Are headliner and sunvisor material rot and disinigration comon in 1997 saturnsfishon.patrick@

The sound is from the motor and the gear not being close enough to turn. Unfortunately you can't get the gear unless you buy the whole regulator. Which comes with the motor. Then the fun starts. You have to pull all the column side panels leading to the headliner. Then remove the sunvisors (these can be tricky Each one is different And some take special tools). Then pull the headliner down to replace the regulator..

screws under headliner

At the headliner where the switch is, there should be an inline fuse. You state you hot wired it, however, if the fuse is bad and you hot wired it before the fuse, that won't work. First, pull back headliner at switch and replace inline fuse. If that don't work, check ground, sometimes in the older vehicles the ground rots. lastly, if that don't work, sunroof actuator/motor needs replacing.

Mine came down in 1998 due to foam deterioration and spray adhesive did not help. I had an upholstery shop redo it's been great after that. As long as the cardboard in the headliner is intact, it can be re-upholstered. Shoulder belts, dome light, sunvisors, rear view mirror have to be removed to take out headliner.

there is a very small line that a flat head screw driver will fit in to remove the screw trim cover, underneath is either a torx or socket bolt.

A quick stupid fix, just wrap a piece of electrical tape around the little pin that clicks into the holding piece. :)

remove all pillar trim pcs.(2front,2center and 2 rear-they are held in by clips so they just pull off-be careful not to brake them)remove front handles on headliner,remove sunvisors and visor holders remove clear cover from dome light ,remove dome light(2 screws)-you will see headliner plastic keepers pull off and headliner will come down ,fold down or remove front seats to pull out and install new headliner-reverse all the steps-keep all your mounting screws and clips with each part removed so you wont have trouble finding them-good luck

This is definitely not a job to attempt yourself. Headliners are typically hard to fit for the inexperienced amateur and you may well end up with a mess on your hands.

If you wish to keep the car I suggest your best option is to seek out a reputable auto upholstery trimmer and get him to fit a new headliner for you.

You can't glue that old headliner material onto the old rotted foam that came off the material anyway or your gonna have a real clumpy mess on your hands. Buy new material at a material shop like Hancocks fabric and put new material. Its to cheap to do it half ......
Greg

I have a base model Nissan pickup of the same year, hopefully the headliner is basically the same. It's a molded board piece that forms the structure that the foam and fabric are adhered to. To remove it, take down the sun visors and the dome light. The plastic trim pieces on the windshield pillars also have to come down (I think, it's been 18 months since I replaced mine). Also a couple of plastic buttons over the rear window. Once those are off you should be able to remove the headliner and maneuver it out of the vehicle. Clean the old headliner off as thoroughly as you can. You should be able to do a web search for the method of replacing the headliner material, basically you use contact cement. I got my replacement headliner material at Jo-Ann Fabrics, it was pretty cheap. Good luck.