Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Sunroof problem... and it's not the gears...

Has anyone else had the problem that when it's a hot day, and your car has been out in the sun, the sunroof motor refuses to act? It's not as if my gears are stripped (because I've had that problem in the past). Instead, the sunroof just doesn't work. The fuse is fine, the lights all work in the sunroof assembly. The sunroof is just... inert... When it cools down, if often works like a dream...

Anyone know what I can do about this issue?

Cheers,
Tom

I've got almost the same problem. I bought my car, there was a 1 month warranty. The sunroof did not work, so they replaced the motor. then a week later it didnt work, so they said a wire was loose and it worked again. It worked for another week and stopped for a couple days, then worked again. It worked for another 2 weeks, and now it has not worked in about 3 days . The times it has done this have not been extremely hot or cold, but now it looks like i'll just have to crack it open and look at the wires myself. I am curious about this also, so that makes 2 of us. Anybody got any ideas?

High resistance somewhere? Maybe the wires going to the motor has a poor connection at the source? Not enough current to start it up. Only other thing is the roof is hanging up when hot and the motor doesn't have enough punch to push/pull. You can remove the motor and use a window crank to open and shut the roof to try it out.

lol funny post. I have had this happpen on several occasions, but monstly when I was leaving school for lunch. See I went to UTI and at lunch time around 1230 or so that texas sun was bakin my car like a nugget in a microwave so my sunroof would get stuck open, and later on when leaving school around 910 ish my sunroof would work fine because of the time it had to cool off. that motor is prone to heat failure, not sure why but o well.....

Mine, except when the gears were out of alignment once, never failed me even during those 101+ degree days we get. My Tour is Midnight Red, so it gets real toasty in the sun when setting outside my office all day. I leave the roof "popped" to let the heat out. I wonder if Furd used a lighter gauge wire to save .000000135% of a cent per car?

So are you saying it has to do with the wiring? Makes sense, but anybody know which one? Also, does anybody know if there are any wiring diagrams out there, maybe in a Chilton's manual(haven't quite got one yet). I've got a couple cut wires in there but I think they were like that even when it was working....I took it apart yesterday and gave up because I had no clue what to look for other than loose wires. This time it stopped working, it has not worked for about 4 days, so i'm getting antsy because I love my sunroof.

My car is at the dealer as we speak getting the very same thing checked out among other much worse problems. I'll post the results when I get it back in a few weeks?

I'm both glad and sad to hear that I am not the only one to have this problem. The more suggestions that we can get, the more we can try to remedy this problem.. Thanks a buch so far.

Got my car back from the dealer Wednesday. They could not duplicate the problem...now what? Hasn't been real hot here in MD...mostly rain and upper 60's. When it gets hot out and the sun roof stops again I'll run it right over to Apple Ford and see what they come up with, until then...

2000 Silver Contour SVT
17" Focus SVT rims

my roof is an aftermarket that the seller told me was $1000.
it has a tilt (vent) and a wide open as well as button to
hold it where you lift it when ign off or have it auto close when ign off. (prevent rain from getting in)

have you checked the simple thing of just greasing the rails the window slides on ?

since this isnt a ford roof window, i doubt u guy have the same rig.