Sunroof Switch Question.....

[George M]

Gents,
A while ago I took my sunroof switch apart because the roof was getting a bit lazy and some were replacing their roof motors prematurely only to find out it was a dirty switch and nothing wrong with the motor.
Cleaned the switch and really improved the motor's performance...sunroof traverses real nice forward and back...but along the way...not sure if it was right at the time...I lost the function of being able to pop the rear of the roof by pressing up on the switch. Have read something about resyncing the roof but never had that issue and not sure if it applies to the pop up feature. Perhaps loss of pop up function was due to losing one of those pesky springs in the switch :p ....not sure. Anybody with some advice? It could also be the sunroof module I guess which is under the rear seat but sure don't want to go there if can be avoided. I am considering purchase of a used switch from Rigmaster's parted car collection if no other suggestions are forthcoming.
Thanks,
George

[ryan-roopnarine]

the pop function (as is analguous to the trans switch operation in the middle) is dependent upon the centre switch/spring and its little plastic nub. most of the time that i couldn't get the push down function to work on the trans switch, it was because the centre spring had jumped off. if you're brave, pry off the top of the switch, and see if the spring is still there (in its proper place).


Gents,
A while ago I took my sunroof switch apart because the roof was getting a bit lazy and some were replacing their roof motors prematurely only to find out it was a dirty switch and nothing wrong with the motor.
Cleaned the switch and really improved the motor's performance...sunroof traverses real nice forward and back...but along the way...not sure if it was right at the time...I lost the function of being able to pop the rear of the roof by pressing up on the switch. Have read something about resyncing the roof but never had that issue and not sure if it applies to the pop up feature. Perhaps loss of pop up function was due to losing one of those pesky springs in the switch :p ....not sure. Anybody with some advice? It could also be the sunroof module I guess which is under the rear seat but sure don't want to go there if can be avoided. I am considering purchase of a used switch from Rigmaster's parted car collection if no other suggestions are forthcoming.
Thanks,
George

[George M]

Thanks for the tip Ryan...will take it apart...maybe no middle spring there at all. Don't have to brave...wasn't the first time...lol.
George

[ryan roopnarine]

look at this pic. see the thing jutting out at the highest point? there's a spring under that.

http://plaza.ufl.edu/rroopnar/Saturday,%20November%2001,%202003.jpg

if that isn't there anymoire, the push down function of the switch ceases to work. unfortunately, i think that the po of this car had had someone (female likely) stand on top of the shift console, as to be able to stand up in the sunroof area., irrevocably damaging the shift plastic shutter and a/m switch. my switch had a little plastic nub missing, which, when i put it back together, didn't allow it to work. if you can get yours to work after taking it apart once, you need to do nothing more than make sure that plastic piece has got its spring under it.

ps...obviously i mean "oover" it, not the spring under the plastic piece. just saw that when i posted the photo.

[Springfield1952]

My sunroof stopped operating recently when the battery died and the car got a jump to restart. I reset the switch by pressing down on the center section for about 20 seconds and the sunroof worked fine after that. It's worth a shot. Good luck.

Curt.
1994 530iT enjoying the sunshine thru the roof.

[George M]

Curt...did your whole sunroof stop functioning or just the rear pop up function?
I am wondering about that reset feature I have read about before....must have something to do with re-zero'ing the general module under the rear seat.
Thanks...maybe I didn't hold the center section down long enough or I screwed up the switch when I had it apart. Also...Thanks a lot Ryan for the pic....clear now where to look for the spring.
George
PS: Am currently installing the CD43 BMW head unit...now have the correct connector from a parted '92 525i...Thanks Rigmaster....and antenna adapter plug....Thanks Mike Holbrook...found the VW-20 adapter cheaper from another source. Am doing some sleuthing on the wiring scheme and will share a complet write up with you guys to take the mystery out of mounting a late model BMW factory head unit in these cars.

[Springfield1952]

George . . . my sunroof stopped working altogether. When I pressed the button I could hear the motor twitch - kinda the sound you hear when you turn the key to the right in the door and all the windows and sunroof close - the sound a motor makes at an already closed window. So it sounded like there was some power going to the motor but nothing opened. I just turned on the key to run, held the center of the switch for 40 seconds or so (I've always been an overachiever!), turned the key off then on and things worked fine. Good luck.

Curt.
1994 530iT

[George M]

Thanks Curt,
Guess we will caulk that up to the mystery of the universe :-)
Will give it a whirl before I take the switch apart again.
George

[gale]

George,

Max's section on sunroof tilt problems looks like it might apply in your case:

http://www.aloofhosting.com/maxf/

scroll down a few lines to "Fixing a sunroof . . ."

"E.T."

[George M]

Hi Don...
Good info but unless I am missing something, don't think Max's approach is applicable in my case. My roof works great front and back so don't think it is a sync issue. I have to revisit the switch and give Curt's suggestion a try short of pulling the motor and repositioning the roof.
More info is always good and thanks for sharing that bro,
George

[George M]

Sunroof pop up feature it fixed. The culprit wasn't the ball point pen spring under the little rectangular push up button shown in Ryan's picture that was missing but due to the little rectangular button itself being installed 180 degrees out of position which is an error proofing faux pas on the part of BMW engineers. For the record one must be careful about the white rectangular button on top of the spring inside the switch. Orientation is critical. There is a very small lever on top of the rectangular button that pushes a metal contact outboard as the button is depressed making contact to activate the sunroof rear section/pop up feature. I had this small lever on top of the button oriented inboard hence the button could not activate the outboard contact. BMW deliberately designed the internal narrow button rectangular to remove one degree of freedom for mis-installing the button but made the switch such that the narrow button still could be installed 180 degrees out. That likely wouldn't happen today as error proofing is scrutinized to the nth degree with just about all designs out there.
FYI to those that take apart the sunroof switch for cleaning and have this issue.
Thanks to all that responded and to Ryan for taking the trouble of posting the pic of the switch.
George