Panoramic Sunroof Malfunction in 2015 Genesis

[bigdaveinomaha]

I have a 2015 Genesis 3.8 Ultimate HTRAC and I'm sorry to report that my panoramic sunroof is having an issue. When I click the auto close button and the sunroof gets about halfway closed you can hear the motor start to strain. It sounds like it's experiencing resistance. Sometimes the anti-pinch function activates and the sunroof retracts and other times it'll just stop closing. The last time I tried to close it it failed to close 3 times and the only way I could get it to close was to use my hand to kind of help push it close. A trip to the dealership will be in my future

 

[Bourbonncigars]

I have a 2015 Genesis 3.8 Ultimate HTRAC and I'm sorry to report that my panoramic sunroof is having an issue. When I click the auto close button and the sunroof gets about halfway closed you can hear the motor start to strain. It sounds like it's experiencing resistance. Sometimes the anti-pinch function activates and the sunroof retracts and other times it'll just stop closing. The last time I tried to close it it failed to close 3 times and the only way I could get it to close was to use my hand to kind of help push it close. A trip to the dealership will be in my future

While I won't say it's a common problem, it's certainly not unheard of. There's many posts about it. My wife's first 2015 went to 92K miles without any sunroof issues. Her second 2015 (now with 45K miles) does have this problem.

 

[adamg]

Yes, known flaw in the sunroof on this model. My dealership is friendly enough to only charge $200 to clean and grease the sunroof, which gets it working for 6 months before needing service.

 

[G-329570]

Fortunately I'm still under warranty so this won't cost me anything, but I know all they're going to do is grease it so every time it happens out of warranty they're going to want to ding me.

 

[Phenix3st]

Mines been doing that a lot too. Really irritating.

 

[SuperKing]

Mine did this a few times but I closed it by holding the switch forward. Hasn't done it since.

 

[RyanB]

I would first try to reset the pano roof using the instructions in the manual. Mine started doing this the last time the worked on it and they finally said that it was binding and replaced the two black trim rails on the roof between the glass and the doors. I haven't had any more issues closing mine since then except for the tilt feature which closes and reopens immediately 1/2 the time.

 

[Alfer]

Yep. My 2015 AWD has same issue. They greased it up a few months ago when it was binding up but a little while back I noticed the closing of the roof has gotten a lot slower. Next oil change I'm going to get them to clean and lube it.

 

[adamg]

Fortunately I'm still under warranty so this won't cost me anything, but I know all they're going to do is grease it so every time it happens out of warranty they're going to want to ding me.

Let us know how that goes. They made me pay for the service, even while vehicle was under warranty. Now warranty is over. I tried asking for replacements parts, and convincing them mine is defective, but they didn't agree.

 

[skipgen]

Yep. My 2015 AWD has same issue. They greased it up a few months ago when it was binding up but a little while back I noticed the closing of the roof has gotten a lot slower. Next oil change I'm going to get them to clean and lube it.

Mine does pretty much the same thing... Sometimes I have to "help" it back into place. Don't use it very much here in Texas though, during HOT AF season!

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[greekgeek]

Mine had the same problem 1-2 years ago, and now the problem is back.

I really liked this car but the amount of small and large problems with mechanical and electrical components has been absurd.

 

[Markymark]

I have been driving various cars for over 30 years and one cardinal rule is to never touch the sunroof. Never open it, never close it and there should be no problems!

 

[carguy75]

I have been driving various cars for over 30 years and one cardinal rule is to never touch the sunroof. Never open it, never close it and there should be no problems!

LOL. Kind defeat the purpose of owning a sunroof if you never use it.

I personally make it a habit to use grease on the sunroof track/gears before it start to have binding issues which usually is caused by a lack of lubrication that put additional strain on the motors and gears due to extra friction.

It seems like our sunroofs were not properly lubricated from the factory.

 

[Markymark]

LOL. Kind defeat the purpose of owning a sunroof if you never use it.

I personally make it a habit to use grease on the sunroof track/gears before it start to have binding issues which usually is caused by a lack of lubrication that put additional strain on the motors and gears due to extra friction.

It seems like our sunroofs were not properly lubricated from the factory.

I get your point, but I am making it a point to not use or minimize use of as many electronic and mechanical gizmos as I can.

First, it's been in the shop for 8 days now due to dealer incompetence. So having anything go wrong and needing a dealer to fix it leads to a not insignificant chance the dealer service department will botch something else up.
Second, if I turn off things like the power rear shade and the haptic steering feedback and never use the sunroof, it means there's a lesser chance they'll fail. I have to use the seat coolers though. And the stereo. They are awesome.

 

[Bourbonncigars]

I'm using every single gadget my car has. I intentionally didn't buy a base Sonata.

 

[carguy75]

I get your point, but I am making it a point to not use or minimize use of as many electronic and mechanical gizmos as I can.

