Sunroof Clip/Trim
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Joined: 03-30-05
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my trim piece fell, looks like they just affixed it back up there. seems ok and I playeed with it to be but yes very stupid that they fall off. Mine came off when I got wheel hop at a light. just landed right in my lap. 
New Member
Joined: 04-17-05
Posts: 182
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From: Houston, TX
Originally Posted by Bob T
Lost my button today. While I was showing my work partner the "great" car I bought and was explaining to him how much better it is than his '03 SRT-4. All he could do was
laugh at me. I feel like running the car into Lake Michigan. All afternoon I was harrassed about it........Hey , look , something else fell off Bob's car ... And so on. My ego has taken a severe blow. Luckily , I have a dog that doesn't care .
I have had more bad luck with this car in 2.5 weeks than I had with my last 3 S-10
pick-ups(all new purchases)in all the years of owning them(about 8 total). I had not owned a new car(I have an old street rod) since a 25th ann. Mustang 5.0 back in '90 .
Ouch
laugh at me. I feel like running the car into Lake Michigan. All afternoon I was harrassed about it........Hey , look , something else fell off Bob's car ... And so on. My ego has taken a severe blow. Luckily , I have a dog that doesn't care .
I have had more bad luck with this car in 2.5 weeks than I had with my last 3 S-10
pick-ups(all new purchases)in all the years of owning them(about 8 total). I had not owned a new car(I have an old street rod) since a 25th ann. Mustang 5.0 back in '90 .
Ouch
I would have a hard time not laughing at the entire interior of a SRT-4. I would be like, "look ma! I'm back in the 90's!"
I'm not sure I'll order the sunroof when I finally get around to buying a car.
New Member
Joined: 07-13-05
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
From: cali
Well... i too have experienced the falling off of the trim piece. I felt like getting in an accident and blaming it on GM. Can you say lawsuit? If these things keep falling off left and right eventually someone is going to get in an accident, IMO. Well i have an appointment for tomorrow morning we will see how that goes.
Member
Joined: 01-10-05
Posts: 398
Likes: 1
From: USA
Does anyobody have an SS where the clip DIDN'T fall off?
I am a lucky duck right now. Mine has not fallen off. I do only use the sunroof on occassions after all the horror I've heard from everyone else. I make sure to only touch the button. I don't dare touch the trim! I've had the car for almost 2 months now. Manufactured 6/05.
I am a lucky duck right now. Mine has not fallen off. I do only use the sunroof on occassions after all the horror I've heard from everyone else. I make sure to only touch the button. I don't dare touch the trim! I've had the car for almost 2 months now. Manufactured 6/05.
New Member
Joined: 06-20-05
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
From: Nashville, TN
I actually got my survey for buying the car a few weeks ago, and along with the usual Q & A, i wrote a letter, and attached a bunch of the posts about the problem (with names and location and all that blacked out since i didn't get everyone's permission before i sent it). here is the letter. i mailed it last week, who knows if anybody will ever see it.
To Whom It May Concern:
I purchased a 2005 Cobalt SS on June 17, 2005. Less than 24 hours later, the plastic bezel over the sunroof button in the roof fell off. I tried to reattach it, by pushing it back up into the roof, and it would not attach. Eventually a plastic tab on the bezel snapped, and there was no way to reattach it. I went back to the dealer, Bill Heard Chevrolet in Nashville, TN, and they took another bezel off of a new Cobalt to fix my problem. Someone there, not sales, but I dont think they were service, tried to reattach it in the same manner I did. He met with the same results. We then went to service, and a technician tried the same thing, then called over another service advisor, and no one could get it to reattach. I made an appointment where the headliner was supposed to be taken down in an effort to find the problem. While I wasnt wild about disassembling the roof of a brand new car, I had no choice.
When I left the car for my appointment, I received a call later that day that they had to order the entire assembly, because it just wouldnt work. When I picked up my car, the bezel was in my cup holder, and the sunroof button was now unattached from its cradle, and hanging down loose from the roof (previously, the button was firmly in place, just the aesthetic trim piece was missing. The roof would operate just fine.) Now not only was the car less than appealing, there was a legitimate loss of use of the sunroof.
I waited a few days for the part and it never came, so one afternoon I took a look to see why the button would no longer stay in place. When I looked in the hole with a flashlight, I saw where the cradle for the button was bent out of place. Since an entire assembly was on the way, and my brand new car was an embarrassment for myself and GM to have a broken part so soon, I tried to fix the problem myself. It was very evident how the metal frame for the button attached to the roof, so I took it down, moved the cradle tabs back into place, and then attached the bezel with the frame out of the car. It took some work, but I repaired the car myself and it is working fine for now.
