Sticky Sunroofs



  • I have a sticky sunroof, its worse in hot weather. I just give it a thump and it works fine. Now I wondered if anybody had investigated the problem and found out why it happens and what the fix is. All help appreciated before I get my tool box out.



  • You might need this if you get your tools out:

    Sunroof motor is in the roof at the back, there is a small round "plug" you can remove from the carpet up there, thats the manual turning cog for the sunroof (so you can close/open it without power) it's attached to the motor.

    Remove the back roof carpet, and you should see it, it's held on by 3 screws.

    Long post is long:

    Sunroof works off 3 main things.

    1. Motor
    2. Springy things
    3. Runners

    The motor connects to the springy things via a cog just to the right of the manual turning cog, thats it.

    The motor turns aprox 1/2 rotation for every 1/4 or so that the sunroof moves, IE motor moves faster then the soonroof moves forwards or backwards.

    The connection between the Motor to Springy things is s–-, pure s---, the design is flawed, any ware on the cog or springs and you get one side moves faster then the other, or just clicks and won't move at all, this isn't the runners it's that connection.

    The kicker is you can't get to the fracking thing without removing the whole damn unit off the car, that means ripping the roof carpet or whatever it is off as well. (oh and it's also upside fracking down)

    The way you can temp fix the issue is this:

    Rip the damn thing from the car.

    Follow the manual on how to remove the top plate. (See bottom)
    Remove the the copper and silver coloured pipes that protect the springy things
    Remove the runners from the sunroof unit.
    Remove everything that slides off teh back of the runners, making note on 2 things:

    1 - Little red plastic protectors (Bastards when you lose them)
    2 - What damn order they go in

    Clean everything and I mean everything, springy things with a toothbrush (not yours) style of clean

    Put everything back together BUT install the springs backwards so the ware is on the side thats not touched by the motor!

    I did this last weekend and it look me (Zero technical brains) 6 damn hours but the soonroof now works like a charm.

    Warning: - There are lots of them red plastic cover things, and they get covered in oil and gresse so they end up black, keep an eye out for em, you lose 1 and it won't run right.

    The top plate stays on until you get the back of the runners undone (You will see it better then I can say when it's off teh car) it also stresses the plastic mounts a lot trying to get everything off in sync with the other side guide runners.

    ok just seen you don't have clicking sounds..... Ignore post :(



  • I am guessing you hit it to pop it up to open it and then its fine

    The sunroof on ALL MX's stick, its basically the sun battering the rubber seal and then it expands slightly making it stick to the roof.

    To fix it is easy, open the sunroof and look in the tracks, you will see loads of black crap in there, you need to solvent based electrical contact cleaner, this will dissolve the grease and muck and wash it away.

    Then grease the tracks using silicone based grease only ( the other stuff will go hard in the sun and seize it )

    When its all greased up then smear the same stuff around the edge of the rubber seal, this is what stops it opening and just lubing the edges will solve it for a while and just keep it well lubed and should be fine.



  • ^ thats the way to go…

    oil based grease will rot the rubber seal, where as the silicon stuff wont.



  • Thank you for your help.



  • You can buy silicone grease from anywhere that sells paintball guns, a product I use for my paintball gun is called Sleek, made by Smart Parts, very good grease. A little pricey but very good, will try it on my own sunroof and post back. I tried red rubber grease on the seal, but its far too sticky, so dont waste your time using it. Isnt silicone meant to be bad on paintwork though?



  • Maplins do 50g for about 4 quid and 70g aerosols for about a fiver.



  • @3ddaffcbc9=BenRums0n:

    Maplins do 50g for about 4 quid and 70g aerosols for about a fiver.

    Maploins stuff is the stuff I use, also look on there for electrical contact cleaner, its a spray that just dissolves old grease and perfect for cleaning it out with.

    The Silicone is fine on paint



  • they always seem to make a point of specifying that xxx brand car polish doesnt have silicone in it, thats why i thought that it was bad for it.



  • Silicon is a paint sprayers nightmare!! that is all



  • ahhhh, thats good to know, i like using silicone spray on locks but was afraid to use it incase it took the paint off!



  • Its very hard to remove, you will need a solvent to clean it off properly



  • think mine has some paint illness then cos it seems to come off on its own lol


 

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