(G) Uno Hobby Sunroof Problem

Hello everybody, I haven't been here for a while.

Anyway, I have a 3 door '94 Uno Hobby 1.1 ie. I have a big problem with the sunroof. When I bought it three years ago, the sunroof handle or opener broke after about six months of use. It appeared to have been glued together when I bought it so it sort of held together for that period of time. Gluing it again didn't help as the glue would not hold it together in light of the pressure being applied to it. I couldn't find the part in any of the spare parts dealers here in Macedonia and I was instructed to go to the official fiat dealer. They shamelessly told me that the whole sunroof would need to be removed and a new one fitted in for a 'respectable sum of around 1000 EUR. My reply was that I'd buy a car for that amount of money. I was met with a blank face sort of giving me the impression of "If ya ain't got money, we don't want ya".

In the meawhile I found this great forum and asked if anybody had the part. GazWrexham, I believe he still frequents here, happened to have a spare sunroof handle lying around and offered to send it to me. I received it and fitted it and was very surprised by how well it fitted. There was not a single leak whatsoever, not even under water jets at the car wash. Well a year went by and that part broke too. Again I went around the spare parts shops and finally found a place that had an extensive catalogue of factory parts. The handle would cost 40 EUR (the whole sunroof around 750 EUR that a 250 EUR rip off by the official Fiat dealer). A couple of months went by and I happened to find a Fort Fiesta RS Turbo opener on e-bay. It was exactly the same except grey in colour, instead of the black, I won the bid with only one pound + plus shipping. I installed it, but now the roof is leaking under mild pressured water. I suspect that the glass has been deformed from being in the heat all day. Is this possible I wonder.

Can anyone give me any advise as what I should do. Someone is offering a whole Fiesta RS Turbo sunroof on ebay, I wonder if it is the same dimensions or identical to the one I have.

Should I just seal it off with silicone glue or just rip it out and fit a new sunroof with different closing mechanism?

sunroofs are fairly generic parts as the manufacturers all buy from the same makers really. what you need to do is find why the handles are breaking,is this a tilt and turn or just a tilt?

if you want to buy the whole sunroof you need to get as many dimensions as you can to compare to yours

you can also find the handles on skoda favourit , the boxy shaped ones

it could be a waste of money buying a sunroof , just in case it doesnt fit

the hobby sunroof is completly different to all the other uno sun roofs, well that is what i found whilst looking around for one

im not to sure about the deformed glass, could it be the rubber seal which has perished or lost its shape

a suggestion is to 'beef' up the rubber seals by injecting expanding foam into the seal, this will make it bigger, therefore once the sunroof is wound down it will give a tighter seal

It's the tilt and twist type. Yes, I feel frustrated and I desperately want to find out why it is breaking.

Gaz, I also found that the handles from a Ford Fiesta RS turbo fit perfectly. Thanks for the advice, but wouldn't that look a bit messy and can I paint it?

you would not see the foam

you make a slit into the rubber, insert the tube and spray some into it

once you are done, cover up the hole with silicon and re-fit the seal

Thanks, that sounds like a grand idea. I'll look into it.