9SIX8

Anyone know how to replace the cable that drives the 2 white plastic gears for the sunroof of a 968? I was replacing the gears this weekend when I noticed that the driveline cable wasn't there, and I suspect that it either snapped since the cable can not be seen from either of the 2 locations. Thanks.

dmanderson

I experienced a similar event on my sunroof. Apparently the cable retracted all the way into the motor housing because the microswitch that is supposed to limit the cable travel was not working. The cable retracting so far caused the gears to strip. I have not replaced the switch yet and set my roof so I could raise and lower but not remove. Maybe your cable is broken, but mine was completely out of sight. I ran the motor to bring it back. Good luck. New user, Dwight Anderson

9SIX8

How did you get the cable to come back out?

9SIX8

When I pressed the switch to raise the lifting arms, no matter how long I hold it for, I don't see the cable. I'm thinking that either the cable broke, or the cable is so wound up in the motor, it can not get back into the guide when the button is depressed.

dmanderson

Did your sunroof work at all prior to broken gears or did you get the car this way? I am not real knowledgeable about this. I haven't fixed the switch yet so I have not gone into the area where the motor is located. Does your motor operate? There is a post on the PCA 968 forum from last spring that was very helpful to me. It explained how to operate the swithches with the roof out. If you got the tech section under "body" on the third page it says"sunroof problems continued." I hope this helps. Mitch

9SIX8

Yeah, the sunroof worked prior to this gear thing. What happened was I raised the sunroof and noticed one side was lower than the other, no big deal, replace the gear and be done. But alas, no, I removed the roof, and hit the roof switch in the close rather than the open direction, and it sounded like either the gears stripping or the cable snapping. Since then, I removed the housing around the lifting arm, replaced the plastic gear, but as I was looking for the driveline cable, it wasn't there. The motor works in either direction, but when I keep the motor running in the open direction, the cable doesn't reappear in the headliner area, and thus doesn't reengage the gears. I've read the PCA postings about the sunroof, but the articles talk about replacing the plastic gears or resetting the guides. Any info about the cable itself would be appreciated.

dmanderson

When you removed your roof, did the arms retract to the proper level? That is when my gears stripped. The cable retracted too far because a switch likely failed. When you removed your roof, weren't the arms already in the retracted positions? If that's the case they should not have gone farther unless you have a switch failure as well. The cable resembles a loosely wound spring. I don't believe I recognized it at first. I realize none of this may help. You may need more assitance than I can give. Good luck

9SIX8

After removing the roof, the arms seemed to be in the right position, but mistakenly, I pressed the sunroof switch in the open direction rather than the close direction which caused the arms to retract even more. It sounded like either a stripping noise or a snapping noise, but after I did that, the lifting arms wouldnt rise anymore when pressing the open sunroof button. I opened up the 2 gear housings in the B pillar, and the 2 white gears were definitely stripped, but when I replaced them with 2 new gears, the cable that drives the gear was not in the metal housing that butts up against the gear. I'm guessing the cable retracted all the way back into the motor and I have another problem with the limiter. Just to make sure I'm not crazy, the motor that drives the sunroof is located in the driver side rear quarter panel, right? Thanks.

mikec944

I've been messing with mine recently also. You are correct, the motor is located rear driver's side 1/4 panel. Is your sunroof on or off? If it is off, get somebody to sit in the car and press the rocker switch both directions while pressing the switch @ the front of the sunroof (front and center of wind baffel). Than look at the motor and see if you can see any movement. (take any covers off for better viewing @ motor)