When this happened, I looked online to see if anyone else has had this problem. While I know that an online forum is not representative of everyone who owns a Cobalt, I still feel that this is a very widespread problem that needs immediate attention. Hopefully this has already been brought to the attention of the engineers at GM, but if not, I would urge that this problem be addressed for the 2006 model year, and a recall issued for the 2005 models. It would appear that the problem is that the headliner is too thick to be sandwiched in between the metal button frame and the bezel, so a bezel with longer tabs would solve the problem.
I didnt know if this was the proper place to send this, but I wanted to contact GM as directly as I could. Please respond at your earliest convenience and let me know if there is somewhere else I should send this information, or where it is being sent.
I have attached some posts from others whos bezels have fallen off. I love my car, and my family and I have always purchased GM products. I think you will find that this is the attitude of most of the people that posted about their cars. We want to be proud of our new Cobalts, please enable us to do so.
Thank you very much for your attention,
To Whom It May Concern:
I purchased a 2005 Cobalt SS on June 17, 2005. Less than 24 hours later, the plastic bezel over the sunroof button in the roof fell off. I tried to reattach it, by pushing it back up into the roof, and it would not attach. Eventually a plastic tab on the bezel snapped, and there was no way to reattach it. I went back to the dealer, Bill Heard Chevrolet in Nashville, TN, and they took another bezel off of a new Cobalt to fix my problem. Someone there, not sales, but I dont think they were service, tried to reattach it in the same manner I did. He met with the same results. We then went to service, and a technician tried the same thing, then called over another service advisor, and no one could get it to reattach. I made an appointment where the headliner was supposed to be taken down in an effort to find the problem. While I wasnt wild about disassembling the roof of a brand new car, I had no choice.
When I left the car for my appointment, I received a call later that day that they had to order the entire assembly, because it just wouldnt work. When I picked up my car, the bezel was in my cup holder, and the sunroof button was now unattached from its cradle, and hanging down loose from the roof (previously, the button was firmly in place, just the aesthetic trim piece was missing. The roof would operate just fine.) Now not only was the car less than appealing, there was a legitimate loss of use of the sunroof.
I waited a few days for the part and it never came, so one afternoon I took a look to see why the button would no longer stay in place. When I looked in the hole with a flashlight, I saw where the cradle for the button was bent out of place. Since an entire assembly was on the way, and my brand new car was an embarrassment for myself and GM to have a broken part so soon, I tried to fix the problem myself. It was very evident how the metal frame for the button attached to the roof, so I took it down, moved the cradle tabs back into place, and then attached the bezel with the frame out of the car. It took some work, but I repaired the car myself and it is working fine for now.
When this happened, I looked online to see if anyone else has had this problem. While I know that an online forum is not representative of everyone who owns a Cobalt, I still feel that this is a very widespread problem that needs immediate attention. Hopefully this has already been brought to the attention of the engineers at GM, but if not, I would urge that this problem be addressed for the 2006 model year, and a recall issued for the 2005 models. It would appear that the problem is that the headliner is too thick to be sandwiched in between the metal button frame and the bezel, so a bezel with longer tabs would solve the problem.
I didnt know if this was the proper place to send this, but I wanted to contact GM as directly as I could. Please respond at your earliest convenience and let me know if there is somewhere else I should send this information, or where it is being sent.
I have attached some posts from others whos bezels have fallen off. I love my car, and my family and I have always purchased GM products. I think you will find that this is the attitude of most of the people that posted about their cars. We want to be proud of our new Cobalts, please enable us to do so.
Thank you very much for your attention,
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: 03-21-05
Posts: 320
Likes: 0
From: Nevada
Originally Posted by TnSS
To Whom It May Concern:
I purchased a 2005 Cobalt SS on June 17, 2005. Less than 24 hours later, the plastic bezel over the sunroof button in the roof fell off. I tried to reattach it, by pushing it back up into the roof, and it would not attach. Eventually a plastic tab on the bezel ................................. We want to be proud of our new Cobalts, please enable us to do so.
Thank you very much for your attention,
Good letter! Hopefully they will respond.
New Member
Joined: 03-08-05
Posts: 101
Likes: 0
From: Toronto
Just got mine fixed..the trim guy at the dealership said it was a big job (2 hours) as he had to remove most of the roof interior to fix it...I must say though, it's a huge difference - it looks incredibly secure now..almost as if it's bolted in there...
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: 03-21-05
Posts: 320
Likes: 0
From: Nevada
Getting closer!
Wohooo! Keep us posted! I haven't taken it back to the dealer yet. I will end up doing my own. Just gotta make the time. Temps finally cooling down around here! Its not 126 any more!
