So i bought a 1987 Porsche 944 this weekend and the car was a one owner. Everythings original and functioning perfectly except one thing. The roof panel is messing up. I went to raise it and i heard a loud pop and now the arms that push it up arent moving. Is this the gears? Do i need to get new ones? If so, how can i fix it without taking it somewhere. thanks

 

When I first got my 88' 944 I had the same problem, except for that the arms were stuck down, so when I drove over 60mph the sunroof would fly up and down. Anyway, the sunroof is a bit tricky, the motor and cables are located in the back and the other parts and such are everywhere between the back and the sunroof. Me and my dad fix everything on my car (and on all family cars for that matter) but we decided not to get involved with the sunroof job and took it to a local Porsche mechanic (and it took him, a guy who's been working on Porsches for over 20+ years, two hours). All that to say unless you have all the tools and you know you can fix it, don't get involved. Chances are the loud pop you heard were the gears breaking, and honestly I think that is what it is, but another problem these sunroofs have are the cables in the back. The cables often get fed too far for numerous reasons and this creates all kind of problems. If you do decide to do it yourself see if you can buy the gears off eBay or Pelican Parts, these routes are a bit cheaper than Porsche part dealers. Hope all this helps, good luck.

Landen
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1988 Porsche 944 LUX

 

thanks. fortunately i live close to a porsche specialist haha im gonna take it down to him tomorrow. do you remember how much it cost?

 

Take a look at http://www.clarks-garage.com/, garage shop manual, sunroof repair. You may want to look at this before you take it in. Then when you find out the price to have it fixed you can choose whichever is best for you.

 

The gears are less than 10 bucks, but if you don't align everything properly, you will just break it again.

 

Usually it is the gears unfortunally people just throw them in and break them again.You want to run the motor until the arm that controls the cable goes to the full down position,the install the gears with the armd all the way retracted.You can fine tune it after that!