I've had my 2002 XC70 for about 2 years now and up until recently the sunroof seemed to be working fine. One thing I noticed, tho, was that the movement of the sun shade/visor wasn't very smooth. If you manually opened or closed the shade, you had to tug at it with a fair amount of force and it seemed to stick a little and move roughly along its track. When the shade was retracting automatically as the sunroof opened, starting at about halfway through the movement you could hear a little creaking noise coming from what seemed to be the shade assembly as it moved back along its track. This is the first car I've owned with a sunroof so I wasn't sure if the shade movement/noise was abnormal and I don't really use the sunroof a whole lot, so I didn't give it too much thought.

Well, after a long, cold winter, I opened the sunroof last week for the first time in a long time and it went about halfway and stopped! I pushed the button again and the roof tried to go back further but just clicked a little bit after making no progress. I was able to close the sunroof with the button and the tilt position also works. I've searched the volvo forums but haven't been able to find advice about my specific situation, mainly just calibration issues. Doing a general search on half-open sunroofs, apparently there's an issue where the sun shade has plastic "clips" or track guides which can break off and fall into the track of the sunroof/shade, thereby preventing the sunroof from opening all the way.

I have VIDA on my computer (no DICE unit) and to access the rails/tracks of the sunroof/shade it seems you'd need to drop the headliner which at quick glance looks to be a bear. There are also directions for removing the sunroof accordion side guards but I'm not sure if that will give me any insight if my problem is the sunshade. Although the sunroof is a great feature to have, in truth I really don't use it that much. My motto with this vehicle is "first do no harm" so I'm thinking maybe just leave it in the closed position and be done with it.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this issue? Also, when the sunshade is functioning properly should the action be light enough that you can flick it open and closed easily with just your index finger? Thanks to all the people who post advice/info on this forum. Without you guys I would have probably abandoned my XC70 by the roadside.