tC Sunroof button
06-05-2012, 03:03 PM
#21
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Slower Dover, DE
Posts: 848
I decided i wasnt paying $45 for a used sunroof switch.so today i removed the switch and checked all connections. Everything seemed fine and nothing looked like it had to be re-sodered. So i figured one of the buttons wasnt making a good connection to the switch. I took some paper folded it and inserted in the close side of the switch. Re-installed everything and it works good as new!! Ghetto rigged but idc. It doesnt take 15 min to close it anymore lol. I suggest someone try it before you pay for a whole new switch!
09-22-2012, 03:39 AM
#23
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SL Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: VEGAS BABY!
Posts: 9,061
I decided i wasnt paying $45 for a used sunroof switch.so today i removed the switch and checked all connections. Everything seemed fine and nothing looked like it had to be re-sodered. So i figured one of the buttons wasnt making a good connection to the switch. I took some paper folded it and inserted in the close side of the switch. Re-installed everything and it works good as new!! Ghetto rigged but idc. It doesnt take 15 min to close it anymore lol. I suggest someone try it before you pay for a whole new switch!
02-19-2014, 02:40 PM
#24
Senior Member
SL Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: AZ
Posts: 101
I decided i wasnt paying $45 for a used sunroof switch.so today i removed the switch and checked all connections. Everything seemed fine and nothing looked like it had to be re-sodered. So i figured one of the buttons wasnt making a good connection to the switch. I took some paper folded it and inserted in the close side of the switch. Re-installed everything and it works good as new!! Ghetto rigged but idc. It doesnt take 15 min to close it anymore lol. I suggest someone try it before you pay for a whole new switch!
03-12-2014, 12:11 PM
#25
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 9
Sunroof problems, amongst others.
Have the same problem with my tC. A l'il trick I've learned is while closing it, when is stops in the first position, then JOG the close button and this will work. Always has for me. Sad thing is, I took it to the dealership for them to fix it, and it worked for half an hour. Never again dealing with dealerships. Hope this may help. There are also many many recalls, 5 of which deal directly with the moonroof.
Last edited by MR_LUV; 03-21-2018 at 03:26 AM. Reason: typo correction
04-05-2014, 12:34 AM
#26
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1
Hi everyone! I realize this thread is a little old, but I had this same problem and came up with a clever solution and decided to share.
When you disassemble the tC's domelight unit, you'll find that the rocker for the sunroof open and close switch is actually just a plastic piece that sits atop four tiny switches, configured into two pairs. Each pair is wired in parallel to act in a redundant manner - if one switch doesn't recognize a depress, the other should. Thus, we're really only talking about one simple switch to open the sunroof, and one to close it. This saves us all a ton of grief because we could simply wire our own momentary switches to bypass the existing ones, if we so chose. It's really very basic electronics.
HOWEVER, this isn't what I did. Instead, I unscrewed the board from the plastic dome light assembly, and began to fiddle with the switches with the car running, observing the effect on the sunroof. What I found out is, the switches weren't dead on mine (my sunroof would open but not close without many, many tries), but rather, they required more depress than the plastic rocker piece was giving them. If I used my fingernail to push on the switches, they worked fine.
Each microswitch is built like a pedestal sitting in a kind of a little cup. What was happening, is that the cup was blocking the rocker from pressing far enough to operate the switch. There are three ways to fix this:
1) Cut away the cup so that more of the pedestal of the switch is exposed, thus increasing the "pressability" of it. This also would unfortunately weaken the switch and make it more prone to swaying motion under pressure, which could eventually damage it.
2) Cut away part of the slat of the plastic rocker so that only two points actually press against the switch. Unfortunately, the slat is very thin and it would be very weak and eventually crush under pressure, bringing us right back to our original problem.
