Sun Roof, wind noise

Does anyone know if its possible to make fine adjustments to a sun roof. At any speed over fifty mph it begins to roar and the only way to stop is to make incredibly small adjustments using the buttons. In closed position it seems to be sitting a millimeter too low.

Thanks

Jamieb

I had this problem with a BX and it was cured by fitting a plastic deflector along the front of the sunroof aperture

thanks - I'll try and get hold one. Saves me fiddling with the sunroof and making things worse!

Hi jamieb,

The sunroof can move in two possible directions - either all the way back to leave a hole in the roof or upwards at the back. The motor turns the same way from one extreme to the other. There is a microswitch to make the motor pause at the point midway between the two extremes ie when the thing is closed. It sounds to me like the microswitch indexing point has moved.

The way to fix it is to make those small adjustments until you feel that the sunroof is completely closed. Once in the closed position undo the motor fixing screws and drop the motor until it is dangling on the cables. Use the sunroof switch to exercise the motor from one extreme to the other. You will find that it takes two presses in the same direction to go from one extreme to the other. Once you have a feel for it, stop the motor at the midpoint where it naturally pauses. In this position offer the motor back up to its mountings and secure the fixings. Your motor is now correctly indexed to the position of the sunroof. Every time the motor stops midway the sunroof must be closed.

The sunroof could have become de-indexed (!sp) in two ways. Either someone has had the motor off before and not replaced it properly or the drive cable has become so stiff with no lubrication that the motor drive pinion is skipping teeth.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

noz

Hi Noz

Thanks very much Noz - I'll definitely give that a go. I'm sure it is a de-indexing problem. The seals look fine and there is no leaking. Am I right in thinking then that replacing the motor when the sunroof is properly aligned effectively re-indexes it in the new position?

Jamie

Hi jamieb,

Yes, thats it.

Cheers

noz

Is it possible to lubricate the cable - eg with aerosol grease - without removing the headlining?

Thanks to NOZ,
Last week I decided to remove the sunroof on my xm like I had been meaning to do for the last year or so ha ha.
I gave the cables a really good clean along with the runners oiling the lot with chainlube. put it all back together and the gear slipped! I took the motor off and gripped the steel insert very gently in the vice,I closed the vice just enough for me to slide a peice of nylon behind either side of the insert. with me doing that ,it has closed up any slack between the gearwheel and the worm. The sunroof works as it should now.....
Well thanks to noz that is, I was wondering how the hell I could get the sunroof to close and tilt properly,after manually winding it closed/open tilted etc. I figured if I could put it through all its positions on the handle then it should do it using the buttons.
I found this post and followed your instructions now it works as it should.
many thanks
gary

I had not seen this topic previously or I could possibly have guided you to the Citroen replacement gear-and-guide repair kit. Never mind - next time perhaps!

>"...could possibly have guided you to the Citroen replacement gear-and-guide repair kit"

Please do!

Also, how easy is it to remove the headlining?

Thanks for that techman.
in reply to rtap 64.
If you remove the sunroof motor you will see the two cables that you need to lube.
get someone to gently push the sunroof up and watch the cables they will move ,one left the other right.
You could have a go at spraying lube on the cables as your assistant moves the sunroof by hand, once you have the tilt area of the cables lubed,push the sunroof down and try sliding it back and forth,then you will be able to lube the remaining length of the cables.
all depends how gunged up the cables are,work a little bit at a time and see if you get the roof to move easier.

Hope you don't have to go this far but the headlining removes with the aid of a philips screw driver and small,medium and larger torx bits.

remove ,the interior light console, sunvisors,all the handles and two lights to the rear.any other roof furniture.
also remove the trim down either side of the windscreen also the trim above the rear doors and rear hatch.
before you can start pulling the headlining away from the velcro strips that run diagonal
holding the h/lining to the sunroof cassette,you will need to open the sunroof a few inches and remove two small headed philips screws,these are screwed from above,I thought it had velcro there and just pulled ! needless to say they didn't go back in.
Then its a case of easing the headlining away from the velcro strips,they have quite a grip to them.
Hope this is some help to you.
gary

Thanks for the help on this (lubricating the sunroof cables).

Am I missing something - is it actually possible to drop the motor without removing the headlining? The motor seems to be held in place by 4 screws - 2 cross-head and 2 Torx. Three are accessible but one of the Torx is obstructed by the headlining, so I've given up on this for the moment.

But, one thing I did notice was a couple of metal access plates, approx 4" x 1", on each side of the sunroof aperture, by the guide rails, accessible from above, outside the car. On each side they are positioned towards the rear of the opening, and each is held by three 7mm hex-head screws. Simple to remove, and doing so exposes a section of the cable - easy to squirt WD40 a short distance along it in each direction and smear grease on it, moving the sunroof fore and aft to maximise the length of cable treated.

Some peace of mind obtained by this (I'll do it every year from now on as it's so easy), but things still aren't 100% - indexing's out, and I suspect that gear teeth are being skipped (clacketty clack) if I open the roof to the limit of its rearward travel.

This post has been edited by rtap64 on April 14, 2007 05:19 pm

There is a repair kit listed by Citroen which consists of a new gear wheel , a new spring to press the cable against the gear wheel and a circlip to replace the one that is removed to get the two other items off. A small puller will be needed to get the gearwheel off and the new one has to be pressed on the shaft. It may be better to remove the whole motor assembly as you will have to apply some cosiderable pressure to press the worm wheel on and it will have to be suppported solidly underneath. The only snag is that if you disturb the positioning of the microswitches, you may find it a lengthy process to get the closing of the roof to the water-sealed position. A suitable 'G' clamp may enable the wormwheel replacement to be done in situ.

The correct final position of the sunroof leaves it about 2-3 mm low at the back. The rubber seal should bear against the face of the housing, not at the top edge.

Ah! I always wondered why mine was slightly low at the back. Don't get any wind noise though!