Electric sunroof not closing properly

brian williams · Apr 15, 2008

Does anyone out there know anything about the sunroof on my 1990 C4 please? I opened it yesterday while the sun was shining for a brief spell,stupid move I know,because I don't really like the associated wind noise,but I do love the engine growling a bit when I open it up! Anyway, when I tried to close it the motor was fine,and it appeared that it was OK,but the wind deflector didnt retract on the drivers side and so it stopped it closing. I was able to close it up afterwards by manually pushing the deflector down (without it trapping my finger!! Any advice would be very welcome as my wife Kath said I suppose that will cost you £400 to get it fixed, I said no,its only something minor as the motor is OK. Thanks in anticipation of some good news!!

tim_haskins · Apr 15, 2008

Hi Brian,

I dont know too much about the cars with sunroofs as i have a targa!!

Anyway it may be worth looking at the porsche PET guides so you can see how it all goes together. It does not sound too serious to me, hopefully someone else can help you more but here is a link for the PET manual just incase you dont have it

https://techinfo.porsche.com/techinfo/html/en/catalogue_content.htm

Hope this helps a bit

Tim

Tony M · Apr 15, 2008

I have just had a similar problem on a new Cayenne and as a last resort I read the handbook which gave explicit instructions on what to do if the sunroof had a 'Memory loss'

After following the instructions all was backn to normal.

Maybe worth reading the handbook to see if the same applies. I remember about ten years ago I had a similar problem with the window 'Home' positions on a Mercedes SL and the handbook was the answer to reprogramme them to stop in the correct poitions when the hood was retracted.

tim_haskins · Apr 15, 2008

Had a quick look at pet myself and my thinking is that it maybe one of the pins broken Item 7 or something to do with item 23??? its just a guess and i am sure someone will be along shortly who has had the same problem

Tim

tim_haskins · Apr 16, 2008

Brain,

Just been looking at pelican parts. They list common parts to repair sunroofs under body and seals. One of the parts listed is the wind deflector hinge which looks like a plastic arm item 23 on PET. I think that this is your problem its only cheap at $3.75. Have a look at the car and see what you can see.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopcart/911L/POR_911L_BDYsun_pg1.htm#item1

Tim

tim_haskins · Apr 16, 2008

brain have a look at this looks like someone else had the same problem and it was the arm!!!! not a bad guess hey!! looks like its only going to costa few quid to fix

http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=318279&mpage=1&key=sunroof&#318279

I am off to predict the numbers for wed lottery draw!!

Tim

smallspeed · Apr 16, 2008

if you get stuck I have an "escape hatch" in mine i can take some pictures or a short vid if it helps.. its just a simple sprung flap which gets pushed down by the sunroof itself when it closes, so don't think it will be anything serious

ben

brian williams · Apr 16, 2008

Thanks Tim,Tony and Ben for your replies. I have had a better look at the situation today and found out that it is the sprung arm that is attached to the deflector that is broken. It is supposed to be pressed down by the sunroof itself as is slides back into position. It won't at the moment because it isn't fastened to the deflector, it's just hanging there and getting caught on the sunroof and causing a jam. Should be an easy job once I get the parts, I'll get 2 just in case it happens again! Thanks again. Will post a further message once fixed.

brian williams · Apr 20, 2008

I have fixed the sunroof now and all is working well. As I thought all that I need to do was unscrew 2 phillips headed screws holding down a plate to which one end of the old arm was held. The arm was then released from the front fixing,held by a tight rubber "sleeve" and then unhooked from the spring. Fixing the new one on was a reversal of the above procedure. It all took about 5 minutes. The new arms were £3.00 plus VAT from Type 911.