Hi all,

First off if this is in the wrong spot, my apologies, long time lurker first time poster. I searched for this on Scion Life and a few of the other Scion forums and couldn't find anything.

I was driving down the expressway (I-696 for those in SE Michigan) when my sunroof shattered. It was closed at the time that it shattered so I'm thinking it was either a rock or a pressure issue or something.
To make a long story short, my deductible is rather expensive and I'm fairly mechanically inclined, so I'd rather replace the glass myself. Does anyone know how to replace the glass only?

Normally I would simply inspect it myself, but I have tape covering the roof to keep what glass is there intact and to keep water out of the car in instances where I can't avoid it getting rained on.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Just check with your insurance agent, this would be a comprehensive loss since it is glass only. Normally comprehensive coverage has a much cheaper deductible. Also, since glass is considered all risk, you might not have any deductible at all.

 

Yeah, so like I mentioned in my first post, my deductible is too high (which implies I checked with my insurance company). In the interest in keeping my monthly rate low I set my deductibles at a much higher amount than I probably should have and now I'm the position I am. I took it to a body shop that my insurance company recommended and the cost to repair the car (the back lid got a little scratched from glass pieces falling) is comparable to simply paying out of pocket. I figure if I can replace the sunroof myself, then I can save myself some money to get the back lid fixed.

 

I just wanted to make sure you knew the difference between a collision deductible and a comprehensive deductible. BTW, your comp deductible should be lower because it has a much smaller impact on your monthly premiums than it does your collision deductible, so when stuff like this happens, you aren't quite as boned as you are now.

If you own the vehicle outright (no lien holder), your insurance can pay you for the loss, and you can use the money to repair it yourself so you have some funding to repair it yourself, or if can do it yourself for less, keep the extra money for yourself. Just because you use insurance doesn't mean you have to use a body shop, heck, you can take the money and leave the car as is, you just can't claim for the same damages again.

 

Yeah, thanks for the heads up, I know the difference between collision and comprehensive. In hindsight it was dumb to have my deductibles as high as I did considering the car is still fairly new and I want to keep it in pristine condition for as long as possible. I suppose let that be a lesson to anyone who's trying to keep their insurance as low as possible without looking at the other side of the coin.

I was initially only looking at fixing the sunroof myself, but then I seen the scratches on the back hatch lid paint and figured it would be worth looking into fixing. I also had a small scuff mark that's through the paint from when I first bought the car that I was going to look at getting fixed at the same time. I figure I can probably do the sunroof myself for about $200 (that's how much I've found the glass for), but before I order anything I want to know exactly everything I need so when I peel back the tape I have everything I need to do the job. I have an 09, but I imagine the sunroof is the same on at least all the first generation tCs (aside from maybe the 05 since I've been reading about a lot of them having sunroof shattering issues), can someone open their sun roof and see how that glass is attached? Pictures would be brilliant.

 

btw, i found a thread about someone changing his sunroof/moonroof.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=162290

 

Yeah, I've seen that thread, but unfortunately it doesn't show how the glass is actually fixed to the rails. This is only useful if I want to replace the entire roof, which isn't practical since my deflector glass and rear glass are in flawless condition. I only need to replace the center glass that is part of the sun roof that pivots and slides out of the car.

 

TBH, it looks like it's just glued in there some how. I took a picture to show you what I mean. You might want to talk to a body shop about getting it glued onto the framing that's bolted in.

 

Thanks for the pictures noob2mod. I'm actually hoping that I can buy the glass with the frame attached and then bolt that onto the rails. That's kind of what it looks like from pictures of auctions like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-06-07-08-...58f279&vxp=mtr

I thought I heard someone mention in a previous thread about it being 4-6 Torx screws to remove it?

 

I didn't see anything about Torx.. most tC stuff seems to be metric bolts/nuts/threads.

 

Hope its not to late of a follow up but check your car for recalls. There was one issued early on that was in relation to the glass on the sunroof. If yours does fall under the recall then the cost is on Toyota.

 

yup

 

Yeah not too late, I'm still trying to get down to the bottom of this. Really don't want to order anything until I have all the facts. I have what's left of the sunroof taped up pretty good, so I really don't want to tear into it unless I have everything I need to replace the old one.

I actually called the local Toyota/Scion dealer close to my work the day it happened to see if there were any recalls on the sunroof and they said that there weren't and that he had never heard of the sunroof shattering before. Sounds a bit suspicious considering the number of hits you get when searching for Scion tC sunroof shattered, but to be fair most of those seem to be from 05-06 tCs. If anyone has anymore details regarding a silent recall regarding the sunroof, it would be greatly appreciated. One interesting note is that I recently took the car into the same dealer (Serra Toyota) for an oil change and tire rotation ($55 for synthetic and a tire rotation wasn't too bad IMO) and when I picked it up I opened the sunroof, which I noted seemed different, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I checked the invoice and I didn't see anything that would indicate they did anything to it. The only things on the invoice was my tire rotation, oil change, and water pump replacement (they said it was leaking so they replaced it for free under the 60,000 mile warranty).

There are a few sunroofs for sale on Ebay that are only the center piece, so I'm thinking there has to be a way to somewhat easily remove the sunroof glass piece from the rails. I've sent the sellers a few messages and I'll keep you all posted on what I find. Once I get the whole process figured out, I'll put together a write up with some pictures.

 

So for a little bit of resolution to this thread (and in case anyone is in this predicament and wants guidance) I ended up ordering a replacement sunroof off of Ebay for $120 shipped and replaced it myself. It was ridiculously simple as all I had to do was remove 6 torx T25 screws, lift the old sunroof out, place the new sunroof in the spot, and then replace the screws. The repair took under a half an hour.















Hope this helps someone in the future!

 

Nice! Sorry, I just noticed this thread. I've replaced my sunroof as well and was going to tell you that you only need to remove 6 screws and mount the new one in. Happy to hear you got it fixed!

 

How do you remove the rear piece of glass?