2006 Mercury Milan Sunroof issue and AC issue.

[Edgy]

k - the mom drives this car and it's 06 Milan Premier w/V6 with Sunroof/Moonroof.

Sunroof - it used to function fine but now the fully closed position is no longer flush with the car's roof. Now it stops with a tilt in the back causing about 1/4 - 1/2 inch gap. I'm hoping it's an easy fix but am certainly no mechanic so if anyone has any knowledge/advice, TIA.

On a side note - I am fairly certain that the dealer had his in-house shop "create" the sunroof for this car because that was one of the "must-have" features on mom's list and he didn't have any inventory of the Milan with sunroof.

AC - apparently there's "some" known issues with this model in 2006 where from my understanding some sort of temperature sensor for the AC and/or Automatic Climate Control system is known to become defective (malfunctions) within a year or 2 from the date of purchase. Well - it happened to mom's car. And no, she didn't take it to the dealer before the 3 year warranty ran out.

Anyways, after researching this on the net - the replacement part is like $30 but it is located somewhere DEEP inside the dash, way behind the stereos and the labor cost to get this thing replaced is estimated at around $500+.

I'm a computer nerd (hardware/software) but definitely no mechanic - try it on my own or have to cough up the $500+ in labor? Any alternatives?

And btw - she (mom) lives in Southern California so that's all I get - complaints about the car AC not working.

Many TIA.

Sunroof photos:

It looks like the issue now is variable. Sometimes the closed position is with rear of the sunroof popped up and now it's with the rear closed down too much as seen in one of the pics. Not sure what the change was but the car did have some battery issues recently which might have been the culprit. Bottom line, it does not close flush - I can incrementally adjust it to be flush but it does not close flush automatically.

TIA.

 

[BassBomb]

AC Milan?

 

[Pacfanweb]

Can you take a pic of the sunroof (top of the car, outside) and post it? I can tell you immediately if it's factory or not.

It's possible you can adjust it.

If it's factory, it can be re-initialized and fix your problem.

I would recommend that nobody EVER have a sunroof installed in a car that doesn't have one. Every single one in the history of the automobile is a butcher job, and none of them last and you can't fix them after they get older. They suck.

Plus, the roofs have stiffening from the factory that isn't accounted for in aftermarkets, and the headliners are also butchered to make the opening.

 

[EagleKeeper]

$500 from dealer or a local mechanic shop for the AC system

 

[Zenmervolt]

Pulling the dashboard from a car to get at something behind it can be a royal pain. While it's do-able in one 8 to 12 hour day by a home mechanic, it's not something I'd recommend for a person who hasn't done much mechanical work before. At $500 I'd just have a mechanic do it. That way if there's a problem later with something rattling or whatnot you have someone else to yell at.

ZV

 

[phucheneh]

I would pretty much one billion percent guarantee that a dealership did not install a sunroof.

You need to figure out if the sunroof issue is due the mechanism not fully closing or simply the adjustment of the glass. I would guess the latter; it is not uncommon for the bolts to not be terribly tight from the factory. Or the panel just poorly adjusted to begin with. The usual complaints I always got were wind noise, though (front too high).

The glass should kinda have two 'L' brackets on the bottom that connect it to the track mechanism. If you remove the little accordion flaps on the interior side (should just be clipped in, but be aware that it's 7 year old plastic and you might break it), there will be two bolts on each side. I'm gonna guess Torx on that car. Loosen bolts just a bit until glass is movable, and see if it can be positioned properly. You want it flat and even, but more importantly, just a hair below the sheetmetal surrounding it. A tiny bit above at the front, and air will get sucked into the drain channel at speed and be quite annoying.

A/C complaint: no idea. Far too vague. Nothing on the 'automatic climate control' side should require dash removal, with the except of the blend door motor, commonly. Sometimes recirc and vent control motors are also inaccessible; but mostly it ends up being the blend door. Ambient (outside) temp and interior temp sensors should be easily accessible.

Maybe there's an evaporator temp sensor.

I would give the actual symptoms, rather than just 'it's some expensive widget'.

 

[phucheneh]

Damn I'm such a nice guy...I googled it for you.

http://www.justanswer.com/ford/1i7jg-trying-replace-evaporator-discharge-air-temp-sensor.html

Lots of hits for 'evap temp sensor.' Actually, they call it an 'evaporator discharge temp sensor.' Which sounds funnily like they're just measuring the air temp inside the vents; not actually monitoring the evaporator core. I.e. their design is retarded. Hoorah Ford.

