Panoramic moonroof issues

TDIAustin said:

If he's worked on those complicated, exotic and difficult cars, strange he would tell you not to use the pano sunroof in your VW. We really enjoy ours.

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I watched while they did surgery on a BMW sunroof it wasn't pretty, your weather is a lot more sunroof friendly then Houston, here, A/C is much more important than a sunroof, its on my car because it came that way, I didn't buy it new. Wife's NOX has no sunroof bought new that way. The late model VW TDI's are way ahead of their time way to complicated to run trouble free, I got stuck with this one but as I said it was cheap...how many TDI owners are members of this forum? most likely a very small percentage so all the problems surfacing with under 50K miles on the OD no where truly reflects the magnitude of the problems this car presents to its owner. You spend $30K on a car, I would think the engineers would be able to get you 50K trouble free miles? The Chevy NOX, we have had it for 2 years and let see...changed oil and topped off nitrogen in tires, no exploding fuel pumps...

joeyTWOwheels said:

Hello friends.

Has anyone else had very weird happenings with their panoramic moonroof? Mine has been stuck open, non-functional at times and the sunscreen doesn't go back with the roof anymore – I can open the roof and the screen stays in place.

When it was stuck open, I used the key in the door and got it closed. So I took it to the dealer and it actually didn't work when I was in their lot – a first (pre-diagnosed problems rarely occur on their watch).

My dealer was less than helpful, basically telling me (after two days of having my car) to "call him back if it happens again". All they did was take the switch out and put it back in. I'm going to speak to the manager of this place, but wanted to know of other member's experiences.

Oh, one more thing - does your sun shade "catch" and open when you open your moonroof? I'm almost positive mine did before it started acting up, but it was a few months ago and the car only has 3,000 miles.

Thanks in advance.

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My sunroof works independent of the sunscreen unless I hold down the driver side window switch to open all windows, I have the keyless entry. When I do this the sunroof tilts up the sunscreen opens about a foot and all windows open. Driving I can open the sunroof in tilt mode or all the way open and the sunscreen doesn’t open unless I hit the switch.

I have an 2010 where the shade is hanging up, under warranty from buyer auto vid in atl. they are rebuilt cars.

Had to replace entire pano sunroof frame, motor

AVEngineer said:

I too had the same problem with my 2012 JSW. I purchased it in June 2012 and it worked fine all summer. In April of this year I tried to open it from the complete closed position and only the passengers side popped up to open. It also made a very loud grinding sound, thinking the worst I left it alone and scheduled an appointment. The tech at the dealership said it just got "out of sync". Not knowing any better I said okay whatever.
One week later it would not close after being opened and sitting in the sun for a few hours. This time the dealer learned from a VW rep that happened to stop by that there is an issue with the gasket kit and it swelling and activating the pinch protection. They ordered the kit and got it installed. I dropped my car off on a Thursday and it was ready by Tuesday.
So far no additional problems have come up. Time will tell.

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My 2010 JSW pano sunroof got stuck askew at 78K miles while I was opening it, leaving it with one front corner up and the other remaining down, as if the motor was able to engage the cable on one side but not the other. I brought it to my local independent garage (I'm through with dealer service departments!), and he ultimately came to the conclusion (if I understand correctly) that the motor worm gear was worn and that the worm drive that moves the passenger-side cable must have some broken teeth. This meant replacing the entire frame and motor assembly, which cost $2000 (and probably resulted in a loss for the mechanic, since it took him way longer than the 6 hours labor he quoted and charged).

After reading the above post about a gasket kit issue, I wonder if my JSW was suffering from the same problem and that a "replacement gasket kit" might have been all I needed. But I'll never know. Has anyone else had my experience, where the issue was diagnosed as a worn gear and drive?

