Power sunroofs sometimes develop problems that prevent them from opening or closing properly. Before going to the trouble and expense of taking your vehicle to a dealership or mechanic, see if you can diagnose the problem yourself.
The most immediate problem that may cause the sunroof to quit working is that no power is being supplied from the vehicle's battery. If the other electrical systems on the vehicle are all working, however, you can rule out that possibility.
Sometimes the problem may simply be a bad fuse. Your vehicle owner's manual will provide you with the location of your fuse box and a diagram showing which electronic features are controlled by which fuses. Locate the fuse that controls your sunroof, and carefully remove it by pulling it straight out. Examine the fuse closely. A continuous, unbroken filament running through the center of the fuse indicates that it is still good (figure A). In a bad fuse, the filament will generally be broken or appear burned or scored.
You may want to confirm your findings by testing the fuse using a multimeter. This electrician's tool utilizes a continuity feature that gives an audible signal when the positive and negative probes are touched together or when the probes come into contact with either end of an unbroken electrical wire. Continuity simply means that electrical current is able to flow continuously through a particular circuit or span of electrical wiring. Using this feature, you may test to see whether current can flow through the fuse in question.
Multimeters also have a digital or analog (needle indicator) readout that displays the amount of voltage flowing through. In this way, you can test to see whether the sunroof switch is functioning so the sunroof motor is receiving the proper amount of voltage to power it. With the multimeter set to DC current, touch the multimeter's positive probe to the switch contact and the other to ground. If the switch is receiving current, the readout on the multimeter in this case should be about 12 volts (figure B).
In our example, since the switch was receiving the proper voltage, the problem has been narrowed down somewhat. The next step is to install a new switch (figure C) and see whether the problem may be in the switch itself. In our case the power sunroof resumed working as soon as a new switch was installed, indicating that the old switch was bad.
RESOURCES :
Auto Repair for Dummies
Author: Deanna Sclar
ISBN: 0764550896
Vehicles provided by Lance Cunningham Ford
Vehicles provided by Lance Cunningham Ford
4101 Clinton Highway
Knoxville, TN
Web site: www.lancecunninghamford.com
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