[Denversubie11]

My wife and I just picked our Ascent up today and we absolutely love it except for one big issue...our moonroof has issues closing. When we push the button to close it will start closing and then open up again. Sometimes it will go 4 or 5 inches and then open again. Other times it will go 2 or 3 inches. It's really inconsistent. After about 20 plus tries it finally closed.

Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[Gueromeister]

My wife and I just picked our Ascent up today and we absolutely love it except for one big issue...our moonroof has issues closing. When we push the button to close it will start closing and then open up again. Sometimes it will go 4 or 5 inches and then open again. Other times it will go 2 or 3 inches. It's really inconsistent. After about 20 plus tries it finally closed.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Major issue? Might seem like a overly dramatic title description without knowing what the exact cause etc., solution is ?
Perhaps “moonroof issue” or something like that? Would obviously be a big deal to you....most people......just getting their new car....
Just sayin.....

 

[Sparkland]

It sounds like a major issue to me, in defense of the OP. It must be something causing the moonroof to bind. I would keep it closed, since it is getting colder out and have your Subaru dealer address the issue. There is not much you can do but look for an obvious cause for the binding. It may just need lubrication.

 

[Orestes85]

could need lubrication or there could be a stick or something in there tripping it up. I'm not certain, but i believe the moonroof has the same sort of feature as the power liftgate where if it detects anything that might be a child's finger in it's way, it will stop and reverse.

 

[kathytn]

Major issue? Might seem like a overly dramatic title description without knowing what the exact cause etc., solution is ?
Perhaps “moonroof issue” or something like that? Would obviously be a big deal to you....most people......just getting their new car....
Just sayin.....

It is a MAJOR issue if you are caught in a rain storm. And, it leaves your vehicle "unsecure" subject to being broken into very easily.

 

[adx]

I agree this is a serious issue, but I’m not sure why people post things like this without doing the obvious thing which is to just drive right back to the dealership. I know some have a significant drive to the closest dealership, but if that’s the case you really should check all this stuff out before you accept the vehicle.

 

[Denversubie11]

Um yeah it is a major issue if you cant close the moonroof and a storm rolls through. Or someone could easily get into your car with the moonroof open.

 

[Gueromeister]

It sounds like a major issue to me, in defense of the OP. It must be something causing the moonroof to bind. I would keep it closed, since it is getting colder out and have your Subaru dealer address the issue. There is not much you can do but look for an obvious cause for the binding. It may just need lubrication.

A major issue to them but the solution may be simple such as lubrication ..... .that was the point I poorly(apparently) tried to make.:tango_face_surprise

 

[Jason]

Yeah, sounds like there is a part of the track that isn't lubricated. The windows do the same thing. As soon as they hit that sticky patch they go back down because the sensor is assuming it is hitting a hand or a head or something dangerous.

Just clean out the track and see if you can find any gunk or non-lubricated portion. Take it to the dealer and they can clean it/lube it. It takes 5 minutes. I've had it done a couple times for my customers in the past.


Not a major issue imo

 

[Gueromeister]

It is a MAJOR issue if you are caught in a rain storm. And, it leaves your vehicle "unsecure" subject to being broken into very easily.

Of course you’re right in that case..I thought they said they had closed it...and would probably have the dealer fix it before trying to open it again....
I was thinking in terms of a mechanical issue being easily, simply corrected, like lubrication.. didn’t mean to minimize their emotional distress ....:angel:

 

[Jason Rosa]

What was the solution to this issue? Got mine last week. They opened and closed it at the dealership just fine, first time I open it, it does this. I was able to get it to close by applying some force in the closing direction while holding the close button.

 

[Jason Rosa]

Update to my issue... Took it to the dealer, they said it looked like there was some binding happening in the moonroof rails and they looked askew. They are replacing the frame / rails for the moonroof. Looks like a factory quality defect in my case. They're saying a 5 day wait on parts.

If it's of any help to anyone, when the sunroof was stuck open, I held the sunroof button for 10-15 sec (like pushed straight up, not in the normal closing direction), this overrides the normal maximum force settings of the sunroof motor and combined with me pulling forward on the sunroof panel a small amount I got it to close and it allowed me to get it to the dealer without letting it sit open through bad weather.

 

[Tfcantorna]

I have the same issue. Moonroof won’t close. Same unpredictability, same problem. Here’s the real drag; brought the car to Subaru, and they said there appears to be nothing wrong. Brought the car back a few weeks later when it would not close and they agreed it required repair. 5 days later I get the car back, after Subaru claimed the root cause was “debris.” That was this morning. Tonight, the moonroof won’t close.
I like the car. This issue, though, is really tarnishing the Subaru experience.

 

[MAGNUMB]

That sucks that car manufactures still have a hard time perfecting the moonroof. I've had a lot issues with almost all the cars i purchased with moonroofs. Stopped optioning that awhile ago.
Between leaks, Rattles, headliner issues, rust and being stuck open or closed. plus the fact i just don't use it all that often. It also reduces headroom up to 3 inches and add a lot of weight to the top of the car.