Also, should I have attempted to get VW to pay for this at 78K miles? I'm one of the unfortunate JSW TDI owners:
- Four failed door latches between 38K - 45K mi, three paid by VW
- HPFP failure at 47K, paid by VW
- Cracked valve cover at 61K, 75% paid by VW
- Incomplete weld seal on rear (D) pillar, resulting in water leaks into wheel-well at 57K, not covered by VW (mechanic basically ended up caulking it)
- Repeated replacement of the O2 sensor in my first months, probably other things I'm forgetting right now

But hey, my wife loves the car! And it IS fun to drive.

Man, that's a lot of wacky repairs for such low mileage on the car. As for the sunroof, it might be worth the trouble to ask since you've had so many other things go wrong. They might take pity on you. Wait, what am I saying???

Can you buy a delete kit for the sunroof?
I might pay extra to not have the D&^)ed thing

think I have a leak from my sunroof. found a damp rear right passenger side carpet and have a funky mildew smell brewing...

Just dumped some kitty litter on the carpets tonight and stopping by the dealer tomorrow am.

p.s. I still maintain the benefit of the moo roof outweighs the leaking problems. Just make sure you inspect & clean out your drain holes every quarter.

i have the same issue with a leak it seems to be the rear tubes are either clogged or displaced, had a bit of water in the spare tire well, checked the front tubes no issues there, will have my guru tear into the rears in a few weeks , annoying yes for a less than three year old car but I agree with you The roof rocks and I will put up with its fits from time to time.

msantram said:

think I have a leak from my sunroof. found a damp rear right passenger side carpet and have a funky mildew smell brewing...

Just dumped some kitty litter on the carpets tonight and stopping by the dealer tomorrow am.

p.s. I still maintain the benefit of the moo roof outweighs the leaking problems. Just make sure you inspect & clean out your drain holes every quarter.

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Mine has stuck open a few times over the 140k miles....Only when it is hot/sunny.

If you are at home, a few cold/wet towels across the sunroof/frame always worked for me within 5 minutes(helps to have 45 deg well water).

I am going to give the "alignment" a try and see if that helps any....

Same problems

timwagon said:

I've had the "won't close" issue twice now, both times after the car was parked in the hot sun for an extended period of time. The sunroof fully opens without any issues, but then, when I go to close it, it slides all the way forward, but does not come down the last 2" or so to lock shut.

Each time, the roof closed a little later, after parking in the shade and letting the car cool down.

My guess is that it's a heat related issue, maybe something in the mechanism is binding when the roof gets too hot. I had a similar issue with my previous car, a MINI, which wouldn't open when the sunroof got too hot.

I'll post an update after next week's service check. On my MINI, it took three dealer visits and a complete new sunroof to fix the problem. I hope this time it's something easier to fix.

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I’ve had exactly the same issues on my 2010 Golf Wagon (I’m in Canada) and last week the roof came out of its housing and jammed open. Because the car is 4 years old and out of warranty, VW or my dealer don’t want to help. The cost of the repair is more than $2500. That represents 25% of the vehicles value. I’m very disappointed. Any suggestions?

[well that sucks I would look into getting it to close and never open it again, you may get a shop to get it in where you can lock it, no t a great idea I know but better than $2500




QUOTE=Stuart D Neal;4549643]I’ve had exactly the same issues on my 2010 Golf Wagon (I’m in Canada) and last week the roof came out of its housing and jammed open. Because the car is 4 years old and out of warranty, VW or my dealer don’t want to help. The cost of the repair is more than $2500. That represents 25% of the vehicles value. I’m very disappointed. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE]

afarfalla said:

...
The late model VW TDI's are way ahead of their time way to complicated to run trouble free, I got stuck with this one but as I said it was cheap...how many TDI owners are members of this forum? most likely a very small percentage so all the problems surfacing with under 50K miles on the OD no where truly reflects the magnitude of the problems this car presents to its owner. You spend $30K on a car, I would think the engineers would be able to get you 50K trouble free miles? The Chevy NOX, we have had it for 2 years and let see...changed oil and topped off nitrogen in tires, no exploding fuel pumps...

