Sunroof Repair

This document is the text/images from the TSB (technical service bulletin) issued byInfiniti concerning the repair procedure for sunroof issues. Be advised that this is a LARGE, TIME-CONSUMING project. Plan to do this over a weekend.

I found some omissions in the TSB that were significant and caused me to waste alot of time trying to figure things out on my own. With the TSB and my additions,you should be able to do this in much less time than it took me. Any text in italicssignify my inserted comments/clarification regarding the different TSB steps. Myinserted images will be designated by a prefix of PIC (example – “see image PIC001”). The original TSB Images are named “Figure xx”.

Sunroof Repair TSB

The sunroof repair kit available for the J30 is part number 91350-10Y20 (figure 1).



SERVICE INFORMATION

If an applied vehicle exhibits the following symptoms, use the service procedurebelow to resolve the incident(s).- Sunroof binds- Sunroof motor runs but the sunroof will not open or close- Sunroof leaks

1. Operate or move the sunroof until it reaches the fully closed position (not tiltedposition).

2. Remove the sunroof lid (glass), sunroof shade, and headliner. Refer to the BT orBF section of the applicable service manual.

This TSB was written to cover several Infiniti models. The J30 has no sunroofshade and the sunroof lid is not glass but metal. I removed the sunroof railassembly with the sunroof lid attached to the rail assembly. It makes the unitheavier to take out of the car but makes the removal of the sunroof lid easierwith the rail and lid out of the car.Believe it or not, the bulk of the work involves the removal of the headliner.This is because you’ll have to remove the seats and side trim to get to theheadliner.Here I will detail everything you have to do in order to remove the headliner.

A. Remove the front seats. These are attached with four bolts. Onceyou remove the bolts, tilt the seat towards the back seat. This willallow you access under the seat to disconnect the wiringharnesses. The driver side seat has two wiring harnesses, thepassenger side has a single harness. Be careful when removingthe seat from the car. The seat legs are very sharp and candamage the door trim. Do not attempt to carry the seat by holdingthe headrest. The front seats are fairly heavy and the weight cancause the headrest to move while your holding it. Figure PIC001shows the front seat removed.

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B. Remove the back seat. The back seat is made up of two sections.The lower portion (where your butt would sit) and the uppersection (where your back would be). The lower section comes outfirst. To remove it, remove the two bolts by the carpet. Pleasenote – the bracket that holds the seat has two openings, one forthe bolt and one for a metal tab. You will need to bend this metaltab towards you before you can lift up on the seat (see figurePIC002). Otherwise the metal tab keeps the seat from sliding upand out of the bracket. Once this tab is bent, you can just lift theseat out.To remove the upper portion of the back seat - remove the fivePhillips screws that hold it in place. Lower the back seat armrest.That will expose a piece of trim that flips open (push on the top ofthe trim to flip it open). There are two additional screws behindthis trim.Push the seat back towards the ceiling of the car and the seatshould pop right out (See figure PIC003).

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C. Remove the kick-plates (chrome trim over the carpet in each dooropening) by each door. The kick-plates are held in place by metalclips.

D. Remove the lower portion of trim that sits between the front andrear doors. Pull straight back on it. It’s simply held in place bymetal clips. See figure PIC 004. Note that there’s a foam piecethat will likely fall out. You need to glue it back in place. Both ofmine fell out. See figure PIC 005.

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E. Pop out the A-pillar trim. Again this is held by two metal clips.One clip on top, the other clip above the tweeter. You DO NOTwant to remove this trim piece. Just pop it out so it will be out ofthe way when you get ready to remove the headliner. This partneeds to stay in the car, just unclip it. See figures PIC 006 and PIC007.

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F. Remove the weather stripping/molding from around each of thefour doors. It just slides out. You’ll need to loosen a piece of trimby the driver and passenger foot well (circled in green) to get thetrim out. See figure PIC 008.

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G. Remove upper portion of trim between the front and rear doors.Again, this is held in place by metal clips. Pull straight back on it.See figure PIC 009.