3) This is what I actually did. I took a bottle of Loctite super glue, and VERY carefully applied a tiny drop to JUST THE HEAD of each microswitch, being very, very careful not to let the glue run down the side and glue the whole switch together. Little known fact about super glue - it WILL cure on its own without something pressing against it. It's a painfully slow process, but all you have to do is leave it to sit in the open air and the drop will very slowly turn into a bead of acrylic plastic. You can tell it's done by poking with a pin or toothpick to test hardness and also noting how it looks foggy and almost frosted over. So, that's what I did - I made a tiny crown of superglue on the head of each of the switches, and let it harden. Thus, the height of each switch was increased, thus the "pressability" of each switch was increased, and nothing else needed to be modified. AND, all it cost me was four tiny drops of superglue that I already had on hand. :-)
Results? Perfect. Before, this thing drove me to the point where I was terrified to open my sunroof not knowing if I'd ever get it back closed. Now, a light touch is all it takes and it doesn't miss a beat. How long it will last, I can't say, but it's working great for now. The plastic that superglue makes is very hard, very inflexible, so it shouldn't squash over time... but... it could flake off eventually. In that case, I'll just have to do a careful touch up. Yayyyyyyy I have my sunroof back! So happy about that, I can't even begin to describe. :-)
So, if you're up for some adventure in micro-repair/modification, this little fix just might be for you! :-)
Rick NR417
When you disassemble the tC's domelight unit, you'll find that the rocker for the sunroof open and close switch is actually just a plastic piece that sits atop four tiny switches, configured into two pairs. Each pair is wired in parallel to act in a redundant manner - if one switch doesn't recognize a depress, the other should. Thus, we're really only talking about one simple switch to open the sunroof, and one to close it. This saves us all a ton of grief because we could simply wire our own momentary switches to bypass the existing ones, if we so chose. It's really very basic electronics.
HOWEVER, this isn't what I did. Instead, I unscrewed the board from the plastic dome light assembly, and began to fiddle with the switches with the car running, observing the effect on the sunroof. What I found out is, the switches weren't dead on mine (my sunroof would open but not close without many, many tries), but rather, they required more depress than the plastic rocker piece was giving them. If I used my fingernail to push on the switches, they worked fine.
Each microswitch is built like a pedestal sitting in a kind of a little cup. What was happening, is that the cup was blocking the rocker from pressing far enough to operate the switch. There are three ways to fix this:
1) Cut away the cup so that more of the pedestal of the switch is exposed, thus increasing the "pressability" of it. This also would unfortunately weaken the switch and make it more prone to swaying motion under pressure, which could eventually damage it.
2) Cut away part of the slat of the plastic rocker so that only two points actually press against the switch. Unfortunately, the slat is very thin and it would be very weak and eventually crush under pressure, bringing us right back to our original problem.
3) This is what I actually did. I took a bottle of Loctite super glue, and VERY carefully applied a tiny drop to JUST THE HEAD of each microswitch, being very, very careful not to let the glue run down the side and glue the whole switch together. Little known fact about super glue - it WILL cure on its own without something pressing against it. It's a painfully slow process, but all you have to do is leave it to sit in the open air and the drop will very slowly turn into a bead of acrylic plastic. You can tell it's done by poking with a pin or toothpick to test hardness and also noting how it looks foggy and almost frosted over. So, that's what I did - I made a tiny crown of superglue on the head of each of the switches, and let it harden. Thus, the height of each switch was increased, thus the "pressability" of each switch was increased, and nothing else needed to be modified. AND, all it cost me was four tiny drops of superglue that I already had on hand. :-)
Results? Perfect. Before, this thing drove me to the point where I was terrified to open my sunroof not knowing if I'd ever get it back closed. Now, a light touch is all it takes and it doesn't miss a beat. How long it will last, I can't say, but it's working great for now. The plastic that superglue makes is very hard, very inflexible, so it shouldn't squash over time... but... it could flake off eventually. In that case, I'll just have to do a careful touch up. Yayyyyyyy I have my sunroof back! So happy about that, I can't even begin to describe. :-)
So, if you're up for some adventure in micro-repair/modification, this little fix just might be for you! :-)
Rick NR417
Last edited by MR_LUV; 08-20-2017 at 01:29 AM. Reason: typo correction
05-11-2014, 02:29 AM
#27
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 1
How i fixed my sunroof to open
A few yrs back i switched out my dome light bulbs. After that my sunroof would only open if i pressed really hard and even then it was sporadically functioning. Having read the last post about the use of Loctite glue i theorized my open button wasnt making contact with the sensor. I took off the center dome and realized i never seated the assembly fully back in those many yrs ago. Now my roof works and im so happy.