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Based on my experience on another car forum, big problems are over reported compared to the size of the membership. On that forum, there were quite a few users who joined just so they could discuss their scored number four cylinder. They had no interest in joining a car forum until they had a big problem; then they searched the Internet for information on the problem, and joined the forum. There's nothing wrong with that: people on the forum were happy to share information. However, when a relatively small percentage of happy customers join, and a very high percentage of those with big problems join, it does skew one's impression of the extent of the problem.

Didn't look through the entire thread but thankfully no issues with being stuck open/shut...but my problem is when i tilt open and go over bumps it rattles like it's gonna fall apart. Did anyone else experience this issue?

I just had mine in for its MVI and they lubed it up well and it's now very quiet. It used to rattle even in the closed position.

...not sure of 'delete kit' availability - - - would that bit a tongue-in-cheek avoidance message?

IIRC, my JSW offer three major options (NAV, PANO and the DSG): about a grand each.

Three grand buys a lot of Crown Royal.

ez

Golf Wagon Pano Roof Won't Close

Stuart D Neal said:

I’ve had exactly the same issues on my 2010 Golf Wagon (I’m in Canada) and last week the roof came out of its housing and jammed open. ... The cost of the repair is more than $2500. That represents 25% of the vehicles value. I’m very disappointed. Any suggestions?

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Posting this on an old thread, but it may be useful to someone else searching for help.

Same problem ... 2010 Golf Wagon in Canada. First warm sunny day here in southern Ontario, long drive with the sunroof open (first time since fall).

Got home and the damn thing wouldn't settle into its bed. Tried all the suggestions (highway speed, pushing on windscreen, pushing on the back of the glass, &c.)

Obviously enough resistance resulting in the motor cutting out. So I uninstalled the wind deflector (five screws across the front plus a couple of clips on the side) and smeared a bit of Vaseline on the tracks ... and it finally closed.

What a PITA ... And I'm not pushing my luck on this one. It stays closed from here on

Mine did the same thing, after I just turned the know to "Open" position and when I want to close it "stuck" at open position. Then from then on it went down the hill:
1) Tried few times to open and close switch, made things worse;
2) It would open and make rattling noise
3) Tried manually forcing to close while someone pushing close button, rattling became worse;
4) While it was trying to close, something on left side/rail was stuck, so it looked crooked
5) I took it to shop (not dealer) and they told me cable is gone, upon inspecting the cable it became apparent that cable was crooked and torn, maybe result of "non-lubrication". I don't remember lubricating it ever.
Quote from them is that I need 1800 (new parts and labor), so I told them to close the damn thing, $150 later, I decided not to ever bother fixing or opening this damn "pano-roof".
Volkswagen should do thorough quality check or at least recall some parts on it, shame! Such a good car with faulty parts!

I'd like to thank user KIX for the adaptation/reset instructions.

Mine had been open (not just tilted, but opened to the rear) for several days, parked in my garage most of the time. Today, it is about 75 F outside and cloudy, so heat was not an issue. However, the switch would not close the moonroof. It's raining, and I have places I need to go.

I checked all fuses, tried the switch multiple times, even went for a short drive in hopes that the vibration might cause an intermittent problem to go away for a while. No joy.

I then did a Google search that led me to this thread. I tried KIX's solution. The first time I tried it, I heard a click in the overhead console and released the switch. I pulled it down again and the moonroof moved forward and closed. I'm guessing that there's a bug in the CECM and the adaptation caused it to reset to a stable state.

I can now go about my business for the day. TDI Club is awesome.

I think this will work

I caused this.

It was a hot day yes but I think I caused it and can give insight into why it happens. First, this is our new (used) car so I had not known the full details on operation of the panoramic roof. While I had opened the sunscreen and roof panel before I did not even realize the vent option was a possibility and I thought I had to hold the button for opening the sunscreen until it got to the back.