 

[BUTCH1]

Pulling the dashboard from a car to get at something behind it can be a royal pain. While it's do-able in one 8 to 12 hour day by a home mechanic, it's not something I'd recommend for a person who hasn't done much mechanical work before. At $500 I'd just have a mechanic do it. That way if there's a problem later with something rattling or whatnot you have someone else to yell at.

ZV

My Ford went through 2 heater cores in 8 years, eats an entire weekend, I used one day to get the dash off, the second to replace the core and reinstall the dash, they make every electrical connector with hardly any slack to reach behind and disconnect it, my hands looked like I scrubbed them with wire brush after completing the job. OP, if you've got the $500 let someone else do it, even more so considering you have little experience with working on cars.

 

[Pacfanweb]

I would pretty much one billion percent guarantee that a dealership did not install a sunroof.

You need to figure out if the sunroof issue is due the mechanism not fully closing or simply the adjustment of the glass. I would guess the latter; it is not uncommon for the bolts to not be terribly tight from the factory. Or the panel just poorly adjusted to begin with. The usual complaints I always got were wind noise, though (front too high).

The glass should kinda have two 'L' brackets on the bottom that connect it to the track mechanism. If you remove the little accordion flaps on the interior side (should just be clipped in, but be aware that it's 7 year old plastic and you might break it), there will be two bolts on each side. I'm gonna guess Torx on that car. Loosen bolts just a bit until glass is movable, and see if it can be positioned properly. You want it flat and even, but more importantly, just a hair below the sheetmetal surrounding it. A tiny bit above at the front, and air will get sucked into the drain channel at speed and be quite annoying.

.

I can say with absolute certainty that dealerships have sunroofs put into cars all the time. They don't do it themselves....they sub them to interior/top shops, but they do have them installed, frequently. And all of them suck.

If the glass is simply out of adjustment, you can usually perform the initialization procedure, which I'll post if OP can provide a pic so I can see if it's factory or not.

Otherwise, there are probably still adjustment screws, but adjustment is limited on an aftermarket.

 

[Edgy]

Appreciate the replies y'all.

I will post a pic of sunroof in the morning and see if that can help ya'll help me .

Thanks to Phucheneh - the picture illustration gives me much better idea of the job involved and I agree with all your assessments that it certainly is not a job for myself... Sigh.. I can build a damn computer in like 10 minutes but have absolutely no affinity for car repair.

The one major concern I have is if I pay $500 to have this replaced, will it become like bi-yearly ordeal considering that original factory part misbehaves in 2-3 years?

The sunroof WAS installed on the spot - I remember this because the my mother commented to the dealer that this one particular car had everything she wanted except the sunroof and the dealer had someone drive off with the car while she negotiated. Little while later the same car showed up with sunroof and negotiation started again.

I would have talked her out of buying it but she negotiated a $26900 sticker (pre-sunroof) down to $24000 out the door (with new sunroof) - which I thought was quite a feat considering that she doesn't even speak English...

 

[Meghan54]

I can say with absolute certainty that dealerships have sunroofs put into cars all the time. They don't do it themselves....they sub them to interior/top shops, but they do have them installed, frequently. And all of them suck.

So damned true. Even worse is the dealer sub'ing out the job to their own body shop. At least a dedicated top/interior shop makes their living on trying to do a good job....the dealer's body shop, not so much, I'd wager.

And you're spot on about dealers doing them and doing them all the time. Even heard a Honda dealer offer a "free sunroof" on a Pilot to get a deal to close. Shameless, they are.

I would pretty much one billion percent guarantee that a dealership did not install a sunroof.

^This, not so true.....at all, despite a "billion percent guarantee", which is worth about as much as these electrons I'm utilizing right now to type.

 

[LTC8K6]

Dealers don't even work on the factory sunroofs if there is a problem. They sub that out, too.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Dealers don't even work on the factory sunroofs if there is a problem. They sub that out, too.

Yep, that's where I come in.

I've replaced quite a few in Fusions/Milans. The mechanics hate them because they don't do enough to get good at them, so they can't usually beat the warranty book time. Beating the time is the name of the game.

I can, though. And they're happy to let me, while they go on to do something else more "mechanical".

 

[phucheneh]

Uh, I've worked on plenty of sunroofs. If a dealer mechanic can't deal with that, they should go back to Jiffy Lube.

Still have never heard of or seen a non-factory sunroof. Dealers around here sure as shit do not do that. Cut the roof out of a modern unibody car and slap a generic sunroof in it? Is it made of cloth? What decade are you guys living in?

 

[LTC8K6]

Uh, I've worked on plenty of sunroofs. If a dealer mechanic can't deal with that, they should go back to Jiffy Lube.

