Sunroof will not stop

The sunroof on my P38 wouldn't stop, as in it went straight from closed to tilt in one movement with no pause. This meant actually closing the sunroof took a bit of careful stopping and starting.

No bother I thought, I've seen threads about this, I'll get a new motor, which is what I did.

Bad news is this motor (admittedly used but "known good" from a scrappy) does exactly the same as the old motor. Have I really got two motors with the same problem or is there something else I should try?

Mine did this in one of my P38s....infact I think all my P38s have done this....

Somethng to do with the one touch settings....

Have you tried one touch closing??

Or maybe I used to let it open to tilt, then switch other way to close fully.....

So long ago now I can't recall, but I am sure all my 3 have done the same!

Tried the one touch from fully open, goes whirrrr, closes itself and tilts up without stopping. Also does the same with lazy closing from the key. Stumped.

hit it with an ammer then

So once it has gone from fully open to fully tilt....press and hold the switch to close and it should close....a further one touch to close when in full tilt may open it fully again....

try holding the switch in the close position from fully tilt....and see if it stops!

Could it be an issue with the runners? If they're worn then it might not have the point of resistance that the motor is looking for to know it is in the closed position?

AFAIK the function you describe (motor stopping between closed and tilt) is governed by a microswitch inside the housing.

Did you disconnect the battery at any time, have you tried re-initialised the sunroof.

close the sunroof by whatever means,remove the motor from the roof leaving it connected electrically,operate the sunroof button until the motor stops by itself(basically it stops on the microswitch)reassemble and your issue will be over.mine had this issue,i also tried another motor without success.

sassanach said:

close the sunroof by whatever means,remove the motor from the roof leaving it connected electrically,operate the sunroof button until the motor stops by itself(basically it stops on the microswitch)reassemble and your issue will be over.mine had this issue,i also tried another motor without success.

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Good tip, thanks. I did try running the motor when it wasn't connected to the sunroof and it just ran and ran.

Do I have two knackered motors then?

How time consuming is it swapping the motors? Maybe you could try a known working motor if you knew someone else willing to let you try theirs?

speedyyellow said:

How time consuming is it swapping the motors? Maybe you could try a known working motor if you knew someone else willing to let you try theirs?

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Swapping the motors takes approximately 20 minutes. Two minutes to unbolt the in-place motor, 16 minutes to scrabble around in the footwell and under the seats hunting for the bolts which fell down there during the removal process, and two minutes to bolt in the replacement.

Good plan on asking someone with a known good motor...

odysseus said:

Good tip, thanks. I did try running the motor when it wasn't connected to the sunroof and it just ran and ran.

Do I have two knackered motors then?

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did you try it in both directions, mine seemed to run on for an eternity before it stopped.
i tried a known good motor too thats how i found out about the microswitch

sassanach said:

did you try it in both directions, mine seemed to run on for an eternity before it stopped.

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Will try later. Cheers.

Ok. I'm going to admit defeat until I can try a known good motor. I've run it back and forth, forth and back, held it, tried to set it, used colourful language and hand signals, and it's still not working properly. All in the rain too so now I have a wet head.

The brummies who designed this thing were geniuses and morons in equal measure.

kin-ell my p38 is in dry dock for the summer(ha..ha..ha..) either a, send me yours and i will shove it in my tub or b,i will remove mine (working perfectly)and send it to you to try,with yourself paying postage each way....your call.

That's very kind of you to offer sassanach, thank you very much.

As it turns out, I've now got an offer of assistance from a local fellow P38 victim/owner, but your offer is truly appreciated.

p38 victim is more accurate..