Open Sky motor acting strangely.

Kleynie

Kleynie

A2OC Donor
We replaced the open sky today with one that is a whole 10 days newer than the broken sky previously fitted. It was a mission to fit but it opens nicely, but the switch seems to take two presses before the glass panels move. On the first press you can hear a noise for about 3 seconds but nothing moves, then the second press instantly makes the roof open. It’s almost as if it has a two stage motor like the later OSS where the roof would tilt and then stop, I was wondering if we have a two stage motor with a single stage switch, or vice versa? The roof works perfectly otherwise after two presses of the switch. Has anyone experienced this or have any ideas?

Thanks

Ian
 
Not sure if this would make a difference but there is a procedure for 'setting' the roof - something like closing it and holding the switch in the closing position for a few seconds.

Cheers Spike

Found it - After closing roof, press and hold button for operating sunroof again for approx. 10 seconds. – This 'initialises' the motor.
 
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spike said:
Not sure if this would make a difference but there is a procedure for 'setting' the roof - something like closing it and holding the switch in the closing position for a few seconds.

Cheers Spike

Found it - After closing roof, press and hold button for operating sunroof again for approx. 10 seconds. – This 'initialises' the motor.
Click to expand...
Thanks, we will try it
 
Nothing has been successful, the roof does not tilt on the first stage press of the button, and on the second press the roof stops a couple of inches short of fully open. There is a processor inside the motor, so my thinking was that this can be programmed to make the motor operate for longer, thus tilting properly on stage one and fully retracting on stage two - each stage just needs the motor to run a couple of seconds longer and then we are home and dry. Can VCDS be used to program the processor within the motor, just like an ECU?
If not then the slack in the cables needs to be taken out, the cables move a good 2 inches before there is any movement of the front glass panel, but I’m unsure if you can even get to the other end of the cables (under the glass panel) to adjust them. I guess you can as new cables are still available from Audi, has anyone done this?

If we can work this out it would help all OSS owners.

Thanks for reading.

Ian
 
This is the roof fully open, which is obviously not as fully open as it should be, I reckon its at least 2 inches short of fully open. I have done loads of research on this in the last couple of days and found nothing relating to slack cables. The next course of action would be to dismantle the broken sky I now have in the garage and see if its possible to remove the slack. However, even if I cant, a working sky is better than a broken sky.

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my OSS in operation, has a couple of seconds of motor running before anything moves. But does open fully. Not sure if that is cable taking up

 
I've just been out to look at mine Ian and it is indeed stopping short. This wasn't something I noticed when I tested it. I was just over the moon that one of my breakers had a working sky. I'd like to offer you a partial refund/credit for any future purchases because as you say a working sky is better than a non working one, but even so it isn't 100% right.

I know what goes into removing and refitting an opensky roof so wouldn't have supplied it had I noticed it was stopping shy.

Here's the roof prior to me lubricating it and then removal. I just saw that both panels were lifting and travelling back. Should have noticed the difference.

 
oneflewover said:
my OSS in operation, has a couple of seconds of motor running before anything moves. But does open fully. Not sure if that is cable taking up

Click to expand...

Thanks for the video, but sorry to say yours is not opening fully either. If you use the Allen key and wind it manually I would wage a large amount of money that you’ll be able to wind it another 2 inches at least. It looks like yours has the same problem as ours to a lesser degree. The roof should almost touch the leading edge of an open tailgate when fully open.
 
A2Steve said:
I've just been out to look at mine Ian and it is indeed stopping short. This wasn't something I noticed when I tested it. I was just over the moon that one of my breakers had a working sky. I'd like to offer you a partial refund/credit for any future purchases because as you say a working sky is better than a non working one, but even so it isn't 100% right.

I know what goes into removing and refitting an opensky roof so wouldn't have supplied it had I noticed it was stopping shy.

Here's the roof prior to me lubricating it and then removal. I just saw that both panels were lifting and travelling back. Should have noticed the difference.

Click to expand...

Steve, thank you. I don’t think you did anything underhand, it’s just one of those things. Maybe I’m just being too particular and forgetting we are dealing with 15 year old parts. I don’t think I said anywhere that I got the roof from you so it’s nice that you have replied, you didn’t have to and I thank you for that. We’ll sort something out.
 
OK, so working on the broken roof that was removed from the car two weeks ago I fitted two plates purchased from Audi to fix the broken cable ends, these have to be fixed to the front guide rails by drilling and tapping an M3 x 0,5mm hole (silver screw in the pictures). We put everything back together and the mechanism worked whilst on the bench (my dining table!), so we removed the roof from the car that we fitted two weeks ago and replaced with this fixed roof. All was well until one of the rear guide rails failed due to being made of plastic. New rear guide rails now ordered from Audi and another attempt to follow.


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The cable had become detached from the guide rail and therefore giving 4" of moment between the feet before the glass panels actually moved. You can see how they break from this picture.

Broken cable pic.jpg
 
Seen that Spike, thank you. After the last two weeks of research on this bloody thing, there is not much I haven’t seen.
I still can’t believe the load carrying parts are made of plastic. I’ve been in Engineering for 30 years and have never seen such poor design.
 
Kleynie said:
This is the roof fully open, which is obviously not as fully open as it should be, I reckon its at least 2 inches short of fully open. I have done loads of research on this in the last couple of days and found nothing relating to slack cables. The next course of action would be to dismantle the broken sky I now have in the garage and see if its possible to remove the slack. However, even if I cant, a working sky is better than a broken sky.

View attachment 38578
Click to expand...
 
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