Solar sunroof lubrication

[mannyo]

I must be a brave soul, today for the first time since I have owned the D3 I decided it was time to see if the sunroof opened and closed, especially as its very spring like and sunny outside.

Pressed the dial to tilt the roof and up it popped, hooray so that part works. it closed as will when pulling down on the dial.

Rotated the dial one click, and the roof dropped and opened a couple of inches so all good and tried a couple more clicks and each opened a little more.

Rotated dial back to close position, and the roof closed but it seemed much slower than the D2.

I opened it one click again, and set about cleaning everything relating to the roof.

From what I can see, it had not been opened in a long time. The seal around the edge of the roof had algae on it, so I have cleaned all this off. I also went round the bodywork opening and cleared all the crap that had built up there.

When closing the roof for the second time it seemed much better, maybe its all gunked up after being closed for months/years.

Is it worth getting some general purpose lubricating oil and running that into the mechanism?

[ScottD3]

I can't speak for the D3 but from previous cars I've always done it and seemed to help.
Some good rubber lubricant would be good on the rubber bits and help keep them soft and stop them from cracking.

I need to do mine at some point as well.

Have you tested your drain holes?

[ScottD3]

How did you get on with this?

I'm going to try and tackle mine if I get some free time with nice weather.

[Adrian E]

A silicone based spray usually does the trick on mechanisms without adding wd40 levels of dust collection into the mix

[mannyo]

I tackled it at the weekend, need to test it more fully

I opened the sunroof all the way, and it had obviously been greased previously but the grease had all dried up. I cleaned as much of the old grease off as I could, it should not have even been greased where it was. I just temporarily used a little oil and it now opens and closes a treat. It does still have one problem, it slows down slightly and makes a strange noise for the last four inches when closing. It does close perfectly everytime we tried though.

[ScottD3]

Mine does the same thing.
Its like its moaning.

I like the fact that when you tilt the sunroof the back of the blind tilts with it.

[ScottD3]

I got bored on the ferry, so I filmed it.

http://youtu.be/w-j5JaB_lb4

Hopefully if the weather is dry this saturday I'll have a go at greasing mine up and finding out what that groaning noise is.
I'll let you know if I find out what it is.