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Sunroof Advice ...

Z

zcacogp

Active member
Chaps,

Having had my S2 for nearly 3 years, I had my first sunroof-cog-stripping incident the other day. Both lost several teeth. (I think that one of them lost a tooth which actually got stuck in the mechanism, causing some others to break off, and which also got the other side out of alignment making that one strip as well [:mad:] ).

So I contacted those nice guys at ECP to buy some new ones. Persuaded them to sell me two for £4 (plus VAT, of course), took 'em home and fitted them. All well and good ... but the first time I tried to remove the roof I stripped one of them again! [:mad:][:mad:]

So, I am picking up another one tomorrow. And will fit it (hopefully) on Friday. My question therefore is thus:

When the sunroof switch is activated with the ignition in position 1 (i.e. you are trying to retract the sunroof legs to allow you to remove the sunroof), the legs wind themselves down to the point where they rest against the back of the sunroof aperture, and stop there.

Is there any mechanism to cause the motor to stop at that point (i.e. should a microswitch activate), or does the preservation of the gears solely rely upon the clutch slipping at that point?

I'd quite like an answer on this one, so I may post it on Titanic as well.

Thanks for any help anyone can give! (If someone could test it on their car, I'd be grateful. That's if no-one knows the answer off the top of their head, of course.)


Oli.
 
No micro-switch, you just have to watch them retract & release the button before they bind against the surround. I learned this the hard way too after stripping the cogs on my old car the first time I used it [8D]
 
Riverside,

Thanks, that's the info I needed. I guess the answer therefore is to keep the clutch pretty loose, so it doesn't strip the gears.

I know there are three microswitches on the mechanism. One is "Roof fully-up", one is "Roof fully-down" (i.e. closed), what is the third?


Oli.
 
Oli,

The clutch needs losening on the sunroof motor. This happened to me and it took a few cogs before I realised. Over time the clutch tightens but nobody knows why (according to Clarks). Losen it off to the correct torque then when the arms meet the body of the car the motor will slip and the cogs won't strip. Clarks garage has a great article which covers this. Its a pain to do but well worth it when your sunroof is working again.
 
ORIGINAL: zcacogp

Riverside,

Thanks, that's the info I needed. I guess the answer therefore is to keep the clutch pretty loose, so it doesn't strip the gears.

I know there are three microswitches on the mechanism. One is "Roof fully-up", one is "Roof fully-down" (i.e. closed), what is the third?


Oli.
Click to expand...

No need to mess around with adjusting the mechanism, just be careful when you retract the arms [:D]

I don't know of a third microswitch? Maybe it's to detect whether the roof is in place or not. I haven't had an electrical fault with the sunroof (yet!) so I've never investigated that part of the car.
 
Yes the third one is under the triangle at the front centre of the sunroof itself, it lets the system know that the sunroof is in place. Clarks covers it all

My rear microswitches seemed to go gradually out of adjustment every year and I would spend ages adjsuting them right again [&:] Finally I let Oli at RPM Porsche loose on it and he adjusted them two years ago for half an hours labour and it's been perfect ever since
 
Chaps,

Thanks.

Paul - what happens when they go out of adjustment?

I'm picking up the (third) replacement cog this evening, so it'll be fun and games tomorrow sometime. We are going on a long(ish) journey in the countryside in the S2 at the weekend, and it would be good if we could remove the roof for that ...

Thanks for your help, chaps.


Oli.
 
ORIGINAL: zcacogp

Paul - what happens when they go out of adjustment?
Click to expand...

I've had two different problems at different times-

1. The switch doesn't detect when the roof is closed so keeps retracting the legs into the roof which subsequently tries to lift off at motorway speed [:eek:]

2. No matter what you do you cannot get the arms to retract into the roof, so removal is impossible [:mad:]
 
Paul,

Thanks.

I've not had those problems (yet) - out of interest, what do you do when you experience them? Bend the microswitches back and forward until they are in a better position? Or had the switches themselves failed?


Oli.
 
First time I just followed the Clarks guide to set them up again. Second time I let Oli at RPM do it properly [:)]
 
ORIGINAL: Diver944

First time I just followed the Clarks guide to set them up again. Second time I let Oli at RPM do it properly [:)]
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did, first time was hours of work to break it even more, second option was about £50 and it's worked perfectly ever since! [8|]
 
Hmmmm.

I'm feeling poor.

I'll be fitting gear number 3 tomorrow (and ordering gear number 4 from ECP on Saturday, no doubt! )


Oli.
 
Chaps,

Thanks for your help - new gear bought, and now fitted, but not before slackening the clutch off a LOT.

It is now such that it just about bites enough to move the sunroof, but slips at the slightest provocation. Which is probably safest, I think.

Anyway, all is now well, thanks for your help. And Bravo to Riverside for being the first one up with the right answer!


Oli.
 
Oli / Anyone
Dug this thread up through a search. I can't get my sunroof legs to retract - have ignition in position 1 - position "a" opens the roof, position "b" does nothing. Am I meant to hold it down for a specific period of time? Am I doing something wrong ? Depressingly I'm sure its "finger trouble"
 
Colin,

You will have the ignition in position 2, where the sunroof opens when you push the rocker one way and closes when you push it the other. It closes to the point of 'closed', and stops there.

If you move the ignition key back one position (yes, there is another position but the detent is slight and it's easily missed) then you will find that pressing "Close" on the switch retracts the sunroof legs. You can then unclip the front of the sunroof and lift it out. Pressing "Open" extends the legs again, such that the sunroof is gripped and is back in it's normal position.

(Very topical post BTW. I drove back from work this evening with the sunroof out - first time this year!)


Oli.


 
I've replaced my sunroof with a fibreglass panel, meaning I've taken all the mechanical & electrical gubbins out. So if anyone needs some sunroof mechanicals, let me know, they're of no use to me, and I'm not about to place a whole bunch of valuable £2 components on ebay, neither...
 
Hi
Would like to take you up on your knid offer - I need replacement catches and the plastic mount that holds them in (the ones with three screws in them)
Let me know if you have them and I'll drop you a pm with my address - please let me know how much you need for P&P etc.
 
Colin,

Fab! You'll find that adjusting the angle of the flap at the front (the thing that the sunroof fits on) makes a big difference to the amount of buffeting in the cabin when you are driving with the sunroof out - the more vertical it is, the better it protects you.

You've shined her all up as well - she looks good!

I owe you an eMail about leather and interiors and stuff. I haven't forgotten .... will do this weekend.


Oli.
 
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