Hey guys, I need a little help getting my sunroof back in working order. It had been stuck slightly tilted up but when I started to rain I forced it closed by pushing down on it. Any it never worked again since them, it would not slide or tilt, although I could hear the motor moving, and the headliner portion was stuck halfway back.
Today I took it apart to see what was going on. I removed the 6 torx screws and removed the. What I discovered was one of the arms appeared to be bent, but fortunately nothing seemed to be broken, only bent. I bent back the arm with a pair of plier but now I've got to get everything back to the way its supposed to go. Does anyone have pictures of the track mechanism? Also where those wire sprints go (the ones at the top of the first pic below)? They clip into the top of the headliner piece, but I don't know if they are supposed to go over/in/on any other part.
Also annoyingly, the cloth of the smaller rearward headliner started to peel off as I pulled it forward and fished it out of the roof, I'm going to have to remove this to reglue it. I'm assuming I have to remove the headliner to do that? anyone got a good write up for that?

 

So I was in the middle of removing the headliner, I got the visors off the "oh-sh*t" handles and the trim behind them and the dome light and sunroof controls, and sunroof edge trim off and was about to pull the headliner itself, but my next step was having to remove the headliner glued to the edge of the sunroof opening, and it felt like I was going to rip the headline if I tried to pull it off.
So I took one more look at the sunroof from above, with the roof portion of the sunroof removed. I noticed two small clips right the back of the rearmost interior sunroof panel and removed those, the pushed two tabs that clipped it to the sliding mechanism, and then I was able to remove it from the slider. After that it took quite a bit of wiggling and maneuvering but I managed to get it out of the car from above. Now to go get some spray adhessive and glue this back in place.

 

OK so I've repaired the rear headliner portion of the sunroof, and I attempted to put things back together. I could not when I put it back together in a way that seemed correct the motorized sliding mechanism was getting caught on something. I uncliped some stuff and got it to slide all the way back but now the rearward headliner piece is stuck back in the roof again.
What keeps the rearward piece connected to the sliding mechanism?
I went to the junkyard today and pulled the sunroof mechanism out of and XJ8 VP, thinking maybe mine was broken and it just wasnt obvious, but I cant see any difference between the one from the junkyard and the one on my car, so I think mine is still intack I just need to get things fitted back in the right way.

 

The diagnosis and repair of the sliding roof has many forum posts and Jaguar issued TSBs for it.

The X300 and X308 are identical units so info for either will work.

You might try a search in both the X300 and X308 forums.

 

Seen that TBS and a bunch of threads, not really finding a solution for me though. I've tried butting things back together like the diagram in the TBS but things just binded up when I tried to slide it. Thanks for the gif, though

 

I love the dead horse flogging,reminds me of how useless a sunroof is,steve.

 

well my sunroof is pretty useless at the moment!

 

Just a thought. When my rear panel became disengaged from the bell crank pins I fixed that by fashioning a couple of stainless spring clips per a previous forum thread.
But, after reinstalling the forward panel the sunroof would not work. Just jammed. Removed the forward panel again and realized that the panel has to be supported by two pins at the forward end of the bell cranks that engage in pockets midway along the sides of the panel.
When installing the panel you must apply upward, as well as forward pressure to engage all four location points.

 

The back panel has to be supported by two pins, or the front panel?

 

The front. Plus the two clips that the leading edge clips into.

 

Do you mean this, those wires have to hook over those pins? Thats how I've had things, but what are the two clips that the leading edge clips into?

 

Here is where I'm at. The piece circled in red is the front of the rearward interior headliner portion of the sunroof, how does it attach to the motorized slider mechanism (circled blue) so that it doesn't get stuck back in the roof?, and how is the motorized slider supposed to interact with the arms that support the out roof portion? As it is now, the slider will push back the rearward headliner piece but will not pull it forward, and it will jam up upon reaching this arm mechanism when it slide forward.

 

A it confusing as everything appears upside down, but if you look to the left of the first picture that you just sent, there is a short arm on the bell crank with a pin. That pin needs to slide into the slot on the forward panel just below it. The far end of of the bell crank, to the rear, has a pin that goes through the hole in the rear panel moulding circled in red in the last picture. The bell crank spring needs to configured that when inside the car you need to pull the long bell crank down to engage the rear panel.
The bell crank often gets dislodged from the rear panel and is subject to many posts.

