Toyota Tercel 1985 SR5 4WD Wagon

[JimK]

I was happy to sell it to YoYo. I wasn't willing to do the work to restore it: much too busy with other things. I'm looking forward to seeing how the restoration turns out.

[Mattel]

Glad it worked out and you helped keep another one on the road! cheers

[YoYoTercel]

Mattel, could you help me by giving me some insights on the tricks on removing the sunroof and easing "congestion" in the drain pipes. I might have to take off the sunroof for some rust repairs. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[Petros]

the factor device manual has a procedure, and an exploded view of the components, for the sun roof.

I had to pull one apart to fix it, drive was jammed and it would not close (previous owner sealed a piece of plexy glass down on the roof...worked). the assembly that holds the drive is riveted together, it was straight forward to get it removed as a unit, but I had to drill out the rivets of the assembly to open it up and diagnose the problem. It was an easy fix (drive was caught on a corner, I filed the sharp corner smooth and greased the whole drive mechanism). I used pop-rivets to reassemble the drive, and than screwed it back into the roof cavity. worked perfectly after that.

[Mattel]

Hi YoYo.

Does the sunroof move electrically or manually? how bad is the rust and have you been able to assertain which of the corner drains are blocked? try a hose lightly spraying water on each of the corners to see which ones are allowing the water to drain under the car if working correctly. you may need to try the car on different slopes to see how the water is pooling. Tell me how you go with all this. i'd like to know. cheers

I have not taken the sunroof out of my previous Tercel 4wd but the one in my car seemed very close to the one in my present car - the successor. A Corolla 4wd Wagon Alltrac and being as Toyota seemed to use a very similar design in the two cars. Rust is an issue and I managed to find a glass sunroof from Japan to fit mine. but this was not available on the Tercel
If the leak is the only issue and you cant open the sunroof electrically you have to remove the two screws on the above head switch and use a screw driver to manually open the roof
once open you can see with a torch that inside the tray which the sunroof sits in. The seal on the roof isnt that tight so water is allowed to go in the tray. there is a drain hole in each corner going to long tubes that carry water down the a pillar and c pillar. usually the front ones block and the owner will seal it right up. it usually blocks up the top rather than bottom of the drain. so you might be able to do what I did last weekend and clear the drains with a coat hanger with the sunroof open. and use a little drano to clear the tubes or pull the a pillar covers from inside and look up to where the tubes hit the tray. behind the c pillars (or perhaps D?) are the rear ones.
Here. one of members explains how the sunroof works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWmQRb5qKoE

Taking the sunroof off is a fair bit of work. There is a design fault where water sits in the rubber seal around the rim of the panel and eventually rusts between the panel and the subframe. the rust is really hard to remove. see the facebook album below if is is bad on the surface it will be really bad underneath. It really depends on how good you are at bodywork and welding or happy to pay someone to bare metal restore it for you as these panels are usually all rusty now replacements are hard to get.

There are three ways to take it off. Here is one way. where you just take the panel off. by carefully prying off the interior cover and accessing the bolts from underneath. it is sprung and will jump out be careful of shims and washers falling out as we were not and made it hard to replace
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Corolla.Ae9 ... 7169951463

The second way is to pull the panel out with the track where you access from above by opening it fully and removing the air deflector from above and motor from below access the 10 or so bolts that hold the track down and pull it up and forward as there is no access to the back of the track it is held in by some hooks. I prefer this way as all the mechanics come out in one.

The third way is to remove all the interior headliners and plastics above window level and pull the whole tray the sunroof sits in but you shouldn't need to do that. I would use the second way as it removes all the mechanical part in one and you can lube the tracks without getting any oil on the interior of your car.

[YoYoTercel]

Thanks. Mattel. I'll check the mechanical situation first, open it manually and then check the hoses. After that, some sanding and rust repair.

Much appreciated.

[YoYoTercel]

Thanks also Petros. Glad you were able to make it work out. Will look further into my situation. Rust is the main issue I have on the sunroof.

[Mattel]

Also if its not working electrically it could be the sunroof fuse.