Hi, I just bought a 2008 XC90 3.2 and there are a few wear issues I was hoping to find help fixing.

The biggest problem for me is the sunroof won't open or close fully. When traveling at highway speeds I can hear some wind noise with the cover open and am afraid to get a carwash that has the potential to lead to further problems. Not being familiar with the switch operations (Have had other cars with working sunroofs) I can open the roof to the vent position and find a spot that sounds the quietest but when I pull back on the switch to open the sunroof I get this loud angry clicking that sounds like the motor is trying to retract the sr. There doesn't seem to be any give like I would expect if the tracks were bent or blocked. Not being familiar with the operations I would guess maybe the cables are fully out/in so there isn't anywhere for the motor to send it? Also, if it helps, when looking at the sr from outside it looks fully sealed but if you press down on the further back edge there's some travel to confirm that it isn't fully seated.

Nothing I've searched for online seems to have the same issue I'm experiencing, does anyone have any idea of something I could try? I would rather find a solution I can do myself but I'm not opposed to taking it somewhere but I'd rather have an idea of what I'm asking a technician to do rather than pay for their time while they become acquainted with the problem. If I did take it to a shop, any guesses on a reasonable price I'd expect to pay?

 

The grinding noise you are hearing is the gear on the sunroof motor (typical motor pictured below) grinding away at the "teeth" on the typical cable pictured below. When you hear that noise usually the only fix is new cables, and repair what jammed or caused the cables to get damaged, The gear on the motor is a harder material and is usually OK. There are two cables - a left and a right and they have to be perfectly aligned/timed. Usually there is a problem on one side and it strips or "jumps time" on only one side, damaging one cable more than the other. Then the sunroof gets pulled and pushed at an angle. Sometimes if you can realign/re-time the cables you can get the sunroof closed. Sometimes the motor has simply worked loose and after you align the cables the sunroof works ok again. You can spend a few hours replacing cables.