Would be very difficult to do it with it in, although not impossible. You would need to drop the headliner down, as that assembly will need to slide out the back of the track in order to replace it

 

I have been on an adventure with this as well. I am making these pieces out of aluminum, along with the tilt and slide cam, and the bit that attaches to the cable to make the whole thing life proof. not a cheap endeavor, but id think worth it in the long run.

 

Well ordered the part.
guess I’ll have to wait to install it when I’m ready to have the headliner redone, which is sagging out back.

 

My working sunroof assembly is for sale, comes with a free X330. All reasonable offers accepted.

 

Apologies for the poor quality picture, but I decided to bite the bullet yesterday and replace the broken part on my sunroof, and fit a new roof lining while I was at it. The picture is taken from the right hand rear seat area, looking forwards, and the whiteish / light grey item on the upper left of the picture is the rubber bung at the end of the sunroof track. It is very flimsy, and is easily removed by hand, allowing the broken part to be removed and the new one inserted. 2 minute job with the lining removed, no tools required.
As for removing the roof lining, pretty straightforward and there are various good videos on you tube showing you how to do it. The difficult bit is getting the lining out of the car without damaging it. As I was fitting a new one, I didnt dwell too long on the "without damaging it" part of the mission, but it would strike me as very difficult / impossible to remove it from the vehicle and keep it fit for reuse. That said, there are several suppliers of reasonably priced glass fibre backed replacements, so it isnt really an issue.
If you are simply aiming to replace the part, this could be done without removing the lining from the car obviously, but to create as much room as you see in the picture, you will need to peel off the felt / rubber seal around the sunroof opening which holds the roof lining to the aperture, as there isnt sufficient "give" in the roof lining material to allow the roof liner to drop this far. It might be possible to replace the part by loosening the roof liner attachments but leaving the sunroof aperture lining attached and slipping your hand in blind, and that would have been my first course of action if I hadnt been replacing the lining. Hopefully the picture, despite its poor quality, might be of help in navigating your way around if you decide to go in blind.

 

So this part came in from UK. Im in NYC. Very excited.

Now i know the headliner has to come down to install it, but my rear is sagging as is. If lets say I made a small hole, would I be able to install this part somehow to have the sunroof working again?

 

I wouldnt be thinking about cutting any holes just yet. That looks like the right hand part, same as the one I broke. I would aim to loosen the roof lining fastenings with the fabric still attached around the sunroof aperture itself. Lift the roof lining off of the little metal "tang" it rests on at around the C pillar, and it will fall several inches, possibly more depending how loose your fabric is. You should be able to insert your hand and find the rubber bung "blind" . By way of navigation clues, note in my photo that the bung is almost in line with the hole in the cant rail trim where the grab handle attaches. Viewing one of the youtube videos on how to change the roof lining will make life easier in terms of showing you where the fastenings are and how to remove them. Not at all difficult, but it will save you time and avoid unnecessary tears!

 

Thank you very much. I’ll do some research on ways to lower the headliner over the next few days and then try to tackle this project.

I really appreciate everyone’s input. I’d be lost without it.

I will post results as they happen.

Dave.