Hey guys,

About a month ago I was driving along, sunroof open, everything was breazy. Parked the car, closed the sunroof did my stuff. Then when I returned to my car half an hour later, I went to open my sunroof but it made a bad creaking noise...
It hasn't worked since and now seeing as it's stopped raining so heavily in Sydney I thought I might get a chance to actually use it so I want to get it fixed.

So the problem is that the sunroof opens about 2inchs, then it sounds like the motor is still working to open it, but the glass bit doesn't move and it starts creaking and cracking. Going to close the sunroof from there works fine. The tilt function works fine.
I have a little 'tool' type thingy that allows me to open/close the sunroof manually as well. When using that to try and open the sunroof it gets to the same spot and starts its creaking and cracking again.

What I think has happened is that there is a stick or a stone stuck in the track of the sunroof which isn't allowing it to open completely?

The car is a Mercedes Benz E320 (W210) '98 model. Now I could always just take it back to Mercedes but I would like to try and find an aftermarket sunroof installer, or a sunroof repairer (if such a person exists) to help me because I feel they would be able to do a solid job, without the exorbitantly high labour costs.

Tried a search on yellowpages.com.au and only found a Webasto/Hollandia sunroof installer in Caringbah...

Wondering if anyone knows a place that could help me out?

Thoughts/suggestions/similar experiences?

Cheers.

To be honest I would be going back to MB. Its not like its a Hyundai Excel, its a MB. I know they are roughly worth $20K these days, but still I feel a car of this caliber should be worked on by the dealers.

I mean when it was bought for $115K+ when new, would you take it to anywhere other than the dealer? Get them to give a rough estimate, before making finally decision.

Can you visibly see if there is a caught piece of debris in the sunroof at all? Like a glimpse of anything?

thanks for the replies guys,

firstly i can't really see anything visibly caught there but then again i haven't had a good poke around in there. i wll though, (its dark now so maybe tomorrow)

secondly the reason that im just as happy to take it to an aftermarket place rather than back to a mb dealer is because the sunroof isn't a major part of the car. If i need a new sunroof motor or something yes id go back to benz, but at first i want to see if someplace 'cheaper' could do it (ie like solve the problem/tell me whats wrong) for a better price, cause the answer will be the same whoever solves it just depends who solves it.

Anyway it looks like aftermarket sunroof installers/repairers are hard to come by so it looks like mb will be getting a visit from me anyway...

gonna cost bickies for sunroof, try a MB forum for answers, dont think you will find answers here specific to MB vehicles...

Prestige sunroofs at Wetherill Park, he does Webasto/Hollandia sunroofs and he might be able to help.

if you are near Milperra try City sunroof Centre he also does Wesbasto/Hollandia sunroofs located near Bankstown trotting track

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

When i took my car in for a service (Autohaus One in Alexandria - highly recommended) they told me that this problem wasn't uncommon and most likely a failed pulley or something. They'll have to take the whole thing apart, check that it is the pulley, order in the pulley, and put it all back together.
Total damage is about 3 days off the road and $800-900 in parts.

I think i'll make do with my tilt function only for now...