I get to feeling I’m going to need to make a pact with the Devil to get this damn thing to work…..

I had the cassette out of the car earlier. With no glass in it, the mechanism moves beautifully smoothly, with both sides perfectly aligned with each other.

Put the glass in (cassette out of the car) and it works beautifully too.

Put them both back in the car and no…. (see “pact with Devil”).

As the glass is put in from above it’s initially outside the aperture. The winding mechanism isn’t strong enough to pull the back of the glass down ‘inside’ the car. Once I’d climbed up and pushed the glass gently down into the car, then the mechanism works well - the glass retracts back inside the roof. Then it comes back out again, but stops at the point where the ‘tilting’ action is trying to lift the back of the glass panel “outside” the car.

I think (could be of very little value) that when I refurbished the glass and put a new seal onto it, I added some sealant/bonding agent into the seal before putting that around the glass. I now wonder whether the whole thing is just marginally too big (back to front) and providing too much resistance for the motor/mechanism to overcome.

No problem, just get another new seal, trim off the old (new) one, and make very sure it’s fitted as close in to the glass as possible. Unfortunately though these part numbers seem to be NLA - EEQ100400 or STC171. That must be fairly recent as it’s not that long since I got a new one….

Does anyone know of a source of these? Or an alternative part number? Failing this I’ll just need to cut an inch or so off the end and see if I can buy something similar by the metre from the likes of Woolies trim.

On the plus side, my car left the garage today for the first time in about 5 or 6 months! All warning lights went out! Sitting nice and level on its springs, brakes really sharp, almost ready for an MOT…. if I could just get the sunroof to play ball.

Edit - finding a similar patterned extrusion will not be as easy as I first thought. Three suppliers I looked at have something close, but not close enough. Maybe if I sent them a bit.

But I have found that I have two ‘used’ ones in the shed. I think that’s my way forward if there’s no source of new ones. At least Ikd be able to say conclusively what the problem was.

I have a complete glass and seal which you are welcome to. I'm in Surrey. Not sure if that is too far away from you.

Best wishes,

David

I have as well but how a bit of glass can be transported in one piece to the Scottish highlands is the difficult part.

What was the problem with the EAS?

Thanks guys,

Yep, I'm up near Inverness, so not very handy for Surrey, or Peterborough - though I do appreciate the offers. I think this would be an ideal way to confirm my suspicions, but probably just as easy to peel of the 'new' seal and put one of the old ones back on, taking more care to get the seal fully 'home'. If this is the issue, it's obviously only a marginal difference. I did have to use a little force to push the glass in/out of the aperture - nothing excessive, but it's just clearly too much for the mechanism. I know that if I were to keep trying to use it like that, something would break, and I'd have a bigger problem.

The EAS - to be honest I don't know for sure (yet), but clearly something to do with the valve block or driver pack. I copped out and bought a refurbed block/driver from an ebay seller I've used and spoken to in the past. I just fitted that and all the problems disappeared.

They are keen to get the old one back, and offer a little refund for that. I had thought of hanging on to it as a spare, but on the other hand they'll test it when they first get it and might help me by providing some more detail into what seems to have gone wrong.

I suspect that when I rebuilt the block I probably used some lube on some of the O rings. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing - I'm really familiar with O rings in service..... in a scuba environment. It would only have been a smear, but maybe that would be enough. Or it could be the driver pack? Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to update at some point.

I replaced the seal on mine a few years back. Not 100% sure but I think I bought it from Island-4x4. Definitely had to trim a bit off the end, once I got it all fitted tightly round the glass. any bulges in the rubber will make it hard for the mechanism to open or close.

Hi folks,

Pete - same story really. New seal from Island; had to trim a bit off the end once fitted. And, until now I thought I’d done a reasonable job of getting the seal on nice and tight….

Gd and DavidAll - it’s occurred to me that you can help with your spare sunroof glasses, even if they don’t get shipped up to the far north. If they still have seals on them, and aren’t buried in the darkest recesses of the garage, would you be able to measure them for me - front to back, across/inthe middle of the glass? Maybe with a measurement for gross size (seals uncompressed), and then with the seals compressed?

I think I measured the window aperture in the roof at 490mm (but I was “clinging on” and didn’t have a stepladder).

I then removed the sunroof again, and that measures at almost exactly the same, certainly once you allow for seal compression. Which leaves me thinking what’s the target I’m going for? Exactly the same as the aperture, a little bigger, or smaller?

I know the glass is supposed to be adjusted in the frame, but that talks more about vertical adjustment than fore/aft. Is there any fore/aft adjustment? I don’t think there can be given that the forward-most mounting bracket has the pin on it which engages with the glass/frame. There’s no play there that I can see.

I wonder if I loosened all the 8 bolts holding the cassette in place, if I could nudge the whole thing forward a month - compressing the front of the seal, and giving more leeway at the back…? Clutching at straws?

Afraid I can't measure mine, it's buried on my mates garage, or was last time I saw it. We were going to put it on his Classic that he was restoring to save him having to find a new seal, only to find that while it was exactly the same size, it was more curved than the Classic one. David is considerably more organised than me so will probably going to be able to lay his hands on it immediately.

I'll admit when I changed the complete cassette on the Ascot, I fitted it complete with the glass in place. Maybe fitting the glass, dropping it and seeing if it will adjust itself to the correct position?

I had ordered a complete cassette from a breaker, but I’ve put that ‘on hold’. Once I saw just how good mine was I baulked at the idea of paying good money for something which would probably be more worn, or in poorer condition.

I’ve a couple of other half-thoughts for potential causes - to do with the placing or alignment of the glass onto the metal sunroof frame, but that would take annotated pictures to demonstrate or explain properly.

Booked for an MOT next Wednesday, so I either need to get this sorted, or pray for a dry day!

I can give you dimensions tomorrow. It is fairly accesible. I do have the cassette too but I'm not sure about all the bits that fly off and hide in corners.

Or fit the glass and shove it down into the hole. Satisfactory operation of the sunroof isn't an MoT item......

Thinking about it, when we first put the glass with the new seal into the Classic, we had the same problem. We cured it by polishing the opening with wax polish and putting a smear of something, either Vaseline or silicone grease I don't remember, on the back edge of the seal on the glass so it would slide easier.

Without compressing the seal it measures 493 x 926. It is fairly new. If you want the seal I can try removing it and send that or any other bits of sunroof you need.

Thanks David - I'll compare that against what I have and see what I think.

I "think" I used Arbomast in my new seal, and that is supposed to remain permanently flexible, so it's just possible I'd be able to get the current 'new' seal off in good condition. I do also have two used ones, which as far as I can see are undamaged.

I'll tinker a bit more, cleaning and lubing stuff, and see where that takes me.