icat

So, my sunroof goes down but not up. I'm assuming this means the motor and the gears are fine. I've heard of a microswitch that might be affecting the operation. Anyone know where to find this switch and how to get to it? Any other ideas on what to check?

TIA,
<img src="graemlins/burnout.gif" border="0" alt="[burnout]" />

jason952

press on that little triangular piece of metal at the front center of the panel, that tongue pushes in on the microswitch, try to open it while pressing and tell me if that works.


Jason

jason952

without the microswitch being depressed, the car thinks there is no roof in at all and would not want to raise the little levers be themselves.

jason

icat

[quote]Originally posted by jason952:
<strong>press on that little triangular piece of metal at the front center of the panel, that tongue pushes in on the microswitch, try to open it while pressing and tell me if that works.
Jason</strong><hr></blockquote>

I figured that might be where the microswitch is. I tried holding it down (or is it up?), tried repeatedly tapping it, even tried gently slugging it once. All the while with the key in various positions (on, off, car running, car off, one click, two clicks, even three clicks more - oh wait - that's potatoes). Any way, I can manually crank it up at the motor and then use the switch to retract, but it will not go up with the switch!
<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

jason952

maybe the switch is bad....anyone else?

Turby

ive got that same problem, its got me stumped too????

Dsalillas

Do the arms go into the retract position or the lock position when you lower them?


What mine did was drop in the correct position depending on where the key was but not able to raise into the lock position(if already retracted) or the raised position(if already locked).

Now how I fixed it is kind of odd.I went through the whole microswitch clutch check behind the carpet over the rear driver-side wheel well. Everthing was fine in the motor assembly compartment so I cursed at it and started kicking the tire(which didn't fix it).

After a six pack of icehouse I started thinking about how hard it would to remove the plastic triangle to check the microswitch behind it.

I started to pry down from the top of the microswitch assembly between the sunvisors(not the actual triangle) and it barely budged so I tried from the front of the assembly towards the back and it moved a pretty good bit(about a 1/4 in.)but something was holding it in.

Since I was too scared to pry on it anymore I put the key in position one, pushed up on the triangle and held it(the roof was already off),pushed the sunroof button, and viola! the arms moved right up.

Now this never happened before when I pushed on the triangle so my guess is there was a loose connection in there somewhere. A few days later the roof started acting up again so I went through the prying thing again and my roof hasn't failed me since.

I know this isn't a very technical solution and it doesn't really explain what the cause is but I know my sunroof works perfectly all the time now.

Later I tried this with my other 2 944's with quirky sunroofs and now they work fine too.

Hope this helps you guys out although it doesn't shed any light on the actual problem.

Good luck to all with the "sunroof gremlin"

Robby

Dsalillas- That part on your sig- "but he don't have his license Lisa"- that's from "Weird Science" isn't it?

Anyway, what you're saying about the microswitch, you and the other's that are saying it's behind the triangular piece- makes sense... When I bought my 951, the SR didn't work at all- it was just SHUT. I never tried to open it manually, so I don't know any other details. Anyway, a mech I took it to fixed it by screwing around w/the microswitch in the same area (I'm almost SURE he said there were TWO micrswitches, but I don't know myself). I've got to be more careful now- he had told me that the arms will go up into the fully extended position when the lid is out for a minute- I would have to go look to see the exact situation, but they do go through the motions when I pull the lid out. I just have to make sure not to drop the lid on them in that position since they're only plastic. The mech said he could order a new part or two (microswitch?) and I could pay for them and a couple hours labor, OR, that he could spend &gt;15minutes and I could pay less than $12 (they charged $45/hour at the time) and I would just have to pay attention when using the SR- it was a no brainer to me

icat

Looks like were all in agreement that the microswitches are behind the "triangle thing" in front. Now the question becomes, how the heck do you get to them to replace or repair?

icat

[quote]Originally posted by Dsalillas:
<strong>Do the arms go into the retract position or the lock position when you lower them?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Both, depending on how long I keep the console switch depressed.
<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Gerald Allgire

My relay under the dash was bad when I got my 84. It took me about 4 hours of trouble shooting with a meter and jumpers to figure mine out. I'm a electronics/computer person, but this is the craziest thing I've worked on in a long time. Good luck.

icat

[quote]Originally posted by Gerald Allgire:
<strong>My relay under the dash was bad when I got my 84. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Did it work either way before you replaced the relay (up or down)? It seems to me that if the relay was bad, then would it not work in both directions?

Turby

okay heres the WIERD part........I checked the fuse box, There is no relay in the spot where it says it is, just an empty space with nowhere to plug something in. It will only go down, and keep going down until it strippes the gears.???? If there is no relay.....how could it even go down?

icat

I checked the manual (forgot I had it on CD). It appears this is another area where simple wasn't good enough for Porsche. So, I'll be researching this week in the hopes of finding which circuit controls the "up" motion. I'll post when I get it figured out.

Thanks for all the replys.

jordanolder

mine goes up and down fine, but won't do anything when the key is in the 1st position.