In conclusion, if you've ever switched out your dome lights make sure you put the dome assembly back in properly/tightly.
In conclusion, if you've ever switched out your dome lights make sure you put the dome assembly back in properly/tightly.
05-27-2014, 11:44 PM
#28
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 1
For all - especially the "do it yourself" ones
Here's my two cents on the Scion tC sunroof having trouble closing, as well as the apparently inevitable switch trouble that every owner seems to have:
On the "bounce back" when trying to close it, if you look close you'll notice it is bouncing back when it contacts the bars on each side that bring down the small deflector window. It's part of the "overly sensitive" safety on the window, just like a garage door opening back if something is in the way. While greasing those bars may help, the easiest thing is to not expect to just press and hold the button to close it. When the window approaches the bars, stop pressing and start "jogging" the button until it starts to depress those bars, then you can press to finish the closing once those bars start to get depressed.
On the switch going out - for me (and apparently most others) it was on closing. While jiggling the switch works initially, eventually it will completely stop. This is simply due to poor engineering on a plastic button that quickly wears out, no longer making contact with the posts on the computer board that controls the window.
Personally, I'd rather it would not open - since not being able to close the sunroof when a rainstorm rolls in sort of sucks. lol
Anyhow, instead of wasting money at the dealers, or buying a new unit (it's the entire dome light assembly -and that will inevitably wear out as well), just pop the dome light assembly out (there's no "easy" way that I could find - rather, just grab a corner with your fingers or use a screwdriver and pull until it pops out).
Once out you'll need to remove the three screws that hold it all together. On the computer board you'll see the contacts that control the opening and closing of the sunroof - two posts for each. Since mine wouldn't close, all I did was find a rubber washer in my "spare parts" drawer (that every household seems to have), about 1/16" thick, that I placed on top of the contact posts for closing, and carefully put it all back together. Being rubber, it isn't going to slide around - but you should be able to rig anything on those posts that is about 1/16" thick - I wouldn't advise gluing it on the posts - but hey, if you were planning on buying a new dome light assembly anyway - try whatever you think may work.
After popping the dome light unit back in place, the cheap plastic switch now can actually contact the contact posts and it opens and CLOSES like a champ. Total cost: Absolutely nothing but the 15 minutes spent doing it. NOTE:: When I initially popped it back in to the roof, it didn't seem like it worked, but once I turned off the ignition, then switched it back to auxiliary, it must have "reset" because it all started working.
Hopefully this helps someone who's experiencing this same issue. The sunroof issue was only one of two issues I've had with my Scion, which has 100k miles of admittedly very poor maintenance, and it's still running great. (the other issue was a door/window popping of the track problem - but that's for another post)
((After posting this, the page refreshed and I see some "new" posts saying the same thing! Ah well -
I'll leave it up anyway. ))
On the "bounce back" when trying to close it, if you look close you'll notice it is bouncing back when it contacts the bars on each side that bring down the small deflector window. It's part of the "overly sensitive" safety on the window, just like a garage door opening back if something is in the way. While greasing those bars may help, the easiest thing is to not expect to just press and hold the button to close it. When the window approaches the bars, stop pressing and start "jogging" the button until it starts to depress those bars, then you can press to finish the closing once those bars start to get depressed.
On the switch going out - for me (and apparently most others) it was on closing. While jiggling the switch works initially, eventually it will completely stop. This is simply due to poor engineering on a plastic button that quickly wears out, no longer making contact with the posts on the computer board that controls the window.
Personally, I'd rather it would not open - since not being able to close the sunroof when a rainstorm rolls in sort of sucks. lol
Anyhow, instead of wasting money at the dealers, or buying a new unit (it's the entire dome light assembly -and that will inevitably wear out as well), just pop the dome light assembly out (there's no "easy" way that I could find - rather, just grab a corner with your fingers or use a screwdriver and pull until it pops out).
