If your car comes with a sunroof, you can make your morning drives more enjoyable simply by retracting the roof cover and letting fresh air and sunlight into the compartment. Unfortunately, the sunroof is also one of the most fragile components in your vehicle. Ben Wojdyla of Popular Mechanics explains why this is so:
A sunroof doesn’t just slide back and forth; its mechanism must also tilt the panel up and down to accommodate the sliding and venting motions. So in addition to the electric motors and switches and slides in windows, sunroofs have plenty of additional parts—which are typically the ones that break. Popping and scraping noises are generally not happy sounds for cars to make; in a sunroof they indicate surfaces binding, drive gears slipping, or, put plainly, that something mechanical isn’t working correctly.
Wojdyla also encourages readers to seek professional help rather than fix a broken sunroof themselves, considering the complexity of such a task. Luckily, a reputable and highly experienced Seattle auto glass replacement company such as Bullseye Auto Glass can help you out in this regard. After all, even basic tasks such as taking apart your vehicle’s sunroof assembly can become quite difficult since different car manufacturers have different sunroof designs.
These experts can also diagnose the root cause of any problem. For example, if your sunroof has trouble retracting and closing, a trained technician can determine whether the problem lies with a faulty electrical system or an accumulation of debris on the roof track and slides. The key is to run a bypass check on the fuses and circuit breakers of the electrical system. If this doesn’t work, then it is likely that the roof track simply needs to be cleaned and lubricated. Otherwise, your sunroof may just need to be replaced.
If this is the case, then you might want to look for an auto glass expert that uses OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. Remember that the windows, windshield, and sunroof of your car are all essential to its structural integrity. In fact, the windshield contributes about 45 percent of your cabin’s durability. As such, you’d want to replace damaged sunroof components with original replacement parts.
As you can see, your sunroof definitely requires a lot of care on your part. Along with proper usage, be sure to enlist the services of an expert when it comes to replacing auto glass in Seattle.
(Source: How to Repair an Ailing Sunroof, Popular Mechanics, September 3, 2012)