Glass roof

[PhilW]

Hi. Does anyone know if the nuts for the two screws either side of the sunroof locating tang slot are captive?  Mine ar badly rusted but do turn but reluctant to remove one at a time and replace with nice new ones. Thanks

[andydclements]

I recall they are a standard nut which are captive in the molded plastic.

[PhilW]

Thanks Andy. So if i remove a screw the nut will stay in place?  If it goes wrong how do i access the back

[andydclements]

The nut will / should stay in the black plastic that is the receptacle / slot. Whether the nut and bolt will undo at a lower torque than the black plastic receptacle will break, now that's a different matter.  Personally, I'd try cutting off the head of the bolt and just sacrifice the nut and bolts, so as to not damage the plastic.

[PhilW]

But how do i access the back if i cut the head off?

[andydclements]

By removing the section of headlining trim between the windscreen and sunroof.

[PhilW]

Fairly easy then if simple unscrewing doesn’t work?

[esprit22]

Yep, not to hard to do.

[C43]

I have just rebuilt my S3 so know this area of the car fairly. Well. I agree there should be captive nuts although you know with these cars you can't always guarantee they have the correct nuts. If you unscrew them carefully doing one at a time you should be able to tell if it feels right. It you do have to get to the back of them you will have to remove the trim that the sun visors are attached to. On mine this involved removing (unsticking) a piece of leather along the front of the trim that was there to hide the edge when looking from the front of the car. This did not like being removed and I had to get a new piece made. I was lucky as I got an exact match on colour but just be aware of this. I can probably send pictures if required.

cheers

C43 

[C43]

this is the leather trim I had to removed that I could not save, you might be luckier but hopefully you don't have to go this far. 

[PhilW]

Thanks Christian, Chris and Andy. Will have a go this week. Fingers crossed🤞

[PhilW]

Success!  All 4 came out nicely. Mew stainless screws fitted which are 5mm. Washers are 6mm so have ordered some slightly oversized 5mm washers so they sit centrally and will cover the rust markings i cant remove from the paint. Should look great. Thanks all for advice.