How do we feel about sunroofs?

Love em. Also love t-tops and targas. I'm also a top down/off in anything above 45* kind of guy too though. But the little bit of light and air makes cars feel more open to me. Especially modern cars with high beltlines and monster A pillars.

As if on cue, I was just handed a repair order for a 2018 Equinox with plugged sunroof drains.

I generally don't like sunroofs. The ones in the MINI are particularly bad - rattle and the wind noise when they're open is terrible. One of the reasons I bought my R53 is it was not optioned with the sunroof. Among my MINI friends, my hatred of the MINI sunroof is something we often joke about.

My Jetta wagon came with a sunroof because it was part of the GLS package and I had to get that package if I wanted the optional leather seating.  Since the car had roof rails that create wind noise, I almost never opened the sunroof.  Then the BCM decided to start randomly opening and closing the sunroof on its own.  After one time when it opened the sunroof and I failed to notice it didn't close, I yanked the fuse for it. 

The drains for the sunroof are also prone to clogging.  For the Jetta, VW had a recall to cut off the ends of the drains in the door hinges cavities to stop debris from building up there. In the MINI, they are known to clog and dump water onto one of the BCMs in the back of the car.

While I don't want a sunroof in my cars, I do actually like convertibles.... 

I don't really care for sunroofs, and aftermarket sunroofs are the devil.  My GTI has one that I only open occasionally, whereas I always had the top down on my NB if the sun was shining and it was warmer than 40F (cold blooded New Englander here).  My Europa has an aftermarket one that is in the process of going away - replacement roof panel is hopefully in the mail today!

I use mine under two circumstances:  when I don't need the a/c and I want air to flow through the car without that low frequency buffeting I get when I open a window and in the winter when I use the heater so it doesn't get stuffy from all the heat rising to the top of the passenger compartment and staying there.

I've only owned a few cars with them. My e30s are the only ones old enough/cheap enough to leak and they functioned great until I cut the crap out of the truck's roof. I never could get the drains to function correctly and it always soaked the inside. Actually this last weekend I cut it all out and braced up the hole for a roof basket. The GF never used the sunroof anyway. Although I almost always utilize the popup function.

Duke said:

Colin Wood said:

I'll admit that I'm a fan, especially for a good panoramic that lets in lots of light.

I know it's another part that can (and probably will) fail sometime in the future, but I just think they're neat.

I'm with you.

I'm not trying to shave the last few pounds off my daily, even if it is as high as it can be above the CG.

And any time the weather is decent, I run with the roof open and windows down, even if it means seat and steering wheel heaters are on.  In fact, I prefer that.

 

Same here. I like having the windows down (or top down) when it's a little cool outside with the heater and seat heaters on. 

Just feels excellent. 

I regret my younger days.  I used to avoided sunroofs as I couldn't stand the thought of the extra onces above my head raising the CofG and limiting that last possible 0.000000000000000001s I could potentially shave off my autocross time.  These days I consider them as essential for any car that accidentally comes from the factory without the possibility of putting the whole roof down as all cars should be able to.  I simply wont buy a car these days that isn't either a convertible or with a sunroof.  I love the big double panel glass roof on my wife's MINI, both mine and our daughters Volvo's have glass sunroofs.  Boxster is a vert.  The only non sunroof car we still have is my 08 Volvo C30 that I ordered without a sunroof for the stupid weight/height autocross argument I mentioned above.  

So, put in the the PRO column then.

P.S. I'm pretty sure the plural of sunroof is sunroofs.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

I regret my younger days.  I used to avoided sunroofs as I couldn't stand the thought of the extra onces above my head raising the CofG and limiting that last possible 0.000000000000000001s I could potentially shave off my autocross time.  These days I consider them as essential for any car that accidentally comes from the factory without the possibility of putting the whole roof down as all cars should be able to.  I simply wont buy a car these days that isn't either a convertible or with a sunroof.  I love the big double panel glass roof on my wife's MINI, both mine and our daughters Volvo's have glass sunroofs.  Boxster is a vert.  The only non sunroof car we still have is my 08 Volvo C30 that I ordered without a sunroof for the stupid weight/height autocross argument I mentioned above.  

So, put in the the PRO column then.

P.S. I'm pretty sure the plural of sunroof is sunroofs.

I'm with you, except that if the car doesn't come with a sunroof, I can add one. Like the Webasto power unit I put in my Volt.

In reply to Chris_V :

Can you give us a cost on what the kit plus labor cost? Seems like a fairly expensive thing to do. 

Also, I love the wheels you have on the Volt, they really look great. 

It honestly depends on the car. I've had a bunch of cars with them, and in those cars I enjoyed them. My past two daily drivers had them and I used them all the time. But they can be problematic in some cars. My mom's infiniti Q60 had issues with the sunroof drains clogging, which caused some issues with her car a few years ago. And anything that's older with a hacked-in sunroof is an instant pass when shopping for a project. So yeah, YMMV.

z31maniac said:

In reply to Chris_V :

Can you give us a cost on what the kit plus labor cost? Seems like a fairly expensive thing to do. 

 

Also, I love the wheels you have on the Volt, they really look great. 

The sunroof was $1200 installed, done by an upholstery company local to me who is a Webasto dealer. Unfortunately this year Webasto stopped doing aftermarket sunroofs and only does their OEM work. But there are a number of these out there in stock at various dealers waiting to be installed. And Webasto is still warranting them. It's the Hollandia 300 series power sunroof.

I was thankful that my '19 VW Sportwagen has a solid roof.  VW have bought a bunch of Alltracks back because they couldn't fix the leaks. 

Funny this came up,  I just replaced the sunroof on my Disco.  I broke it by bringing home some wood from a big box store and thinking I could open the roof.  One of the lifting arms went snap and I spent the last year dealing with a wind whistle when closed or a rattle when opened.

Replacing it was easy peasy,  Just had to drop the front of the headliner, remove 10 bolts that held the drop pan in, and lift the assembly out the roof.  Replacement was opposite of removal.  The hardest part was putting the roof console and sunvisors back in.

I use from forward sunroof all year, unless it is pouring down.  During the summer, I use all four windows and both sunroofs.  Yes, I hate air conditioning. 

mad_machine (Forum )                 Yes, I hate air conditioning. 

That is a statement I have heard in the past, and it still makes no sense to me, at all.  What's to hate?  There is air of the correct temperature blowing around.  Not really painful...

Streetwiseguy said:

mad_machine (Forum )                 Yes, I hate air conditioning. 

That is a statement I have heard in the past, and it still makes no sense to me, at all.  What's to hate?  There is air of the correct temperature blowing around.  Not really painful...

This is the guy who wears a fleece all year at work because it is too cold for me.  

No hate, no love, I guess I'm indifferent to them. The Suburban, G35, and Ridgeline have them. I doubt I've opened any of them more than twice. I don't go out of my way to avoid them, but I also do look for them either. 

I've owned three cars with sunroofs - Jag Mk 9, Jag Mk 2 and a 76 Jensen Interceptor with a factory fitted sunroof (I found the bill for $1500 1976 dollars (that's over $7K in today's dollars).

One thing I'll tell you to never, never do is try and clear the drain tubes (normally located at each corner of the sun roof) by blowing air down them.  You  will be highly likely to blow off the probably already rotted rubber hoses that lead to the down tubes and will have to dismantle the interior of the car (in a big and expensive way) to replace them.  Use a small diameter wire, judiciously  applied to try and clear them.

And if you drive aggressively, try not to think about what cutting a giant hole like that does to torsional rigidity....