 3s
Not sure if this is the right place to post this.

I have a 2005 Mazda 3 and last summer I was leaving work so I opened my sunroof and a little while later it started to downpour so I went to shut it and it wouldn't budge and all I could hear was this awful grinding noise in the ceiling. I got home, covered it up and dropped the headliner the best I could and noticed that a screw was loose on the motor so I tightened that and it still wasn't working. I had to have someone hold the close button while I pulled the glass, thankfully I didn't hear anything bad but who knows if I broke anything further. About a few days ago I dropped the ceiling again and took the motor off completely and a metal bracket fell off from where the gear goes into the ceiling, so I mounted that and started to mess around with the motor and it works perfectly fine while it's out of the ceiling, but once I put it back in, it's almost like the buttons are backwards. Tilt usually doesn't work and when it does, it tries opening the glass and what not. I made sure that the button was pressed for it being closed and the gear spun until it stopped and now I don't know what to do. It seems as if this thing fell of track and after reading the FSM(or whatever it is) I can't make sense of how to fix it. I called a local mazda dealer and they haven't got back to me yet. I would really like this fixed because my AC doesnt work anymore! :p

help!?
 
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mine did that not too long ago, there are 3 screws that hold the motor in place as well as 2 that help hold the cable that moves the glass into the roof all of mine were gone. the buttons where all backwards like that on mine as well. check to be sure all your screws are tight (blue threadlocker ensures they wont come out again, as mine did 2 days after i fixed it)
the motor has a screw up near the windshield one in the middle of it and one closest to the middle of the car, try pulling back your headliner and holding the motor in place with your fist and use your other hand to operate the switches, if your issue is like mine this will cause it to work again without a reset. if this is the case ensure the sscrews on the motor are all very tight and the motor is aligned right and check and make sure the screws in the plastic liner the cable runs through in the headliner are both there once all 5 screws are in and tight the sunroof should function as normal otherwise try unhooking your battery and wait 10ish minutes. put the battery back in and try this reset on the motor which i did on mine even though it was working just to be sure.

Try this method
1. Press the TILT UP switch to fully tilt up the glass panel.

2. When the glass panel reaches the fully tilt up position, temporarily release the TILT UP switch and press it again for approx. 13 s continuously. Continue pressing the switch until the glass panel automatically stops at the fully tilt up position after reaching the mechanical lock position.

3. When the glass panel stops at the fully tilt up position, temporarily release the TILT UP switch, then press it again within 5 s and hold.
Note

• Press the TILT UP switch continuously until the glass panel opens to the fully open position, returns to the fully closed position and then stops.

4. Release the TILT UP switch when the glass panel stops at the fully closed position.

mine made a grinding noise too because the gear on the motor was not aligned with the cable but if re-securing and doing this reset does not work something may have broken on the regulator

here is a link to my thread about my issue: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...wners-buyers-with-factory-sunroofs&highlight=
 
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Thanks for the response! I wish I would have read this before doing my repair. I went to a junk yard and pulled a sunroof off of a 2004 Mazda 3 and installed it. Works like a charm now....lol. :)
 
i almost did that but as i pulled back the headliner i noticed the motor kinda flop out of place slightly and that started me in the right direction, sucks you had to go through redoing the whole roof, if you kept the old one you now have spare parts, at least thats a good thing. i would go through your recently installed sunroof and put blue thread locker on all the screws so they dont rattle or vibrate loose again as this seems to be the whole issue. red is too much because you would need to heat it to like 500 degrees to break it blue can be removed with hand tools if you were to ever need to do work to it again but will hold everything much tighter than just bare screws. blue has worked on mine for almost a year now and i have a 1500 watt sound system vibrating the crap out of my car. mine broke before i installed the sub so it is obviously prone to this even without extreme vibration.
 
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