Well, since i baught the '6 the sunroof has gone through mild stages of what i call "not getting over itself", in which the rear of the panel did not pop up properly, requireing me to assist it with my hand whilst pushing the button.
cleaning the rails seemed to allevieate this problem only mildly, as it worked yes, but the problem occurred again.
This is an example of the problem i am describing.
YouTube - MX6 Sunroof Not working
Although that video was made when it was in working order, you get the idea.
The problem is obviously that there is too much work for the motor to do the job, this may be caused by poor lubrication, or a worn or dirty motor. since i concider myself pretty good with electric motors, i decided to find the motor and clean it out or replace it.
The sunroof panel is held on by 4 nuts, to access these you will need to pull the headliner off. To pull the headliner off, open the sunroof a bit then just pull it off, it is held in by 4 little poppy things, once you have the front ones out it might be a bit harder to pull the rears out. after theyre all out close the sunroof and undo the 4 nuts that are there.
On removing the sunroof, i had a look at it. It is made up of 2 bits of sheetmetal and 4 bolts (and the plastic ends for the headliner tihngo), It also has a fair bit of weight to it, for what it is at least, I really dont see why no one has mad a full CF or perspex one, because as far as weight goes thats a big factor in strainign the motor, as the system works much better with it removed, and cf or perspex would weigh a lot less, but i suppose also have a lot less security. It is Certainly a LOT less complicated then the bonnet or boot.
Sunroof removed:
The mechanism that opens the sunroof is a bit difficult to explain. The panel mounts onto 2 plastic mounts, these have a rail slotted into them which is curved. On the metal rail of the sunroof rack there is a simple carriage that moves along it, with a grommet the goes into the rail on the mount, this follows the curve and pushes it up as it pushes it back, with not enough effort it is psuhing it back jamming it against the back part of the well, and there is not enough power to push the panel up.
Part of the rail:
Panel mount:
While the panel is removed, go over the sides of the well wiht touch up, same with the edges of the panel:
This is what the rails looked like before cleaning:
You will need to go over this with a lot of wd 40 and a rag or tissue, get all the dirt and grime out, rather then rubbing at it back and forth try rubbing it all down to one end where you can pick it out, myne also had pine needles in it, all this gunk is adding much extra load on the already hard to do job of lifting the sunroof., you will need to spray and wipe wd40 on everything whilst moving the part that you are using, theres 11 years of crap built up in there that needs to go. After which you will need to grease it up for proper lubrication.
This is a video of the mechanism opening and closing without the panel, as you can see it is much free'er to move without all that load on it, in the video i hopes to show that you can see the main carriage on the metal rail moving back and forth which had a little knob out the side on a curved rail which acts to pop the panel up as it is pushing it backward
YouTube - MX6 sunroof mechanism
you can see when it is closest to "closed" position the mount is not moving as much but the cariage on the rail is still moving along.
Anyway. My intention was to find the motor, if i found it i could re-do the wireing, pull it apart and clean out all the crap, re wind it with new wire and probably replace the commutator, or , if it was a generic DC motor, wich was likely... then buy a new one.
Unfortunately, i couldnt find any motor. I probably should have pulled out an exploded parts diagram before i ripped this apart, it was very spur of the moment.
Anyway, clean and regreasing everything was the most i could hope for, with the panel removied i was able to clean the entire metal rails rather then just the parts that are exposed when it is opened, i was also able to clean out and re grease the plastic mechanism that was full of crap.
re mounting the sunroof is much easier then removing it, put hte mounts in the close position then put the panel on top and the 4 bolts are right there for you to re attatch the nuts inside the car.
now, you do NOT want to do these up too tightly, as it is only crap plastic tha they are holding on to, and you will warp it all if it is done too tight, if it is warped it just will not work. you can see this by doing them up tightly and noting that it will not work as opposed to not putting the nuts on at all and seeing that it works perfectly. Put the nuts on barely more then finger/thumb tight. open the sunroof, and put the headliner into its slot, then close the roof, then press on the headliner to pop the poppy thingys back in.
and.... hey presto it works:
YouTube - MX6 Sunroof working
From now on you will want to get into the habit of only opening it when the engine is running, and try and at least wipe it down once a week or so. I am going to dissassemble this again in the near future once i find out how to get to the motor, so that we can somehow find other options.
So, after this deep clean just remember:
clean with wd40 and wipe down then re grease
Have engine running when opening it
try and get to wiping it down at least once a week
If you can lighten the panel in any way, do it, dont modify the origional panel, it is made that way because it is, but if a CF, or perspex one is available then use it, an mx6 near me has a clear perspex panel that WAS factory fitted.
And dont leave it out in the rain, which i did.
And later that afternoon it stopped working again.
But today it does work.
HTH...
