Update with 3D printing: Sunroof tilts up and down but otherwise buzze Options

[evilkeo]

https://youtu.be/Gluv0NYsISQ

Slowly fixing issues in my el cheapo 94gt that I recently traded for. The sunroof will tilt up and down, though the buttons seem to not work correctly. Then it won't move further and will just buzz a bunch. How do I diagnose the issue? It's new to me so I don't know the history but the car came with an old switch so the owner attempted that. New switch is from the junkyard so it could still be faulty. What else should I look at?

Edit 5/5/18: you guys were right about the gear being stripped. Tried my hand at 3D printing a replacement in ABS! Not perfect but not bad!






https://youtu.be/8SCvAOQGkhA

This post has been edited by evilkeo: May 6, 2018 - 7:17 AM

[cheela]

most likely a gear inside the motor sheared it's teeth and thus doesn't retract the sunroof anymore.
take out the motor and have a look. there's a writeup on here about cleaning your sunroof drain tubes, should give you the same directions.

[evilkeo]

most likely a gear inside the motor sheared it's teeth and thus doesn't retract the sunroof anymore.
take out the motor and have a look. there's a writeup on here about cleaning your sunroof drain tubes, should give you the same directions.

Awesome, thanks! Might try 3d printing a replacement gear then lol

[Box]

It's hard to tell without seeing the roof itself and the button panel, but it could be a dealer installed roof which are notorious for stripping gears and of course the parts are no longer available. Someone else here somewhat recently had the same problem with a dealer roof actually.

[SwissFerdi]

I believe mine is an add-on as the switch is not in the factory location. It only tilts as well. A gear seems to blame but I'm not bothered enough to tear into it.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: May 2, 2018 - 12:28 AM

[evilkeo]

Update first post

[SwissFerdi]

[Box]

Ahh cool beans. 3D printing really is amazing isn't it?

[slavie]

Curious to see if it will hold up. I've read about others 3D printing gears, but they did it out of Nylon, which is stronger I believe.

On the other hand, I know folks do 3D print out of ABS gears for the mini milling machines, and they do last but not for very long. I guess it may depend on how much you use it.

[evilkeo]

Curious to see if it will hold up. I've read about others 3D printing gears, but they did it out of Nylon, which is stronger I believe.

On the other hand, I know folks do 3D print out of ABS gears for the mini milling machines, and they do last but not for very long. I guess it may depend on how much you use it.

Ditto. Not sure if it'll last very long. I think as long as I'm not pushing it and grinding it should be okay. I've been looking into annealing plastics as well so that may be in the pipeline for v2. Supposedly adds alot of strength and heat resistance to even pla.

[djgeo05]

I have a sunroof that doesn't open. You can have it seeing that you will probably be able to fix it.

[Bushmatic]

It's hard to tell without seeing the roof itself and the button panel, but it could be a dealer installed roof which are notorious for stripping gears and of course the parts are no longer available. Someone else here somewhat recently had the same problem with a dealer roof actually.

Yeah that's me, still just chilling with a busted sunroof that doesn't open and is now starting to leak into the cabin in certain conditions.

evilkeo I wish I could pay you to 3-D print a gear for my sunroof, but unfortunately my car was missing the gear when I bought it. So there's just empty space where the gear should be. I have photos from elsewhere of what the complete assembly (including the gear) looks like but that's not really any help.

I went into a lot of detail about my dealer installed sunroof in my progress thread if anyone wants to read up: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showto...p;#entry1093496

This post has been edited by Bushmatic: May 7, 2018 - 10:46 AM

[evilkeo]

I have a sunroof that doesn't open. You can have it seeing that you will probably be able to fix it.

I'd take you up on that if you were local lol.

It's hard to tell without seeing the roof itself and the button panel, but it could be a dealer installed roof which are notorious for stripping gears and of course the parts are no longer available. Someone else here somewhat recently had the same problem with a dealer roof actually.

Yeah that's me, still just chilling with a busted sunroof that doesn't open and is now starting to leak into the cabin in certain conditions.

evilkeo I wish I could pay you to 3-D print a gear for my sunroof, but unfortunately my car was missing the gear when I bought it. So there's just empty space where the gear should be. I have photos from elsewhere of what the complete assembly (including the gear) looks like but that's not really any help.

I went into a lot of detail about my dealer installed sunroof in my progress thread if anyone wants to read up: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showto...p;#entry1093496

Dude, that sucks about your non-OEM sunroof! It'd be really hard to do it without knowing the exact measurements and I REALLY doubt plastic would hold up or even work once to directly drive the worm gears. How handy are you with a Dremel? lol

[djgeo05]

Maybe I can open it and learn to fix it myself.