Well I just bought a ?98 mercury mystique (65 000km) last Sunday. Monday she was sitting in the driveway waiting to be insured when I took a seat, driver?s side, and attempted to open the sun roof for some ventilation as I cleaned the dash.
Anyway I get the thing half open when the all of a sudden the movement begins to hesitate. I could hear that the motor was still running fine.
So I checked the forums here and learned of the notorious gear problem and thought I had the problem solved.
However when I took the unit down, I realized that the gears appeared to be fine, but the plastic cover (black in my case) had dried up and cracked to pieces. Also, (if your familiar with the inside of the motor unit) the sleeper gear that turns the cam for the internal timing switch appeared to be out of place because the cracked cover allowed the gear to lift from its seat.
With all that said, I still can?t figure out why the darn thing was hesitating (and in the end just didn?t move). If the gears are fine and I can hear the motor turning what else could it be? Possibly something in the track?
Let me know what ya think.
jca
P.s. Needless to say I have had to order a new motor unit for $340 CND