Intending to open the sunroof I turned the knob a few clicks then immediately went to push the switch to open the sunscreen also. Operation of both just stopped with the sunroof in a high vent position and the sunscreen about 6” back from closed.

I held the button to retract the sunscreen and left it open. I turned the knob to fully open the roof then to close it again a number of times. I realized that the tracks were bone dry so I greased them well with molly grease on a cotton swab then wiped the rubber with ample silicon. I also sprayed silicon in the sunscreen track for good measure. Now it ran quietly, but not past the extended vent position.

My wife hunted down this forum and we read this thread from the beginning. We had towels on the roof in attempt to cool things off. I became aware of the knob and switches. It sounds like the vent switches and the sunscreen switches are the very same “cherry switches” used worldwide on millions and millions of contraptions from CT scanners to Jetta sunroofs. I made sure I could feel and hear each switch indent then open until the vent was neither being told to open nor close and I did the same for the sunscreen switches. Everything was now neutral.

Having looked up a youtube video on operation of the roof and read the adaption description from KIX I realized that I had probably scrambled a processor that was now sitting waiting for a reset and adaptation routine from an informed owner. I turned the key off for 10 seconds then back on. I began to hold the vent close position and held it for about 20 seconds until the processor began to perform the adaptation. When it finished I let go of the switch then turned the car off. I repeated the adaption from a fully closed position once more just to make sure, then turned the car off again. When I turned the car on again I checked all operation, now armed with full knowledge of momentary clicks to make things happen instead of holding buttons down. Everything works fine and I now know the procedure to set everything straight if I confuse the processor again.

Solution to sunroof leaking onto floor via the A pillars and condensation on the windows. There is another video as well but this one sums it up and shows the fix. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQb9qaOBe5Q

TDIAustin said:

^^^ I agree with the above technical analysis. Wonky is about right.

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Why buy a car with big hole cut in the roof?!? All of that moving parts and electrical motors is asking for headache. Want the air in the hair we hop in the heep.

Good luck with all of that mess

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

iamatt said:

Why buy a car with big hole cut in the roof?!? All of that moving parts and electrical motors is asking for headache. Want the air in the hair we hop in the heep.

Good luck with all of that mess

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

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You complain about sunroof mechanics, but you own a Jeep?

Just had the sunroof replaced in my 1.5yr old 36k mile JSW. I use it year round for ventilation. Went to open the sunroof a tad few weeks ago and it made a hell of a racket but opened to the first notch. Drove to work, pushed the button to close and it did not even budge. Would not open nor close. Took it to dealer, I was 86 yes 86 miles outside of the VW 36k warranty. But purchased an extended plan due to my rate of travel. They covered it 100% no deductible. The bill was just over 3 grand. But now it rattles, and one of my dom lights does not work so get to go back to the dealer today.

My sunroof opens when I start the car. Pulled fuse, held the buttton down, won't relearn. Opens every time I start the car.

summer_land said:

My sunroof opens when I start the car. Pulled fuse, held the buttton down, won't relearn. Opens every time I start the car.

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Odd.


Only a feature on the hottest days, not so much when it's raining lol

What's everyone use to lube the tracks on the panoramic roof

jeepnguy said:

What's everyone use to lube the tracks on the panoramic roof

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This! https://www.idparts.com/vw-sunroof-grease-p-903.html

I have a '14 JSW TDI with a sunshade that is stuck all the way open.
I've started looking at fuses and find that one location refers to F51 but cannot find that in the passenger fuse box. As I started troubleshooting, I did find F39 20A was blown and continues to blow if I put a new fuse in it. I'm wondering if the sunshade buttons in the dial switch are bad? The sunroof itself works fine -- just the shade is stuck in the open position. Guessing if the switch is ok that it must be the sunshade motor?

yeah that would be my guess. you will have to drop the headliner either way. But i would scan codes. it will tell you why the fuse blew. could easily be a chafed wire that is grounding. everything has pinch protection so it would have to be a short causing the blown fuse.