Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my sunroof story with the community and shed a little more light on subject. I know that there is another great write up of this sunroof somewhere in the so-cal regional forum too.
Just got a Hollandia 790 installed in my 2010 FJ two days ago. Awesome!
First impressions:
1) The sunroof itself and the company that did the work (Midwest Auto Air in St Louis, MO) are both outstanding. The fit and finish looks stock, the sunroof opens, tilts, and closes quietly and very snug. There are 3 programmable buttons as well as a single touch open and close button (5 altogether). They did replace my entire headliner (retained my stock front dual "clicker" map light) and the new cloth matches perfectly. The sunroof's rubber trim ring molds around the FJ roof ridges very nicely and I don't fear it leaking. It does have a 3 year stock warranty from Webasto and a lifetime warranty from the company as long as I own it. I paid $1456.65 total
2) I do wish I would have asked them to install it about 3in further back from the front to back allignment. I am sure each company follows an install template because all of the interior pictures I have seen of this particular sunroof the very back edge of the sunroof is almost right in line with the back edge of the side grab handle. (I have seen one exterior pic floating around the web where the sunroof looks to be about 5in further back...I will attach the pic) To give you an example, I am 6ft tall and have the seat adjusted front to back where my left leg has a slight bend when my foot is on the dead pedal and I have a slight lean back (nothing gangster). In this seat position the back of the sunroof is approx 3in in front of my forehead. Imagine wearing a hat and the tip of the bill would exactly hit the back edge of the sunroof. In every car I have owned the sunroof always opens up to at least my forehead and sometimes the crown of my head. I will have to get used to this in the FJ as I don't quite get that "wind in the hair" feeling of freedom. I still love it none-the-less and the view out the top is amazing, but I wish when I look up I would see sky and not headliner. The only advantage to having the hole a little more forward is the fact that if the sun was beating down directly on top of the car your head would not get fried. I also removed the side sun visors as this sunroof is HUGE and they cover up too much of the precious view that I spent my money on. Finally, it would be cool if the shade slider would go further back when the glass is closed. (When the glass is back the shade goes all the way back with it. When the glass is closed the shade loses about an inch of retraction...enough wishing though, here is why you need a sunroof.
3) The airflow is amazing! On the highway with both windows down the air actually tries to flow around your head. I would say that there is about 40% less wind turbulance that causes one to get a "hot ear" on the left side of their face. With the windows up and the sunroof open it is not overly loud by any means and you get a little air in the cabin (not alot though, you HAVE to crack one of the side windows for air circulation. That's just the way it works with nothing being able to open up in the back of an FJ. I imagine an open sunroof and open rear hatch glass would be perfect. Going to try it tomorrow.) With the sunroof vented and no windows open it lets some hot cabin air out or the cool morning air in, but again you need to crack a window if you want cabin circulation.
4) With the sunroof shut and the cloth slide shade closed the cabin is JUST AS QUIET AS it would be stock. Even with the shade open and the glass closed at 60mph there is very minimal change in noise level in the cabin. For kicks and grins, we used the decibel meter on my friend's i-phone before I got the sunroof. We set the smoothing on the decibel meter to .5 hertz and drove at 65mph on the highway. The FJ cabin averaged around 82db (his VW Passat averaged 85db by the way! I think he was disappointed)
5) I absolutely have the way it looks and plan on getting a stock rack for the time being to actually enjoy the view rather than look out a set of Baja Rack bars. I will report of wind noise with the rack and with the i-phone soon.
I will be happy to answer any questions as I had a ton myself.
Driver side, no flip down, need to cover holes
Passenger side, you can see how much the visor blocks
I would have loved to have the front edge of the sunroof at the rear of the roof rack brackets for that 3in
Thanks,
John
I wanted to share my sunroof story with the community and shed a little more light on subject. I know that there is another great write up of this sunroof somewhere in the so-cal regional forum too.
Just got a Hollandia 790 installed in my 2010 FJ two days ago. Awesome!
First impressions:
1) The sunroof itself and the company that did the work (Midwest Auto Air in St Louis, MO) are both outstanding. The fit and finish looks stock, the sunroof opens, tilts, and closes quietly and very snug. There are 3 programmable buttons as well as a single touch open and close button (5 altogether). They did replace my entire headliner (retained my stock front dual "clicker" map light) and the new cloth matches perfectly. The sunroof's rubber trim ring molds around the FJ roof ridges very nicely and I don't fear it leaking. It does have a 3 year stock warranty from Webasto and a lifetime warranty from the company as long as I own it. I paid $1456.65 total
2) I do wish I would have asked them to install it about 3in further back from the front to back allignment. I am sure each company follows an install template because all of the interior pictures I have seen of this particular sunroof the very back edge of the sunroof is almost right in line with the back edge of the side grab handle. (I have seen one exterior pic floating around the web where the sunroof looks to be about 5in further back...I will attach the pic) To give you an example, I am 6ft tall and have the seat adjusted front to back where my left leg has a slight bend when my foot is on the dead pedal and I have a slight lean back (nothing gangster). In this seat position the back of the sunroof is approx 3in in front of my forehead. Imagine wearing a hat and the tip of the bill would exactly hit the back edge of the sunroof. In every car I have owned the sunroof always opens up to at least my forehead and sometimes the crown of my head. I will have to get used to this in the FJ as I don't quite get that "wind in the hair" feeling of freedom. I still love it none-the-less and the view out the top is amazing, but I wish when I look up I would see sky and not headliner. The only advantage to having the hole a little more forward is the fact that if the sun was beating down directly on top of the car your head would not get fried. I also removed the side sun visors as this sunroof is HUGE and they cover up too much of the precious view that I spent my money on. Finally, it would be cool if the shade slider would go further back when the glass is closed. (When the glass is back the shade goes all the way back with it. When the glass is closed the shade loses about an inch of retraction...enough wishing though, here is why you need a sunroof.
3) The airflow is amazing! On the highway with both windows down the air actually tries to flow around your head. I would say that there is about 40% less wind turbulance that causes one to get a "hot ear" on the left side of their face. With the windows up and the sunroof open it is not overly loud by any means and you get a little air in the cabin (not alot though, you HAVE to crack one of the side windows for air circulation. That's just the way it works with nothing being able to open up in the back of an FJ. I imagine an open sunroof and open rear hatch glass would be perfect. Going to try it tomorrow.) With the sunroof vented and no windows open it lets some hot cabin air out or the cool morning air in, but again you need to crack a window if you want cabin circulation.
4) With the sunroof shut and the cloth slide shade closed the cabin is JUST AS QUIET AS it would be stock. Even with the shade open and the glass closed at 60mph there is very minimal change in noise level in the cabin. For kicks and grins, we used the decibel meter on my friend's i-phone before I got the sunroof. We set the smoothing on the decibel meter to .5 hertz and drove at 65mph on the highway. The FJ cabin averaged around 82db (his VW Passat averaged 85db by the way! I think he was disappointed)
5) I absolutely have the way it looks and plan on getting a stock rack for the time being to actually enjoy the view rather than look out a set of Baja Rack bars. I will report of wind noise with the rack and with the i-phone soon.
I will be happy to answer any questions as I had a ton myself.
Driver side, no flip down, need to cover holes
Passenger side, you can see how much the visor blocks
I would have loved to have the front edge of the sunroof at the rear of the roof rack brackets for that 3in
Thanks,
John