First, it's been in the shop for 8 days now due to dealer incompetence. So having anything go wrong and needing a dealer to fix it leads to a not insignificant chance the dealer service department will botch something else up.
Second, if I turn off things like the power rear shade and the haptic steering feedback and never use the sunroof, it means there's a lesser chance they'll fail. I have to use the seat coolers though. And the stereo. They are awesome.

I understand your point also. I always turn off the automatic seat exit function in my luxury cars to reduce the wear on the power seat motor. I had an 2004 Infinti FX45 that required a new seat motor due to the seat always moving when I enter the SUV which wore out the motor.

Now I turn the easy exit features off since I really do not need it to save the seat/steering wheel motors in my Genesis and my wife's Lexus RX350.

But it funny to have a car loaded with features that person is too afraid to use because they may break.

 

[umakegoodcookies]

I had my sunroof on my 15 Genesis jam so hard closing it the other day that I couldn't move it. I had the car for 1 hr. and it worked fine on the lot but I got it home and it froze hard when I tried to close it. I looked around online and noticed that people who said that they'd lubricated them didn't seem to respond further in threads. No one pronounced a permanent fix but all threads online about it just fizzle. So, I lubricated it.

I took silicone grease and used a small plastic tool from an interior clip removal set to get it in under the rubber as well as on it and in the groove for the track. Then I took some spray silicone and put the little plastic nozzle extension inside the rubber gasket and sprayed it as lightly as seemed sufficient. I didn't want it to go everywhere but I wanted some on the surface. If that sounds difficult just try spraying a bit and see how much comes out and remember that. Now the roof works better than new (to me). It seems to make less noise and goes faster. It sounds like that's just going to be a little bit of maintenance one has to do if one wants to use the sunroof. It takes a couple of minutes and costs a few cents. One side benefit is that those rubber gaskets over the track will be protected and last longer because of the silicone grease (or paste).

I did notice that the brackets on the back of the moveable part of the roof that slide in the tracks toward the back tend to rock a bit. When coming forward, if things are less than ideally lubricated, the brackets lean forward and sort of wedge themselves. Anyone with a roof that's sticking on it's way closed will be able to see this watching the brackets. There's a nut on each one of them near the roof but it seems nigh impossible to get to. I'm guessing though, that tightening that nut would mean less lubrication. My guess comes from the fact that the nut has a star or toothed washer behind it. Those are designed so that things don't rotate. In short, that bracket isn't supposed to do that. I did get a wrench on it and it was not difficult to move but it's easy to get it into a position in it's rotation where the wrench won't go on because you've got very little clearance to move it.

Also, that bracket's looseness might be a part of assembly. If you tightened it down hard while assembling, it would bind in the track unless you got it in the exact right position. So, leaving it a bit loose allows it to settle into the right spot. Unfortunately, once it's in position it's near impossible to complete the tightening. But, I'm guessing that if you did get that nut tight on each side many people's sunroof issues would be reduced or go away. If anyone figures out the tool that allows them to really tighten that down please let me know. Also, if you're going to tighten it make sure you do it when the roof is stopped after moving back. If it just moved forward then the bracket will be in the wrong position.

[I just figured out a very tedious way to tighten it. Get a very slim ratchet. I had a tiny low profile gearwrench from their microdriver set 85035 but the included socket is too deep. Luckily I had a shallower 8mm. Try to get it on the nut. If it's in the wrong position just keep moving the socket a bit and trying again until it slips on and tighten one tiny little bit. Even that very fine gearwrench won't have enough swing to keep ratcheting (supposed to work with just 5° swing. You have to remove it, adjust the socket's position, and try to grab it in a spot that will work again. That should tighten it but it's raining so I'll try later.]

 

[skipgen]

I have a 2015 Genesis 3.8 Ultimate HTRAC and I'm sorry to report that my panoramic sunroof is having an issue. When I click the auto close button and the sunroof gets about halfway closed you can hear the motor start to strain. It sounds like it's experiencing resistance. Sometimes the anti-pinch function activates and the sunroof retracts and other times it'll just stop closing. The last time I tried to close it it failed to close 3 times and the only way I could get it to close was to use my hand to kind of help push it close. A trip to the dealership will be in my future

I have to "help" mine back into place as well - that's when I know that it's time for lubrication. Even then I still help pull mine into position out of habit...

 

[umakegoodcookies]

I have to "help" mine back into place as well - that's when I know that it's time for lubrication. Even then I still help pull mine into position out of habit...

Of course help it shut if you need it closed and it's stuck but it's a bit of a bad habit. While it might make things a bit easier on your motor it's going to wear the tracks because you'll likely wait longer between bouts of greasing it up. If it hesitates at all lube it!

 

[Secondgensedan]

just experienced this with my sunroof as well. Took it to the dealer and it was still under warranty so they lubed up the sunroof tracks. But, now i am gun shy to use it because i dont have a ton of time left on my warranty.