How to - Strip and rebuild Sunroof Motor

I do believe the same motors are used for D1 and D2 so this will apply to both.

I will assume that folks have already tested their electrics and worked out that their motor is not playing games. This normally happens after the dreaded leaky sunroof issues and when people have left things sitting damp for several months. Like I did!

It will first pay to check fuses then press switches to hear of solenoids in the control box are working first. You can also use a circuit tester and see if you are getting power to the red and brown wires when the connectors are separated. IN my case everything was working fine so it had to be motors.

I checked the cost of new ones and found not only that they were not readily available here in NZ, but they were expensive! SO with them being broke I decided to have a go! AT worse I could manually close the roof and just leave it be without any motors.

So here is the motor in situ...


You need to disconnect the four way connector block and the small back spade connector attached to the motor housing first. Then remove the two black star head M4 crews and the longer brass coloured M5 screw and remove the motor.


Take the motor over to your bench and unscrew the three star head screws that hold everything together...


Remove the two pieces of tape holding the wires together to give you more room. Then carefully slide back the pressed motor housing from the aluminium drive casting.

Remove the rubber square O ring type seal from the casting and keep safe.

(AT this point you may want to look at the pictures of how it goes back together and just work in reverse. Its pretty self explanatory when you strip it down though)

Next step is to separate remove the white plastic part that houses the brushes, sliding the wire guides free as you pull the plastic off the centre shaft. Remove this slowly as the brushes will be in contact the motor shaft and are on springs, but you cant really damage it.

Then pull the motor shaft from out of the pressed casing by just giving it a bit of a yank. It will be held in by the magnets so will feel like its not going to budge, but it should go with just slightly more effort.

There is a small white plastic insert on the bottom end of the shaft that is worth removing just now and keeping safe with the O ring. It just pulls off.

You now have everything in bits!


Now guide picture time again, and how I found my motors. I will start a new post to keep pictures down...

My pressed magnet housing was pretty messy, corroded and full of gunk like so...


The aluminium gear/drive housing was also full of gunk and dried out mess..


The electric connections block and brush housing was also manky...


Motor coil was rusted up and dirty, the drive worm shaft was heavily corroded...


At this stage just give everything a good soaking in WD40 and get your mini files and fine wire brushed out. A roll of paper towel will come in handy as you will have to spray and wipe everything for a while depending on how dirty you find things!

I gave everything a good fine wire brush and cleaned the shaft up on the worm drive with a file the best I could. I used my small needle files to get inside the magnet housing and cleaned everything up in there also. I didn't fell the need to remove the magnets, but they do look like they will come out if you remove the two U springs in there? I never id this though and mine were quite bad. Once everything was clean and I was happy I got to it with my compressor and blew everything clean and dry.

Parts now looked like this...


Still some slight pitting on the drive shaft, but this part does not contact anything so I was happy with it...


Magnets and pressed housing now nice and clean...


Small plastic insert to bottom end of drive shaft can now go back in place.
Before...


After...


With everything cleaned up its time to put it all back together...

Making sure the end plastic insert is still in place lower the motor shaft back down between the magnets. It will stick to the side before dropping the last 5 or 6mm, so you need to just give it a bit of help to seat fully. When in place it will trun by hand and remain central.
Will look like this...


The motor brushes live in the white plastic section and are held in by springs. So now that they are off the centre shaft they will be pushed right in and so you wont be able to get the brushes to sit in the correct position...


Small springs on each side push the brush down to take up any wear...


Using a small pick tool you can carefully lift the spring back and locate it on the outer plastic surround to keep it out of the way...


Note - You can sometimes just push the magnets in from the centre and the spring may get stuck back and out of the way. But if not, the pick method works best.

Next just use a finger and push the brushes back into the housing so they are flush and out of the way...


Now slide the brush housing down over the worm shaft with the wired side down over...


As you lower the brush housing down relocate the wiring seal block onto the pressed body. If you have the brushes pushed back out of the way it will sit down this far...


The brushes will be stuck out slightly...


Using your pick again, flick the springs back into place and these will push the brushes back down to connect with the motor...


Next you need to put the two halves back together.

Aluminium housing should be nice and clean now, so time to refit the rubber O ring...


My O ring had a slight raised section from previously being fitted, this sat facing outwards and on the right side like this...


Lining up the pressed housing and the casting with the two screw holes at one end and the single at the other the two sections can be reassembled. But don't allow the white plastic brush housing to fall completely down as it will catch the rubber O ring and force it into the casting. Stop at about this point...


I found using a thumb to hold back the O ring allowed the two halves to fit back together without trapping the rubber O ring...


Just before tightening back up allow the runner seal to fit back into the joint...


Refit the screws and tighten everything back up again. Making sure the earth male spade connector goes onto the right screw or your wire wont reach when back in the car...



I found it best to connect the motor back to the cars wiring for the final test, as the proximity wheel seemed to prevent me from powering up from external source?? So without fixing back in place just reconnect the wiring back up and attach the earth spade and give the buttons a press.

Hey presto! It should spin up nicely!!

My roof was closed so I let the motor go through a full cycle and back to stand point on the proximity wheel. Maybe not required, but I did it for peace of mind and it worked. This was the ECU thinks the roof is closed and the drive worm is in the right position for the roof being closed.

Now just refix the three screws to the roof of the car in the correct order and you are cooking with gas! I ran through a few cycles of open and closed then full slide a few times and it all worked just fine!

Hope this guide is of help to someone, just shout up if you need any other help!

Cheers
Dave...

Excellent 'How to..........' with a load of useful pictures.

Well done Dave



Cheers
Dave

+1 on the praise for the write-up

That sunroof motor housing looks very similar if not identical to the D2 rear wiper motor.
Maybe this "how to" could apply to those too - although most of those probably fail due to problem in the gearbox / output shaft.

Paul,

2001 D2 TD5, 182,000 miles & climbing

Cheers chaps. Looking at door window motors they also appear to be the same. So I reckon they could also be rebuilt if they get slow or sticky.

As additonal note, while I had the gearbox part off the drive shaft I stuck an allen ket bit into my drill and gave the whole gearbox a good spin up in both directions to work through any gunk and crap that collects in there over the years. Just got the whole thing running nice and smooth before reassembly.

Worked a treat!

Thanks very helpful. How long did it take you for the rebuild?

It's a 10 year old post don't expect a reply anytime soon and hast been here since 2016

thanks, saw the date afterward!