Senior Member
Joined: 06-14-05
Posts: 1,130
Likes: 0
From: phoenix , az
its not just the SS it happens too , i was at the dealer looking at cobalts yesterday , and noticed 1 i sat in had the sunroof , and pushed on the head liner , and what do you know the bezel poped right off , LOL
when i tried to pop it back in the whole switch fell out , lol
i quickly made the switch stayback in , and moved on , lol
when i tried to pop it back in the whole switch fell out , lol
i quickly made the switch stayback in , and moved on , lol
New Member
Joined: 06-20-05
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
From: Nashville, TN
Well, nothing happened. The guy i talked to said that he would forward my information to the "appropriate people" at GM. Its not his fault, I'm sure all those customer service people can do is just listen to people rant and apologize. That said, he probably will send something to someone, but from talking to him it was obvious that he hadn't seen my letter or the posts I sent. He also wasn't the person who called me yesterday. It looks like they got the survey out of the envelope and threw the rest away (I mentioned the problem on the survey itself as well). If anybody wants to try their luck, the phone number is 1(800)222-1020. I had a ticket number, but the phone number is a general Chevy number with lots of options. If you just use the menus you can get to customer service and probably talk to someone without a ticket number.
New Member
Joined: 03-12-05
Posts: 38
Likes: 0
From: PEI, Canada
Well this is just all to familiar to me.. I'm trying to stay as patient as I can with my GM Service folks.. or more to blame would be the mechanics working on my car.
As with everyone else it seems, my trim for the sunroof fell off about 3 months into my new ownership.. which makes sense since I had it in the winter and hadn't tested the sunroof! Anyhow, took it back the first time, they didn't order a part.. but yet told me to come pick it up.. I took a look.. the trim was back on.. drove no less then 300meters down the road.. and it fell off again.. Good God!!
Turned right around, and they had told me they'll have to order a part.. "DUH!!" Do they not understand I can live without it if I know it's going to be fixed properly??
Anyhow, come this summer.. new part in place.. and bam.. fell off again first week of nice weather.. take it back in and assume that they are going to order another part, also I decided to get it inspected at the same time.
Pick up my car a little later.. some mechanic decided to try to fix it, made a complete mess of the area around the switch and upholstery - dirty and stained (which as i write this, they have told me it's been cleaned).. but also, (I will post a pic of this later), they lowered the switch, and now I can see like a ring hole at the top of the switch (like there is a pin or something that's supposed to go through it)!!
It looks cheap, and not professional at all.. I am not happy with the service there at ALL! And since they like to send out reminders and surveys.. I'm going to let them have it this time.
Oh and just a little history, this is AFTER I went in for an oil change 2 months back, and they left the oil cap OFF the engine after they were done!! They had to shampoo out my engine, plus order a new cover for the bonnet (underneath the hood) as that was soaked in oil.
Man oh man.. I can't believe the luck I'm having with the service people.. I've just told them to put the switch back in where it was.. (as there was NOTHING wrong with the switch to begin with!!) and I'll glue the trim myself to make it look right. Pretty bad when there's an '06 sitting in the parking lot which looks just fine, and they're telling me that there's no way to fix it.
Bah.. I'm done rambling.. I like the people at service.. but man oh man.. they're drawing on my patience here!
As with everyone else it seems, my trim for the sunroof fell off about 3 months into my new ownership.. which makes sense since I had it in the winter and hadn't tested the sunroof! Anyhow, took it back the first time, they didn't order a part.. but yet told me to come pick it up.. I took a look.. the trim was back on.. drove no less then 300meters down the road.. and it fell off again.. Good God!!
Turned right around, and they had told me they'll have to order a part.. "DUH!!" Do they not understand I can live without it if I know it's going to be fixed properly??
Anyhow, come this summer.. new part in place.. and bam.. fell off again first week of nice weather.. take it back in and assume that they are going to order another part, also I decided to get it inspected at the same time.
Pick up my car a little later.. some mechanic decided to try to fix it, made a complete mess of the area around the switch and upholstery - dirty and stained (which as i write this, they have told me it's been cleaned).. but also, (I will post a pic of this later), they lowered the switch, and now I can see like a ring hole at the top of the switch (like there is a pin or something that's supposed to go through it)!!
It looks cheap, and not professional at all.. I am not happy with the service there at ALL! And since they like to send out reminders and surveys.. I'm going to let them have it this time.
Oh and just a little history, this is AFTER I went in for an oil change 2 months back, and they left the oil cap OFF the engine after they were done!! They had to shampoo out my engine, plus order a new cover for the bonnet (underneath the hood) as that was soaked in oil.
Man oh man.. I can't believe the luck I'm having with the service people.. I've just told them to put the switch back in where it was.. (as there was NOTHING wrong with the switch to begin with!!) and I'll glue the trim myself to make it look right. Pretty bad when there's an '06 sitting in the parking lot which looks just fine, and they're telling me that there's no way to fix it.
Bah.. I'm done rambling.. I like the people at service.. but man oh man.. they're drawing on my patience here!