H. Remove dome light. See figure PIC 010.

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I. Pop upper-rear trim. You don’t need to fully remove these pieces.Just get them out of the way but leave them in place. There aretwo metal clips holding this in place. See figure PIC 011.

J. Remove side-handles from headliner. See figure PIC 012.

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K. Remove sunroof controls. This part just pulls down. See figurePIC 013.

L. Remove rear-view mirror. This is attached with Philips screws.See figure PIC 014. PIC13 PIC14

M. Remove vanity mirrors. These are held in place by Phillips screws.See figure PIC 015.

N. You’re finally ready to pull down the headliner. Pull straight downon the very back of the headliner to release some clips (the part ofthe headliner closest to the car’s rear window). Now, pull down onthe headliner portion that surrounds the sunroof opening. Three ofthe four sides around the sunroof opening hold the headliner withVelcro strips. The fourth side (the side closest to the rear window)holds the headliner with metal clips. Do not pull down on the sidewith the metal clips. Simply slide the entire headliner towards thefront of the car. This should cause the headliner to slide off theselast set of clips. I could not figure out a way to take the headlinerout of the car. Maybe you can. I left the headliner in the car andjust moved around it. It became a real pain to maneuver aroundit. Figure PIC 016 shows the headliner removed.

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3. Remove the sunroof rail assembly from the vehicle and place it on a flat workingsurface.IMPORTANT: Observe the following cautions when handling or working on thesunroof rail assembly.- Do not pick the sunroof rail assembly up by the drain tray as damage may occur tothe drain tray (see Figure 2).- Do not place the sunroof rail assembly on its end as damage to the corner drainsmay occur (see Figure 3).- Do not press on the sunroof rail assembly cross members as they may bend (seeFigure 4).

Before you remove the sunroof from the car, it may be a good idea to markthe location of the four brackets that secure back portion of the rail to theroof. Mark the location of the bracket in relation to the roof of your car aswell and the location of the bolts. This will be helpful when putting everythingback. These four brackets are used to do slight adjustments for the locationof the sunroof. Hopefully, by marking the location of these, you won’t haveto waste time adjusting the location of the rail assembly when putting thingsback together. See figure PIC 017.Also, note that the bolts holding the sunroof rail have a notched-opening onthe driver side of the sunroof (figure PIC 018). The bolts on the passengerside are NOT notched. Remove all but one of the bolts on the passenger side.On the driver side, just loosen the bolts in the notched openings. Once you’reready to pull the rail out of the car, have a friend hold the driver-side of thesunroof rail while you remove the last bolt on the passenger side. This willcause the passenger side of the rail to drop down. Hold it! Now, the driverside is still being held by all the loose bolts in the notched openings. Simplylet the passenger side drop down while you slide the driver side out of thenotches. I pulled the sunroof rail out of the passenger-side rear door. Standthe sunroof on it’s side (NOT THE SIDE WITH THE PLASTIC DRAIN HOLES –preferably the side with no notches - that way the notches don’t scratch thebottom of the door opening. Slide the rail assembly out the door.