 

Do you mean like this? I had tried it this way because a diagram I found in another thread seemed to suggest this arm went into the rearward slider, but when I did that it wouldn't allow anything to move, the sliding mechanism got all bound up. Also what is the slot on the forward panel for the other end of the arm?

 

OK. The rear bell crank is now correctly located. Forward of the bell crank pivot is a short arm with a pin which must locate in the support for the roof panel. Your Post 11 shows this small arm, and it should engage the panel support bracket shown just below your photo.
Your bell crank arms look a bit bent, don’t try to adjust them again or they will crack.
The forward panel is not installed until the sunroof is installed. That’s why I mentioned that is must have upward pressure as well as forward to engage the pin in the short arm of the bell crank.

 

Ok I think I understand what you are saying about the two slots that the short end of the bell crank go on. You mean the slots on the forward headliner panel. I found this pic in another thread that I think show perfectly what you are describing I've circled it in green (ignore the red circle for this photo). Here is the thread I found it in: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...g-roof-205505/


I attempted to put my sunroof back together tonight and the result was that the driver's send of the sunroof was tilted up significantly higher than the passengers side. The driver's side looked correct for full titled up but the passenger side looked low. When attempting to tilt it down to lower the sunroof the passenger side would lower to a closed position but the driver's side would still be tilted up slightly and this prevented the roof from sliding back to a fully open position. I removed the sunroof again to have a look at the mechanism and that is when I noticed this:


The first pair of photographs show the driver's side (the side that tilts up higher but doesn't close). Notice how the sliding mechanism (circled in green) has slide under the level tilting it up. The second pair of photos show the passenger side (the side that doesn't seem to tilt all the way up, but does close all the way), notice how the slider (again circled in green) has slide into the channel on the lever (circled in red).
I'm guessing the slider is supposed to go into that slot on both sides? Is that correct? Is this why my sunroof wont work correctly and how do I fix it? How do I get this slider to go into that channel?

 

Well bad news, the sliding mechanism I mentioned in the above post, I was trying to force it to come out of that channel and I ended up breaking it. It looks like I'm going to have to remove the entire sunroof mechanism and replace it with the one I pulled from the junkyard, the either replace the sliding pieces or just replace the whole thing entirely. I really didn't want to do that because the headliner was glued in around the sunroof opening and I'm not confident I would be able to get it off without tearing it or get it back on and have it still look nice, Oh well, we'll see how it goes this weekend.

Does anyone know how to remove the arms and sliding portions of the mechanism from the black rectangular frame that hold it all?

 

In post 16 you now have the correct locations of the bell crank for mid support of the forward panel and the rear panel link. So that’s positive.
But I can’t help you with the slider mechanisms as never been in there.
Good luck, and let us know the outcome.

 

More bad news. I got the headliner down and removed the sunroof support and track. Unfortunately when disconnecting the passenger's side rear drain hose the connection just snapped off. The old plastic was so brittle it just crumbled away. Oh, and I also found this novel repair to the driver's side channel when I removed it. I was hoping to remove the sliders from my junkyard sunroof bracket I got and put them in this one because the junkyard one has the driver's side drain connection broken off. Looks like I might be heading back to another junk yard. At least now that I know I can get the same part from and x300 I won't have to go as far to find one with a jag in it.
I just can't have anything go right when working on this car!!!!

 

I pulled another sunroof frame out of a junkyard car yesterday, this one was in better shape than the last one, but one of the rear drains broke off when I was disconnecting the hose (damn those things get brittle!). But at least this time I've got the broken piece, I did an inelegant repair similar to what was done on the one I pulled off my car, using two part epoxy putty. I think it will hold find, and its hidden under the headliner, but I'm sure it will annoy me every time I remember it's there.

Anyway I got the headliner back up but I got stuck with the sunroof control because I can't find the big plastic turn screw that hold it in. I know its in the car somewhere but I can't find it, looked everywhere under the seat is the door pockets nothing. So frustrating being held up by one little piece of plastic. Anyone know where I can get something similar off the shelf? I looked in the plastic pop rivet section of the usual chain auto box stores but didnt have any luck there.
I'll look again today with fresh eyes, hopefully something turns up.