Still have never heard of or seen a non-factory sunroof. Dealers around here sure as shit do not do that. Cut the roof out of a modern unibody car and slap a generic sunroof in it? Is it made of cloth? What decade are you guys living in?

As far as I know, no dealers here do anything related to sunroofs. They don't install them, service them, or even clean the drains.

The vehicle is sent to a specialty company for the job, or if it can be done on site, you wait until a guy from that company makes his visit to the dealer, and bring your car in that day.

 

[Meghan54]

While most dealers don't do sunroofs at all, an quick search showed more than a few dealers have taken on installing sunroofs via their auto body shop than I thought. The various car make forums are littered with comments such as that, although some could be mistaken as to who actually installed their roofs.

Uh, I've worked on plenty of sunroofs. If a dealer mechanic can't deal with that, they should go back to Jiffy Lube.

Still have never heard of or seen a non-factory sunroof. Dealers around here sure as shit do not do that. Cut the roof out of a modern unibody car and slap a generic sunroof in it? Is it made of cloth? What decade are you guys living in?

The question is do you even pay attention to what's out there?

Glass sunroofs became a large aftermarket segment when convertible tops died during the late '70's- early '80's. Heck, one of the largest, ASC, was---and maybe still is in a few cases---was the company some auto manufacturers, such as GM, Chrysler, etc., used to convert hard tops to convertibles when converts began their comeback. It was such a low volume production/conversion that the manufacturers weren't willing to invest in the production and instead farmed out the conversion to ASC, among others.

Heck, GM used ASC as a source of T-top installs during the early years of T-tops.

In addition to ASC, there are Webasto, Hollandia, SFC as other large aftermarket sunroof makers & installers, although install is usually taken care of by a local affiliate.

Perhaps you should search out and inform yourself instead of making blanket statements about things you know nothing about.

 

[phucheneh]

The question is, can you read?

Or maybe you were just answering my questions with 'why yes, I am stuck in the 80's.'

Thanks for the history lesson. In the modern era, sunroofs are a factory option.

 

[Edgy]

Uhh... I hope y'all can help me if the pictures help with the sunroof issue.

TIA

 

[Pacfanweb]

That is a factory sunroof. They did NOT install that at the dealer, it came like that from the factory.

Here is the initialization procedure, it's easy and you can do it in your driveway. It fixes nearly every one I've seen that didn't close all the way.

Only ones it doesn't fix are the ones where the glass won't close all the way on just one side...on those, I've had to replace them sunroof rail. (or track, as some call it)

Make sure the front door is open during this step.


Turn the ignition to the RUN position.

For a new roof opening panel motor, press and hold the roof opening panel control switch forward until the roof opening panel glass moves to the full VENT position.

Cycle the ignition from ON to OFF and then back to ON.

Within 5 seconds :
Press and RELEASE the roof opening panel control switch forward.
Press and HOLD the roof opening panel control switch forward.

Continue holding roof opening panel control switch forward for 5 seconds after the roof opening panel motor stops moving to confirm this position to the roof opening panel motor.

NOTE: Only complete open and close motions count towards the cycle count. If the roof opening panel reverses during closing operations, perform the cycles with the roof opening panel control switch continuously held during the closing motions. Release the roof opening panel switch and test the system for normal operation by checking the one-touch open, one-touch close, one-touch vent and close operations. Five complete cycles must be performed for the roof opening panel motor to be properly initialized.

If roof opening panel does not operate correctly, repeat Steps 2 through 6

 

[Pacfanweb]

The question is, can you read?

Or maybe you were just answering my questions with 'why yes, I am stuck in the 80's.'

Thanks for the history lesson. In the modern era, sunroofs are a factory option.

And dealers still have aftermarket sunroofs installed on a regular basis. I looked at two today.

I won't do much with the aftermarket units. I'll clear the drains, and sometimes I've rerouted the drains when the idiots that installed them didn't do it right, but that's about it. Otherwise, I send them back to whoever installed them.

 

[Pacfanweb]

As far as I know, no dealers here do anything related to sunroofs. They don't install them, service them, or even clean the drains.

The vehicle is sent to a specialty company for the job, or if it can be done on site, you wait until a guy from that company makes his visit to the dealer, and bring your car in that day.

That would be me around here.

Some dealerships around here do everything, they don't sublet anything except maybe towing.

Some sub damn near everything. It's easy to tell which ones, I show up and there'll be 2-3 other vendors in the lot, doing whatever specialty they do.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Have you tried the initialization procedure yet?