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4. Remove the motor from the sunroof rail assembly.If you didn’t remove the sunroof lid back in step 1, leave the motor on the railassembly for now, you’ll need to use now. If you removed the sunroof lidalready, continue with step 5.Ok, if you’re here, you need to remove the sunroof lid from the rail assembly.This step took me hours to figure out. In any case, here’s the trick. In orderto remove the sunroof lid from the rail assembly, you will have to open thesunroof about ¾ of the way. You’re thinking, the sunroof rail is no longerconnected to the car! I did this by attaching a set of jumper cables from thecar battery to the two wires coming off the sunroof motor. The blue wire isyour ground (-) and the red wire is your positive (+). Attach the sunroofswitch assembly to your motor and use it to open (not tilt) the sunroof.The sunroof lid is attached to the rear guide by six bolts, three on each side.The rear guide is the bracket that slides back and forth on the sunroof railwhen you open/close your sunroof. They’re the black metal parts that camein your repair kit with that cable attached to them.The bolts holding your sunroof lid attached to the rear guides are locatedbehind the felt liner on the sunroof lid (the part of the sunroof lid that facesthe inside of the car and has the same material as the headliner). In otherwords, the screws are sandwiched between the sunroof lid and the felt liner.To get access to these screws, you’ll have to slide the felt liner towards theback of the sunroof. To release the felt liner from the sunroof lid you’ll needto insert a screwdriver in the front of the sunroof opening (between thesunroof lid and the felt liner – See figure PIC 019) to pry up two plastic clipsholding the felt liner to the sunroof lid. The clips are located on the left andright side of the opening (driver and passenger sides). As you lift up the clip,apply pressure on the felt liner towards the back of the sunroof. Do this onboth sides and the felt liner will slide back exposing four of the six screws.See figure PIC 020). Figure PIC 021 shows what the clip looks like.

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To get to the last screw, you’ll have to slide the felt liner further back. You’llnotice that the liner will catch on something. This “something” is another setof clips. These clips are located on the edges of the little felt liner pop-upopening (the piece of the felt liner that pops up when you tilt the sunroofopen). Push these clips up and the felt liner should slide all the way back.You may have to close the sunroof door to expose the last two screws. Iended up completely removing the felt liner out of the rail assembly by slidingit all the way out the back of the rail. That’s how I was able to take the photoseen in figure PIC 021.Now that you have the sunroof lid removed. Make sure you “close” thesunroof door (without the lid). You’re just making sure the sunroof motor isin the closed position. With, the motor in the closed position, you can removethe motor from the sunroof rail assembly.

5. Confirm the closed position marks on the motor are lined up with eachother (see Figure 5).

A. If the closed position marks are lined up, proceed with step 6.

B. If the closed position marks are not lined up, turn the motor adjustmentscrew (see Figure 5) until the marks are aligned, then proceed with step 6.

6. Remove the stoppers from the rear of the sunroof rail assembly as follows:

A. Loosen (but do not remove) the screw in the end of the stopper (seeFigure 6).



B. Remove the screw on the top of the stopper (see Figure 6).

C. Slide the stopper out of the sunroof rail assembly (see Figure 6).

7. Remove the drain tray as follows:

A. Remove two screws that secure the drain tray to the drain guides (seeFigure 7).

B. Lift up and pull forward on the front of the drain tray to remove it from thedrain guides (see Figure 7).



8. Insert a screwdriver and pull each guide out of the sunroof rail assemblyuntil the cable is removed (see Figure 8). The drain guide will come outautomatically as the guide is removed.NOTE: If the old cable is broken, wait to remove it when you install the newcables (see step 16). It is easier than fishing it out now.



9. Remove any debris found in the sunroof rail after the cable is removed.Also, carefully smooth out any burrs or nicks on the sunroof rail with a file.NOTE: Do not remove the existing grease from the sunroof rail, but onlyremove the debris. Also, do not use any cleaners/solvents on the sunroof rail.NOTE: When filing burrs or nicks, use caution not to get metal filings in thesunroof rail grease. Cover the grease with a rag or with tape.

10. If damaged or missing, install new guide links in the guide link slots (seeFigure 9).



NOTE: Step 11 below only applies to I30 and QX4.

11. If damaged or missing, install two new front silencers (see Figure 10).



NOTE: Steps 12 and 13 below only apply to QX4.

12. Install the new damper (on the empty metal tab) on the rear of thesunroof rail assembly (see Figure 11).



NOTE: When installing the damper, first insert the front portion of the damperinto the hole in the cross member, then push the damper over the metal tabuntil it is fully seated.

13. Install two additional resistors on the sunroof rail assembly (see Figure12).



NOTE: Most QX4 vehicles already have two resistors mounted to either thefront or rear of the sunroof rail assembly. Install two additional resistors(provided in the kit) so the sunroof rail assembly has four resistors when youare done.

