I'm having a bit of a struggle with my finish fwd panel. I pulled it out to re install the material and now every time I put the sunroof to tilt mode it "pops" one of the arms out of the back panel attachment points and the under panel sits tilted...I have to back it all the way out to fish the arm down and reinstall it to the back panel hole then when I try again it "pops" it off again. Everything looks clean, tidy and proper when it's all installed yet it keeps doing it...I've also made sure the panel is centered but that seems to not matter. It almost seems there would be a circlip on the stem of the arm as it fits through the rear panel hole but I see no facilities for one.

 

it takes a good bit of pressure to snap it in. Perhaps it's not getting fully seated.

 

It's fully seated and it must be for the clips to hold it up close to "flush" with the top panel when tilted. The problem isn't with the panel it's with the arm that extends down to the back panel, they keep popping out one side or the other which in turn drops one side of the upper panel.

 

I did a writeup several years ago about bending the steel fulcrum pin and NOT the cast alloy arm that fits in the plastic sliding trim holder.

Attempting to bend the arm will result in a broken arm and then the tilt/slide mechanism will need to be replaced. (ask me how I know??)

bob gauff

 

Interesting Bob....I've looked and looked at it and was befuddled as to why the "pin" didn't fit into the plastic hole further and the more I searched online the more I found this seems to be a fairly common issue with the x300/308 sunroof setup. I'm a little leery of bending the fulcrum mount/pivot pin for fear of breaking it too.

 

The cast arm will not bend (it is brittle).
The fulcrum pin is steel and will bend enough to engage the arm pin-to-plastic slider.

I remove the sliding roof panel and aim the arm straight up in the air.

Get some pliers to grip the pin and arm. Bend the pin slightly to the rear. Press the arm against spring pressure and see if the arm end pin fits deep enough in the plastic slider.

I do this a little at a time until it fits deep enough and then STOP.

Your other alternatives are to replace the tilt/slide on that side or close the roof and unplug the motor. (disable)

bob gauff

 

Update: cast arm does bend with no problem. My friend did his XJR-100 this week and I did mine minuets ago (2 cars done same way/no breakage) Took out center panel with roof open/tilted, grabbed arm in the middle from outside with extended needle nose vise grips and bent it 'outwards" quite a bit and put a nice arcing bend in it, now it fits nice and snug on both sides in the plastic hole on the back panel with no "popping" out when opening/tilting.