Once out you'll need to remove the three screws that hold it all together. On the computer board you'll see the contacts that control the opening and closing of the sunroof - two posts for each. Since mine wouldn't close, all I did was find a rubber washer in my "spare parts" drawer (that every household seems to have), about 1/16" thick, that I placed on top of the contact posts for closing, and carefully put it all back together. Being rubber, it isn't going to slide around - but you should be able to rig anything on those posts that is about 1/16" thick - I wouldn't advise gluing it on the posts - but hey, if you were planning on buying a new dome light assembly anyway - try whatever you think may work.
After popping the dome light unit back in place, the cheap plastic switch now can actually contact the contact posts and it opens and CLOSES like a champ. Total cost: Absolutely nothing but the 15 minutes spent doing it. NOTE:: When I initially popped it back in to the roof, it didn't seem like it worked, but once I turned off the ignition, then switched it back to auxiliary, it must have "reset" because it all started working.
Hopefully this helps someone who's experiencing this same issue. The sunroof issue was only one of two issues I've had with my Scion, which has 100k miles of admittedly very poor maintenance, and it's still running great. (the other issue was a door/window popping of the track problem - but that's for another post)
((After posting this, the page refreshed and I see some "new" posts saying the same thing! Ah well -
I'll leave it up anyway. ))
Last edited by MR_LUV; 08-20-2017 at 01:29 AM. Reason: Just saw some other posts that say the same thing ~
08-19-2017, 08:44 PM
#30
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SL Member
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 96
Better Fix
If anyone is still having issues with their sunroof switch. Here's a better more permanent fix. Plain and simple the micro-switches on the circuit board are not the best quality and fail pre-maturely after a certain number of cycles(button presses). Mine started acting up a few years ago and I wanted to either replace the whole switch or just change out the micro-switches themselves. When I attempted the repair a couple of years ago I googled and couldn't find the micro-switches then. So I did the temporary fix of adding the spacer piece on top of each of the four micro-switches, so that the switch would depress further and make contact. It worked better, but not 100% consistent, each time I would open/close the sunroof. It started acting up again about two months ago and I said its time for a permanent fix.
I googled again and finally found micro-switches that were as close/similar in dimensions as the originals and would work for 12V-14V. The Omron B3F-6022 micro-switch is the best I could find, image attached and link below to buy. It's rated to 24V with around 300,000 to 400,000 cycles. I bought them and desoldered the old switches and soldered in the new Omron switches on the circuit board. My sunroof switch is now working better than when new and 100% consistent. The travel(how far you press in) and tactile feel of the new Omron micro-switches is different than the old micro-switch. All it takes now is a light to very light touch to operate the sunroof switch. No more having to press deep or hard to operate.
If you have not soldered before or don't feel comfortable doing it. I would suggest the following. Buy the micro-switches from the link to Mouser. They have the best part/shipping prices for the micro-switch. I bought 10 switches to have spares and just in case 1 or 2 of the switches arrived DOA. Then I would at least remove the sunroof switch from the car and disassemble it to the circuit board level. This is not hard to do. Then find a local, to your area, small electronics repair shop. Take the sunroof circuit board and the Omron micro-switches to them and have them desolder/solder for you.
Hope this helps.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...%252byZQ%3D%3D
I googled again and finally found micro-switches that were as close/similar in dimensions as the originals and would work for 12V-14V. The Omron B3F-6022 micro-switch is the best I could find, image attached and link below to buy. It's rated to 24V with around 300,000 to 400,000 cycles. I bought them and desoldered the old switches and soldered in the new Omron switches on the circuit board. My sunroof switch is now working better than when new and 100% consistent. The travel(how far you press in) and tactile feel of the new Omron micro-switches is different than the old micro-switch. All it takes now is a light to very light touch to operate the sunroof switch. No more having to press deep or hard to operate.
If you have not soldered before or don't feel comfortable doing it. I would suggest the following. Buy the micro-switches from the link to Mouser. They have the best part/shipping prices for the micro-switch. I bought 10 switches to have spares and just in case 1 or 2 of the switches arrived DOA. Then I would at least remove the sunroof switch from the car and disassemble it to the circuit board level. This is not hard to do. Then find a local, to your area, small electronics repair shop. Take the sunroof circuit board and the Omron micro-switches to them and have them desolder/solder for you.
Hope this helps.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...%252byZQ%3D%3D
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