 

[Sigmonster]

That sucks that car manufactures still have a hard time perfecting the moonroof. I've had a lot issues with almost all the cars i purchased with moonroofs. Stopped optioning that awhile ago.
Between leaks, Rattles, headliner issues, rust and being stuck open or closed. plus the fact i just don't use it all that often. It also reduces headroom up to 3 inches and add a lot of weight to the top of the car.

I'm with you Mag. Personally, if I'm going to deal with these potential headaches, I'm going to go full-monty and buy a full-on drop-top. And use lots of hyphenated words in the process.

 

[Cyberquadracer]

We bought our limited ascent about two months ago and have the exact same issue.Im afraid to take it back to the dealer because I don’t know how well trained their mechanics are.Im afraid if I let them mess with it they might do something that will cause it to start leaking.This IS a MAJOR issue when you spend that much money and then find out others are having the same issue in such a short amount of time.My car is spotless and there is plenty of grease in the tracks

 

[woodcan]

That sucks that car manufactures still have a hard time perfecting the moonroof. I've had a lot issues with almost all the cars i purchased with moonroofs. Stopped optioning that awhile ago.
Between leaks, Rattles, headliner issues, rust and being stuck open or closed. plus the fact i just don't use it all that often. It also reduces headroom up to 3 inches and add a lot of weight to the top of the car.

We've never had a sun/moonroof in any of our cars and have never wanted one because of fear of leaks or other issues since we like to keep our cars a long time. That said, we were bummed that we were pretty much forced to get one on the Ascent unless we got the base model.

 

[SeaRay310DA]

That sucks that car manufactures still have a hard time perfecting the moonroof. I've had a lot issues with almost all the cars i purchased with moonroofs. Stopped optioning that awhile ago.
Between leaks, Rattles, headliner issues, rust and being stuck open or closed. plus the fact i just don't use it all that often. It also reduces headroom up to 3 inches and add a lot of weight to the top of the car.

If I could have gotten a Limited with an option package that gave me Option 23 WITHOUT the moonroof (which I think is mostly just the HK stereo upgrade), I might have done it.

I had my first moonroof in my last car, and at first I was like "whee! moonroof!" and five minutes later, I was like "it's too bright/too hot/too windy" and I think I opened it intentionally less than 10 times after that, even keeping the interior shade closed all the time. The "tilt" feature was occasionally useful for venting the car. Mine actually leaked water a few times, and IIRC there was some kind of class action suit filed against Volvo for drainage issues (there was a drain with hose which was prone to blockage apparently, though mine always drained when I tested it at home).

I don't miss it -- it's one more mechanical thing to go wrong, and the larger panoramic moonroof just seems like more mechanical and leakage risks.

 

[SeaRay310DA]

I agree this is a serious issue, but I’m not sure why people post things like this without doing the obvious thing which is to just drive right back to the dealership. I know some have a significant drive to the closest dealership, but if that’s the case you really should check all this stuff out before you accept the vehicle.

I sort of agree with this, but I'm also inclined to see this as a bit of fan-driven gatekeeping. There is a bit of a tendency for people to exaggerate what are really small problems, and sometimes worse to sort of actively promote them as a major, model or brand defect ("Ascents have major CVT transmission problems").

But I kind of get it, especially when people have brand-new cars with consequential problems. Cars are expensive, dealers can be real jerks to deal with and at times the manufacturer can make it worse with onerous warranty standards that can make the fix a colossal hassle.. So it's not hard to see why people can get a bit panicky and act like the sky is falling.

On the other side, though, is I've been involved in more forums than I can count where brand/model/product fans want to gatekeep problems to the point of blaming the owner or downplaying it, especially if they are fairly skilled with the item in question and have implemented user hack #23 that "solves" the problem someone complains about. I think this is a problem, too. Way too many companies bury their problems and go into denial mode. You really need a pretty neutral forum that's open to criticism for most anything these days.

I don't think this forum comes close to that, but I also don't think it contributes too much to scold someone for taking their own problem seriously. In objective terms, not closing is a major moonroof problem. Sure, it's a finite system and can get fixed via warranty, but it's not like this happens overnight while you sleep. You have to give up the car, maybe take time off work, arrange alternate transportation, deal with other life disruption related to compromised transportation, and that's just the beginning if the problem is intermittent or the dealer doesn't deal with it well.

I threw a tantrum in my last car's service area once because they "fixed" a problem with a side mirror housing which then came off again and I got charged a second time to fix it right when it turned out the part actually had to be replaced. I charge clients by the hour, and I was out $500 in lost billing over a really trivial repair because I had to back a second time to get it fixed right AND they wanted to charge me again. That's why people freak out about this, because "get the dealer to fix it" has a non-zero chance of not working like it should.

 

[JackyR]

My wife and I just picked our Ascent up today and we absolutely love it except for one big issue...our moonroof has issues closing. When we push the button to close it will start closing and then open up again. Sometimes it will go 4 or 5 inches and then open again. Other times it will go 2 or 3 inches. It's really inconsistent. After about 20 plus tries it finally closed.

Has anyone else had this issue?