14. Install the new white plastic shoes on the new rear guide assemblies (seeFigure 13).



NOTE: Install the white plastic shoes so the tabs face each other (see Figure13).

15. Apply silicone grease

16. Install the new rear guides as follows:

A. Slide the rear guide cable into the sunroof rail assembly.NOTE: The passenger side rear guide cable slides into the outside rail trackand the driver side rear guide cable slides into the inside rail track (see Figure14).



NOTE: If the original cable was broken and still remains in the sunroof railassembly, push the new cable into the sunroof rail assembly until it pushesthe broken cable to the guide link slot, then use pliers to pull the old cable outthrough the slot (see Figure 15).



B. First, insert the front of the new rear guide into the sunroof rail (see Figure16), then pull the guide towards the front of the sunroof rail assembly untilthe rear guide slides into the sunroof rail (see Figure 17). Make sure the moldpin is placed on top of the rail (see Figure 18) when inserting the rear guide.NOTE: Squeeze the tabs on the white shoes together while inserting the rearguide into the sunroof rail.



17. Verify the rear guides slide smoothly and quietly in the sunroof railassembly, then move the guides completely forward.

18. Insert the new drain guides into the rear of the sunroof rail assembly asfollows:

A. Push the stopper in the "A" direction while squeezing the clips in the "B"direction (see Figure 19).



B. Insert the drain guide into the end of the sunroof rail assembly (see Figure19) and slide it forward until it snaps into the cut-out in the rail.

19. Re-install the rear stoppers.

20. Wipe off the sunroof cross members with a clean cloth.

21. Wipe any debris out of the drain channels (troughs). See Figure 19 above.

22. Move the rear guide until the holes on the rear guide and link line up witheach other (see Figure 20).



23. Insert a 3 mm punch or pin through the holes to make sure they arecompletely aligned (see Figure 20).To get these holes to line up, you’ll have to either pull or push on therear of the rear guide while keeping the front of the guide frommoving. This hole alignment ensures that your lid is not incorrectlytilted too far up or down. I tried VERY hard to get these holes to lineup but could never get the thing to move. You can skip this step. Ihave a fix for this later.

24. Re-install the motor on the sunroof rail assembly.NOTE: Make sure the closed position marks on the motor are still lined upwith each other before installing the motor on the sunroof rail assembly. Ifnecessary, turn the motor adjustment screw until the marks are aligned.

25. Re-install the sunshade in the sunroof rail assembly. Refer to the BTsection of the applicable service manual.NOTE: The sunshade brackets ride on the lower, longer slots in the rail.

26. Re-install the drain tray (see Figure 7).

27. Re-install the sunroof rail assembly in the vehicle. Refer to the BT sectionof the applicable service manual.

28. Wipe off the outer rubber seal on the sunroof lid (glass).NOTE: Do not use cleaners/solvents to clean the sunroof outer rubber seal asthey can cause the rubber to dry out and crack.

29. Re-install the sunroof lid (glass).You may have to adjust the sunroof lid forward or backward to get itto line up with the opening. If this is the case, slide the felt liner backand loosen the six bolts (3 per rear guide) that hold the lid in placeand adjust as needed.

30. Check the operation of the sunroof.If you could not get the holes to line up in step 23, you will notice thatyour sunroof lid does not line up with the roof opening in your car. It’stilted too far up or down when the sunroof switch is in the fully closedposition (tilted all the way down). The solution is simple. Simply usethe tilt switch to tilt your window up or down until it lines up with thecar’s roof opening. Once the lid is lined up with the roof opening,leave the switch alone and remove the sunroof motor from the railassembly. Now, with the motor removed from the rail assembly butstill connected to the power source and switch assembly, hit the switchand place the motor in it’s fully closed, un-tilted position. Now thatthe motor is sitting in its closed position, re-attach it to the sunroofrail. Now when you tilt the lid up and back down, it should line up withthe roof opening.

31. Re-install the headliner.