Some details on the sunroof handle fix..

See also : Sunroof sorted. Hopefully.

I realised I’d missed an opportunity yesterday: I should have taken photos of the job. Bugger. In my defence, it was 29 degrees out there, and I had 2 hours max window anyway.

Anyway, here are a couple of non-obvious points I discovered:

1. The handle won’t come off the glass easily, as the rubber bit underneath acts like glue.

2. You need a torx screwdriver to remove the bolts holding the handle to the glass. I had a set of torx heads, so no issue to me, but this would otherwise have been a showstopper

3. The handle still won’t come off until you remove the black cover on the top of the glass and GENTLY tap from that side.

4. Whoever designed the sunroof, and in particular the seals and rubbers, was an IDIOT. I suspect that the design was done by a committee, after a long, boozy French lunch.

5. If there are the remains of a rubber seal stuck to the underside of the glass, do NOT stick it in place: it’s NOT meant to be there.. the rubber is supposed to be attached to the car itself. See point 4, above.

6. I only replaced the handle, not the bit it attaches to, simply because I didn’t need to. It came as a unit from eBay, but I did not fit it. See first paragraph as to why..

7. It will leak. They ALL do. * See point 4. You can alleviate the issue by making sure the drainage pipes are cleared, but it will still leak a bit.

* I had a Mégane, where there were NO leaks from the sunroof. That was because it didn’t have one. The door seals still leaked water into the Temic electronic door controllers, and also the ECU under the battery, resulting in all the electric windows and central locking going crazy. See point 4, above.