Compounding sunroof calamity

I took my car into a paint shop, and they removed the sunroof panel by way of the 4 torx. All was well until they went to reattach the panel and started fiddling with the roof button like it was a Honda. Concurrently, during that stay, someone there ran the battery down and the sunroof CPU forgot it's way. As they fiddled further, the 4 rail attachment points receded deep into the roofline. At some point, someone hit the roof tilt button and it is somewhere in a tilt cycle within the roofline (didn't even know that was possible) - thrusting headliner down and buckling the sheet metal on the roof from the inside out. A bit of a disaster. The manual close with 4.55mm hex was not spinning at all and we didn't want to force anything (cause that is almost always bad in a 20 year old car). My question for anyone who may know, and have sympathy is: is there some way to arrest this situation and "close" the sunroof so that I can attach the roof panel? If I turn ignition on/off, can I abort the lift cycle and get it sliding again? Maybe this is easy? 🤞 Roof tray fully recessed into roofline.

You're probably going to need to remove the headliner to access the entire sunroof assembly. And then you're going to need to take your car to a shop that actually knows what the hell they are doing.

On a high note, now that you'll be getting a new roof panel, you might as well go for a GT3 skin without the sunroof.

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Strangely, a sunroof delete will add value to the car.

I think the first step would be to disconnect and take out the sunroof motor. Cover the dash, center console and seats with a heavy blanket because that motor will drop like a rock. Then maybe...just maybe crawl in the back and pull back on the rear headliner attachment point and drop the rear part of the headliner then see if you can reach in there and push the whole sunroof carriage forward.

Alas, I live in the tropics (no track access), so with the notoriously crappy 996 hvac, the sunroof and window are essential functions for ventilation every drive. The exterior roof damage can be repaired like it didn't happen, but it's the sunroof rails that I worry about. Part of me wants to just complete the tilt cycle and see where we are. Probably a bad idea though. In the past when I had a sticky sunroof, I'd coax it out little by little, turning car ignition off at max progress and letting it rest for awhile to think about giving more. Always seemed to work out after 1 or 2 "rests", and then a "retrain". A roof liner drop would be the stuff of nightmares. The help I have access to, have already aggressively snapped off all of the remaining dome light panel clips in accessing the roof motor, so that's a whole different cosmetic problem I'll have to deal with later.

I can't help you with your sunroof issue, but the 996 hvac is not notoriously crappy. If you're having issues with it, you should have someone look into it. I haven't heard any general complaints about the air conditioning in the 996.

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Yeah, I've only had my 996 for a short while but everything I've read says that the heat and AC are great. I can vouch for the former for sure and no complaints so far on the AC, but I'll know first hand at the end of this Georgia summer. If the system has full charge of refrigerant, I'd definitely clean out the condenser coils up front.

Same here. I live in Florida and the 996 HVAC blows same (if not better) than in my other more newer cars.

First, like the others, I can't solve or even diagnose your roof issues. Sorry. Next, there comes a point where I as an owner, and they as a shop develop the kind of relationship that should have existed from the start. Customer, vendor. I have in the past been involved with a situation like this, where the shop tells me "we don't know what happened, and we aren't sure how to fix it". My response finally was; "here's my phone number, here's the number for the local <mfg shop>, call me when it's working exactly like it worked when arrived here in your shop". If it's more than 30 days(each state is different), complain to the BAR for your state, and see what happens. You (and they) aren't sunroof experts. But - Porsche is. If paint shop can't solve it, send it down there for repair, and then they can pay Porsche direct.

Thanks for comments and suggestions on topic. If there are any Level 2+ technicians reading this, please advise if, now that some damage is done, whether we should complete the tilt cycle and attempt manual crank again. Off-topic: I'm glad those taking exception to the known 986/996 hvac problems have so far enjoyed a cleaner experience than many of us. I hope that continues for them. More likely, someone else, maybe a previous owner, took the time to remove the chunks of black clothes-staining foam and dust that were shooting from the vents at some point in the vehicle's past. It wasn't exactly a premium car experience when 10,000's of us went through that decomposition phase, and those of us that have owned our cars for almost two decades will probably relate. foam-particles-coming-from-all-hvac-vents

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I too live in a tropical climate and use my ac almost every day, one of the best I've had. The old air cooled P cars sucked...

A happy update (if anyone cares): found a salvage premium alcantara roof liner (nice upgrade for me) and matching sunroof assembly online for $250 net of shipping, which was cheaper than the unpainted $400 sunroof-delete panel. I also let the car sit for a couple days and then closed the roof a bit and it's coming back out of its hole. Hopefully I can coax it out inch by inch until I can reattach sunroof panel. Worst case, I have a spare sunroof on the way for swap out. FYI here are some DIY inst for anyone attempting to remove headliner...you'll see below that the back part attaches with a series of plastic hooks. You don't want to snap those off.