From one of my customers:
ukmat71 01-28-14, 06:55 AM not sure if anyone remembers but i put a post up last year mentioning a knocking sound coming from the roof when i go over bumps in the road. upon inspection i was missing the rubber shoes that fit onto the slide bracket for the sunroof.Also reading a few posts where the sunroof glass had actually shattered i thought this could possibly be one of the causes. this was also the reason i had to push the roof glass upwards at the rear whilst pushing the open button to get it over the roof lip (those that have the same problem will know what i mean there) asked Cadillac Europe for a price for the missing rubber shoes , and they came back with something that made me spit my coffee out it was so funny We have info on the roof parts required. They are not available in Europe at the moment, £197.97 plus vat each when available. Part-numbers-25747592 & 25747593. it appears i have to purchase the whole bracket (when they become available) quick conversion £240 inc vat works out at around $400 a side for , $800 total...... I told them it could wait at that price i could probably get the sunroof glass included. so the search began , thanks to this forum i found a guy called Ben , goes by ultra680sp on here, he has a 3d printer, new technology to me but from research it prints things layer by layer to make 3d plastic parts. he told me he can supply a kit that would enable me to repair the knocking noise and enable the roof to open again without having to push it upwards. in total the whole kit alone with 4 glide shoes, 3 tubes of silicon grease (Rheosil) ,4 brushes (ones i dont use will be perfect for my daughters make up parties) and full instructions only cost with shipping $70. bit of a no brainer for me , even i could work out the math, a saving of over $700 received the kit a few days later wrapped up in a nice copy of the Wall Street Journal (what strange long and thin newspapers you have in the US , all the time i have stayed at my vacation home in Florida i have never read one yet, we have short fat ones in the UK) so after a bit of reading the news from October 3rd 2013 i am now ready to fit them. only factor that is against me is the weather here in the UK , some of you may know we have had the worse weather for years , since coming back from Florida for thanksgiving we have had wind , rain , snow , wind , tidle surges , flooding , wind, rain need i go on. what i would give for a nice weekend so I can spend the time to actually fix this issue. photos hopefully will appear below. The shoes look a little larger than the rubber ones (only managed to find 1 rubber one , but may find them all when i clean all the tracks out) but I am hoping they will stop the metal to metal contact and raise the glass by around 1mm which should be all it needs to get over the roof lip. So when I eventually get round to fitting them I will update you guys again but what with the weather being horrible and the putting of of both my tax returns every day until the deadline (UK ones due in 2 days so leaving it a little short) still have a month or 2 to file my US returns. everything is delayed. anyway on with the pics , thanks again to Ben ( ultra680sp ) for the kit. 01-29-14, 06:19 AM great information...look forward to reading more on this after your install... Bill Professor Wizard 01-29-14, 12:05 PM Wow.. someone actually using a 3D printer to actually make something useful! For sure... keep us updated! bendebusk 01-30-14, 03:24 PM Sounds like the ultra view option may have been unnecessary in the UK...yep, it's raining! :) ukmat71 04-05-14, 12:53 PM Been meaning to do this for ages now , but the sun has been shining and the wifes away for the weekend so took the sensible option of fixing the roof whilst she's away. could not take pictures though as camera is with the wife. so will try to explain what i did. It took around 2 hours from start to finish, and relatively easy to do , even just with little me. open the roof around 8-10 inches. unscrewed the roof glass (4 screws roughly each corner) carefully removed the glass and layed it on my lawn, (better to have an extra person help to do this as i almost dropped it climbing down) removed small plastic end part of roof rail, for anyone that doent know there is a plastic lug sticking into the roof underneath and even after unscrewing the 2 bolts holding it you dont know. i just levered it up with a small pry bar. took the offending rear guides out and tried to work out how to fit the new shoes to them. ended up wrapping ptfe tape around the metal guide plate to build up enough so that the new shoes would be a tight fit,cut it down with a hobby knife to fit the new shoes so they would be a prefect fit. i also used a metal file to smooth the shoe surfaces that would slide in the rails. cleaned the rails out with hoover, brush and some old rags used the Rheosil to lubricate all the rails , making sure to get into the hidden parts that you cannot see, slid the brackets back and forth a few time to spread the lube around. almost dropped the glass again trying to get it back in place so help even more vital for this bit, its quite heavy the glass not a good idea climbing up again on your own. re-attached the 4 bolts to each corner. turned ignition on , closed roof. then pressed the open button, the blind started moving back then the glass moved back without assistance from me. not taken for a test drive , but already i know the glass is in so much tighter now so hopefully my knocking sound will have disapeared. there must have been around 10mm of movement before , thats down to around 1mm so after owning my SRX for almost a year i think its back to all being fixed , all by myself , with a little help from the garage when i first collected her. just awaiting my paint shop to re-spray my rear door again from when daughter slid her cycle along it. (they got the wrong black , apparently theres over 400 black paints for cars , i thought that would have been the easy one not to mess up.) and it should be like a new car again. thanks again Ben ( ultra680sp ) for supplying the shoes, great items , and much less drag than the old rubber ones that were fitted. ultra680sp
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AuthorBen Hanks- Engineer with background in Engines and new technology. Archives
September 2014
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