What might be the problem with our sunroof?

POKEEE

MEMBER
2001 DODGE NEON
150 MILES

The car was parked with the sunroof just partially in the slide open(Not the pop-up) position. Upon returning to the car the sunroof would not operate at all. The next day after checking it out further, the switch light was lit, and after playing with the key and the switch over and over, the roof actuated and slid open. I tried to close it and it moved 1/2 inch and stopped again. Now nothing. Only thing I can hear is the switch making a contact. One click in one direction and two clicks in the other direction(assuming the one click is an auto mode?). Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. If it were the motor, does the whole headliner need to come out for replacement? I have never had a hint of a problem before this. NOT SURE IF THIS IS RELATED BUT; I have an ongoing problem with the radio/cd changer in that when shutting the radio off it may forget it's time and and it will no longer preset memories. Also sometimes the whole system goes into a shutdown type mode in that I have to interrupt the power supply at the battery to get the system to start working again. This has been going on for a few years and I can't really see it being related to the sunroof.

1 Reply

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,885 POSTS

The two problems don't sound related if you can hear the switch making a clicking sound. That tells me there is power to the switch. Now, either the motor could be bad, or there could be a wiring issue. You need to remove the headliner to access the motor. At that point, you need to check to see if there is power to the motor when you hit the switch. If there is, the motor is the problem. If there is no power, you need to check the wiring to the switch to see where the power is lost.

It isn't a fun job.