sunroof motor problems

[adcurtin]

I've got a normal metal sunroof on my ti (not a cali sunroof), and I'm having some trouble with the motor.

Sometimes, it just doesn't power on when I press the button. The motor doesn't even spin. I took apart the motor, and they use a mechanical switches to know how long the motor needs to spin depending on which stage of sunroof opening you're in (tilted up, closed, open, fully open), and I thought it was that switch. However, I had the problem again today, and manually turning it didn't fix it until it was pretty much all the way closed (from being tilted up). I've had luck tapping on it sometimes, but that also didn't work.

all of this makes me think the relay has some wear on the contacts (very similar to the GM5 in the e46).

Anyone replace just that relay before?

The motor itself and the gears work great, it's just the electronics that seem to have a problem, so I'd rather just replace the relay if that's what's broken.

[adcurtin]

it's a SIEMENS V23078-C1002-A303 relay. I ordered some from china, we'll see if they work.

edit: I looked at the datasheet. the relay is a DPDT, but the circuit only uses one of the switches. I took out the relay and hacked it back together so it's now using the other coil. The sunroof now seem to open faster than before, which make me think I'm right about the relay having increased contact resistance. We'll see if I have any problems with this setup (other than it being slightly too large for the case, since I didn't want to modify the relay or the board) https://imgur.com/a/BRHfyNF