Sunroof Binding & Not Closing

ToyotaFanboy

New member
Hey everyone, I'd like to give a little background before giving my current problem. Ever since I bought my All Trac, the sunroof would only work intermittently (usually on warm days). When it would work, it would work smoothly, and all the functions (slide open, slide close, tilt open, tilt close) worked fine. When it wouldn't work, any of the functions would make a clicking sound and nothing would happen. I knew all along it was probably going to need a motor or relay, but wasn't hung up on fixing it, as I don't use my sunroof on cool days (when it wouldn't work) and also because I knew it involved dropping the headliner and I wasn't looking to do something that involved right now if it was still functional. Well fast forward to yesterday, I get in my car to go to work, tilt the sunroof up and hear a loud bang once it gets all the way up. Everything looked fine, but I decided to close it. It closed fine, so I then decided to slide it open. It slid back a little slower than usual, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Nonetheless, it still slid all the way open. I drove to work, and then when I got there, I hit the button to close it and it wouldn't close. Not as in it was making a clicking noise, but as in it felt like there was extreme tension and binding within the cables. Eventually with some assistance from my hand, I was able to get it to slide all the way forward. However, the passenger side rearmost corner of the sunroof was kind of sunken in or stuck down. Basically, you know how the sunroof slides all the way forward, and then tilts the rear portion up so that it's flush with the roof? Well the passenger side rear wouldn't do that (tilt up to flush) and was stuck down.

I tried many things and couldn't get the corner to come up. When hitting the tilt up button, the driver's side would tilt up, but the passenger's side would stay stuck down. I eventually decided to take the whole thing apart and found that the driver's side cable had busted through its metal casing/guide and the cable had been pulling further inward than it should, as it had no guide to guide it anymore. The passenger side was not like this, and looked perfectly fine. I felt all along as if my cable had become misaligned, and that removing the motor and shifting the cables manually to reset them would fix my problem, however for one: the cable misalignment is only half of the problem and two, the cables are so bound up that it seemed impossible to get the to move, and even if I could I don't know where they're supposed to be. It makes sense that the cables would have gotten bound up when one side pulls in faster than the other because it has no guide to restrict it. I tried to bend the guide back into place, but it's so mangled that I can tell it will not hold, and also a lot of the actual metal is gone from being ground up against (for what looks to have been a long time). The whole assembly is badly mangled and jammed up. It's so bad, that I can barely move anything. Everything is jammed and stuck. Honestly I believe the assembly is FUBAR :( and I think I need a whole new sunroof guide/track assembly. When I had the assembly out of the car, I was able to eventually force it back to the fully closed and tilted flush position, just so my car doesn't get water in it until I find a fix. I went to put it back in the car and now the DRIVER'S side rearmost portion (IT WAS THE PASSENGER'S SIDE BEFORE :bangshead: ) of the sunroof is somewhat sunken. I decided to add shims to that side, and got it to where it's sitting good enough (not completely flush, but as good as it's gonna get) to not let water in, but my sunroof motor and relay are removed, and my sunroof obviously is not at all functional and I ain't happy with it.

SO.... the real question here is: does anybody have a sunroof track assembly for a 5th gen All Trac? I looked online and I was only able to find one for an ST165 and several for the 7th gen Celica. I looked on some Toyota parts sites and I wasn't able to find the whole unit (I don't think they sell the whole thing as one unit and even if they do, I could find a part number), I doubt they make it anymore. If anyone has a sunroof track assembly or frame rail guide assembly (or whatever it's called), please let me know! I know some people have removed their sunroofs, and that would be perfect for me. I know some people will say to go to the junkyard, but I'd rather check here first, as a junkyard Celica's sunroof assembly is more than likely not going to be any better than my current one lol. Thank you in advance.
 

r-town

Member
I replaced the whole assembly with one off a 1990-1993 Celica gt/gt-s. Those are abundant at junk yards.
 

ToyotaFanboy

New member
Thank you. Over the weekend I did just that and searched some salvage sites and was shocked at how many I found. I guess my question to you would be (if you know), are all the 90-93 celica sunroof components compatible (ST, GT, GT-S, and All Trac)? Also, did Toyota ever make any Celicas with a manual sunroof? If so, I'm guessing it was only on the ST? I appreciate your response.
 

r-town

Member
I believe so. The sunroof I installed came off a 1991 Celica GT. I just made sure that the donor Celica had its sunroof flushed correctly and made sure all the components were in good condition. After I installed, it worked perfectly.

As for manual setup, I also looked around before and couldn't find a definite answer. It seems people without sunroofs installed aftermarket moonroof/sunroof kits with glass panel.

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https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HnK6 ... 200908.jpg
 

ToyotaFanboy

New member
Thank you very much man, that is very helpful. I really do appreciate it! Part of my problem is I've been searching salvage yards online (far away), and a lot of them don't have pictures and I can't physically see or touch the parts. I did find 5 here in Maryland though, so I think that will be my best bet so that I can actually see what it is they have listed, make sure it's complete and what I need, and make sure it works. Thanks again.
 
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