m1964

my DF told me about 3 weeks ago that she could not close the sunroof but after fiddling with the switch it eventually closed. I checked after that and the SR opened and then closed just fine.
Today, we had the same problem again - it seem that while opening the SR I pulleded the switch first to place the SR into "tilt up" position and then opened it completely. Normally, if I closed the sunroof it would come back to the tilted up position (rear edge up), and then I would have to push the switch forward in order to bring the rear edge of the SR down.
When I tried closing the SR it would come back to the front of the vehicle and stay in "tilted up" position. Pushing/pulling the switch did not do anything. Eventually, after multiple attempts opening and trying to close the rear edge finally came down. I am going to pull the fuse to prevent accidental opening of the SR.
I wonder if anyone else had the same problem and what fixed it.

Thanx

Redd

Sounds like a bad contact in the switch.

In the old days you'd pull the switch and clean it out or rebuild it, unless you just found a loose contact on it. These days, you'd check the contacts and then replace the switch.

m1964

Redd, thanks for your reply.
I wasn't the switch.
First, I ordered Audi/VW OEM "grease for sliding sunroofs".
Two weeks ago I looked into the opening of the SR and found A LOT of what seemed to be axel grease and white lithium grease.
NOTE: every time I went to the dealer for a service, I asked them to check rattling sunroof. Every time I was told "we lubricated the sunroof", and the noise was gone for about 1-2 months. It looked like the techs were dumping more and more grease into the SR, not cleaning the old stuff. I found hardened white lithium grease on the rubber seals, and a lot of either axel or graphite grease in the bottom of the frame where there were no moving parts. It took me about 2.5 hrs to remove the old gunk, and another 1.5 hrs to carefully apply the clear OEM silicone grease into the channels where the metal "feet" of the glass SR slide back and forth. It does appear that, by design, while the glass is moving, it will "spill" some grease out of the channels.
This past weekend I applied the OEM silicone on to rubber seals around the SR. This one is a different tube specifically for lubricating the rubber seals in the sunroofs.
I believe that the dealer used the cheapest grease which caused the problem: the motor had too much resistance. Now everything works fine, and the sound of opening and closing is a lot quitter then it was before.
The clear OEM silicone for tracks lubrication is a 90g tube and was about $23 from Amazon.
The white OEM rubber SR seals lubricant silicone was ~23$ for a tiny 20mg tube!
The white lithium grease the dealer used on the seals made them very hard, the expensive $1/gm OEM stuff makes the rubber soft and slippery, and supposedly will not attract dirt/dust.
The whole thing took ~$46 and about 5 hrs of my time; I probably would spend the same time going to the dealer and more money to "fix" the problem.
IF you are going to keep your audi after warranty expires, I suggest cleaning and re-lubricating the SR using proper OEM lubricants.

AudiQ5sleeper

my sunroof was replaced last week. they replaced the whole sub frame. turn around time is 2 weeks.

Redd

m-
It sounds like something was blocking the sunroof, and the "don't strangle the kids" sensor was stopping it. My last car had a low tech version of that, you had to hold in the safety switch while pressing the motor switch in order to make sure you really wanted to close the sunroof. Funny thing, that safety switch had an accident and became disabled about a week after I got the car. And oddly enough, many years later, no one had ever been beheaded in it.

Grease is funny stuff. I use silicone grease on battery contacts in all sorts of things, to prevent corrosion. "High Dielectric Grease" "Vacuum Grease" "Silicone Brake Grease" (yes, grease for brakes) "Light Bulb Grease" and the prices are all over the place while the grease looks pretty much the same. I'm sure some of it is different in some ways, but for many purposes...same same.

Considering the price of gaskets, I wouldn't use the cheapest stuff either, if I were planning to keep the car for a long time. I used ArmorAll on the last one, and can tell you that keeps gaskets "new" for literally decades.

I'm a firm believer in "when the dealer screws up, call the maker". There's usually some internal accounting mechanism and while franchises almost never get pulled, someone at Audi-US should be interested in knowing the dealer tried some 1950's logic and just threw (the wrong) grease at a problem.

So if my sunroof won't close...and there's no Audi dealer in sight...can I just use Crisco?
(G)

m1964

Are you sure?