Electric Sunroof.... jamming/juddering/grinding.

Sorry guys, i feel like I'm taking up the whole forum, with my constant problems, but you've all been a great source of help so far!


This time it's the frigging sunroof.

It's just jammed whilst I was out for a drive, after a look in the Haynes manual I got it shut by pressing the button and turning the plastic screw on the motor at the same time - just in time for the rain!

It's making a kind of loud buzzing noise, as though some gears aren't meshing together properly... it seems to open so far then jam, then if you help it along it'll go fine for another 3-4 inches, then jam and buzz/grind away.

It's as though the sun roof isn't straight in the carrier when i help it along, but I thought there was a mechanism to stop the motor if it get's jammed or there's somehting in the way, so why is it playing up like this????

Tried lubing the runners with WD40, but made absolutely no difference.

Anyone wanna buy a 2002 TD4 ES? I've not even sent the V5 off yet, so it's still a one owner vehicle!

Cant help sorry Shotgun,
I have a loud clicking noise when mine reaches the full open position.
Any advise from anyone on this will also be welcome.
Hope you dont mind me piggy backing Shotgun.

No problem mate... I would guess it's the same noise, as it sounds like the gears in the motor are grinding against each other.

Surely the motor should stop as soon as resistance is felt?

Clutchdust may be the man to help????

I just get the one very loud click when it comes to a halt????

I'll swap with you...

Just spoke to a Landrover dealer... rails are £80 EACH(!) plus Vat. If it's the motor, they're a fair bit more. Most likely to be the rails though, apparently.


Jesus, I hate this f*****g car already.



If anyone has a cheap fix for theis problem, please fire away!

ShotgunDrew said:

I'll swap with you...

Just spoke to a Landrover dealer... rails are £80 EACH(!) plus Vat. If it's the motor, they're a fair bit more. Most likely to be the rails though, apparently.


Jesus, I hate this f*****g car already.



If anyone has a cheap fix for theis problem, please fire away!

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Dont open it

Sorry mate! not much help i know.
sounds to me that some reduction gears have a bald patch, I aint had one to bits on a hippo,but come across the same symtoms on similar motor/reduction G/Boxes.

Oh forgot !
If you manage to get at the motor/GBox bit and find the plastic gears worn, Somewhere like Maplings sell bit like this for a few pence, you just need to find out the dia/No of teeth, or take it to them if you got one local to you that is

ShotgunDrew said:

No problem mate... I would guess it's the same noise, as it sounds like the gears in the motor are grinding against each other.

Surely the motor should stop as soon as resistance is felt?

Clutchdust may be the man to help????

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I can help!!!! had a few of these since the hot weather arrived, normally its the runners, the cables either break or come detatched, the buzzing noise is the motor slipping, they have plastic gears inside and they fall to bits, but sometimes its just the gear slipping on the cables.

do the runners first then try it, sometimes you can get away with not changing the motor, sometimes you have to

runners are a piece of cake to replace so do it yourself rather than let a dealer rip you off, did some yesterday and the bill was £280+VAT!!!! Thats without the motor

The runners are £80 a side, not sure on the motor but i'd say it'll be over £100

Two summers ago I had my roof open as well and it gave problems to close, was the right hand side runner which was broken and window got stuck, so I helped it manually to open completely again and than looked how the left side was looking like, imitated (fixed) the right hand side accordingly with a small Parker screw and some tiny wire, closed it and tried it just "once" to see whether it worked again and it did, so now all I do is just click the back side up and don't do anything further. I keep it closed for the rest.

willo said:

Two summers ago I had my roof open as well and it gave problems to close, was the right hand side runner which was broken and window got stuck, so I helped it manually to open completely again and than looked how the left side was looking like, imitated (fixed) the right hand side accordingly with a small Parker screw and some tiny wire, closed it and tried it just "once" to see whether it worked again and it did, so now all I do is just click the back side up and don't do anything further. I keep it closed for the rest.

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Willo, any chance you could take a photgraph and show it on here?

ShotgunDrew said:

Willo, any chance you could take a photgraph and show it on here?

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And open it again ? Running the risk it jams again the fu....ng POS.
The right handside runner was broken, so I checked where it had to come (to look the same as the left one) and tried to drill a small hole in the lower part to be able to fix the upper (broken) part on it with a small Parker screw but the lower part was too small and it too broke off while drilling, so I put in the small Parker in the top part to be able to wrap the tiny metal wire around it and at the same time fixing it to the lower broken part. This way it's all together again but it doesn't look nice..

If people ask me something about pictures I can't resist , so I ran the risk of jamming it again and opened up the can of worms to take a couple of pictures. As you can see the tiny metal wire has partially green insulation around it (it's the green wire you can find in a vegetable store when you buy a bunch of leek, to keep it together ..... ) by folding it with pliers etc.. the insulation went off partially, also thought it was a Parker screw but saw now it was a normal one. (My old memory got me there...) Hope this makes sense and is of help ??

Just had another look at it...

Got it all the way open by using a screwdriver on the slot on the motor/gearbox and manually helping it along.

It seems to be the right hand side that's knackered... I can move the sunroof back and forth on the right side a bit, so it appears to be jamming as a result of twisting.

However, I cannot see anything wrong with either runner... is it obvious when one is broken?

Could a cable have broken???

It will just about go up, but then jams unless I help it out with the screw and pushing it up.

Hmmmm, mine doesn't seem to be broken anywhere like that...

Hi Drew,

Seeing at the pictures I remember it a little more again, with me it was the lever attachment which was broken the side I put the screw in. It went up all the time, so I drilled a small hole in an underlying plate (as you can see) and I wrapped the tiny wire around the end of the lever and then folded it downwards making an eye at it where I put that screw through and screwing it down it pulled the lever down as well and keeping the lever in the correct position. It's rather difficult to explain but hope it makes sense ? Good luck.

willo said:

And open it again ? Running the risk it jams again the fu....ng POS

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Guess thats a "NO" then willo

whoops!.just finished reading the rest of the thread

Nice piccies willo!

According to my service history the motors and runners were renewed on mine in 2005 anyway. How long are they expected to/do they usually last?

pompey-john said:

According to my service history the motors and runners were renewed on mine in 2005 anyway. How long are they expected to/do they usually last?

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Forever (on condition you don't open it ?? )

Look Eathlings ya all make the same mistake , with sunroofs,any make of motor, in winter it gets frozen in summer it gets cooked, ya think yer can press the button or crank it and like magic it will always work. . .no wrong this is your planet thick heads, thrice a year get some magic silocone spray ,move it back und forth clean out the ****e [ in the runners] and spray the magic stuff, move it back and forth till smooth as a baby earthlings bum [job done] as fer the others with crunchy jammed up bits, pay the piper. . .

Ooh!
He's so butch when he's bin masterfull

mondo said:

Ooh!
He's so butch when he's bin masterfull

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Whip night. . .