Solar Sunroof Question

[Audi4.2]

Anybody know how to remove the fabric interrior part of the solar sunroof?

[teckjoel1320]

i wonder the same tihng, i want to get rid of my solar roof completely

[Audi4.2]

The reason I'm asking is because I'm redoing my headliner and need to somehow upholster that piece aswell. Anyone?

[mithril]

You need to slide the sunroof back a couple inches to access the front of the panel. If you feel around in the middle you'll feel a spring clip, that's what attached the cloth panel to the solar roof. Pull the clip down and slide back to detach it. Now you need to remove the solar panel. Slide teh cloth panel all the way to the rear and move the solar panel into tilt. There are 6 torx screws that hold the panel in the slider, I believe they're T-10's. Remove those screws and you can lift the solar panel out of the car. Once the solar panel has been removed you can slide the cloth panel forward. There are 4 spring loaded guides that hold the cloth panel in the tracks, pop on side out and the other will slide off. Be careful, these clips are easy to break. Re-installation is the reverse.

To fully remove the solar panel and replace it with regular glass you probably need to replace the roof track as the solar panel uses a different assembly. To replace the track you need to drop the headliner. That's largely why I gave up on the idea of doing that with my car.

[Audi4.2]

does the sunroof have to be removed? i got the headliner out of the car the only thing that is still in there is the cloth part of the sunroof, you think i can take it off without removing the whole panel?

[mithril]

You have to remove the glass panel (solar or moonroof) to remove the cloth slider. However you don't have to remove the headliner unless you want to swap out the mecahanical track. The only time you'd do that is if the track was broken or you were switching between solar and moonroof.

[Vinchenzo51]

Ok, this needs explaining... Whats this solar sunroof business. What's it actually do? Is this not offered in the US?

If its not offered in the US, that just means I want it.

[martianbooby]

Ok, this needs explaining... Whats this solar sunroof business. What's it actually do? Is this not offered in the US?

If its not offered in the US, that just means I want it.

it is offered you can find them on ebay and car-parts.com they are useless...
as far as i know all it does is recirculate the air in your car on hot days to keep it cool but it doesn't actually cool anything. oh and since your sunroof is now a solar panel that means you cant see through it anymore...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-AUDI-A6...item1e6251fc24

[mithril]

The solar roof is part of the Warm Weather package it was available in all markets but was limited to the V8 powered C5's as well as the D2 gen A8 and S8. In the C5 the package also included the electric rear sunscreen, the manual sunscreens in the rear door cards and a model specific HVAC head (to control the solar option, it looks identical the difference is in the programing). In cars with the solar roof, the glass moonroof and sliding cloth panel/shade is replaced by a sunroof with fixed cloth slider, however instead of a metal sliding panel it's a solar panel. It seems to be a pretty common option on 4.2L's in the Canadian market. I think it boiled down to so few of them being sold here that they were almost all shipped over fully optioned by default and if you didn't want a specific option you either placed a custom factory order or paid to have the part replaced, I've seen a few local examples with the sunscreens but a standard moonroof insteadvofvthr solar panel.

The purpose is to provide power so the HVAC blower can operate and circulate fresh air from outside into the cabin when the car is parked outside air in direct sunlight, supposedly keeping the car cooler. Personally I've never noticed a difference from the recirc and would quite happily swap to the standard moonroof if it wasn't such a hassle getting the track assembly in and out of the roof. I usually just unplug mine in the winter for reasons mentioned below.

The roof track and HVAC heads are specific to the solar roof as the track is the wiring hookup to transfer generated power to the HVAC head and the head has to be able to operate the blower. Unfortunately the Audi engineers made it a dumb system, instead of tying it to the internal ambient air temp sensor on the dash like they should have they designed it so that the HVAC blower comes on if there's enough sunlight hitting the panel to produce the required current. That means it sucks in cold air in the winter and in damp climates like mine in the PNW contributes significantly to start up cabin fogging in the winter because it sucks in damp outside air.

If I could figure out how to rewire it to act as a trickle charger for the battery I'd think it was much more useful!

http://www.audi.ca/ca/brand/en/exp/E...r_sunroof.html

That shows a much newer model, but the concept is effectively unchanged. Their claim of temp reductions up to 50% is a whole lot of marketing BS when it comes to the C5 gen.

I think this is actually a pic of a D3 A8 roof, but it's identical to mine excluding the color.



Same thing in a C7 RS6:



You get the idea.

[martianbooby]

^^^i thought they also came in the 2.7 and not only in the v8
i actually like everythng in the warm weather package (shades mainly) other then the solar panel

oh and to solve your problem i had a ghetto idea: wehn i was young i used to play with different mechanisms to light things up such as clocks and so on. any way you can find a digital watch that has an external temp sensor, put that sensor in the cabin somewhere, and those clocks have different settings and should have an option for an alarm at certain temp, choose the temp you want and then rip out the speaker for the alarm and wire the negative so the clock closes its circuit... then only when its in that temp the clock will trigger the alarm and close the circuit alowing the blower to go on. should be easily concealed under the chair

[mithril]

I could always be wrong but I'm pretty sure it was an option only available to the 4.2, S6 and RS6. I agree on the sunshades, I use my rear shade every night to cut down on glare and reduce the amount my mirrors auto dim. Disconnecting the roof take 2 seconds so the temp issue isn't that big a problem. I will have to give some thought on how to re-wire it to power a trickle charger instead. THAT would be a useful feature.

[martianbooby]

just wire it straight to your battery with some type of volt regulator in between...
if you look online there are alot of ppl who setup solar panels with car batteries in their yards for different reasons so i would just look up what ever regulator they use and use the same thing...
when i had my avant i was toying with the idea of swapping my sunroof to a solar panel and wire it as a battery charger... but after letting the car seat for a month and then starting like a champ i decided it was useless to me

[mithril]

There are also solar trickle charger kits that come with a fold out solar panel that you place on your windshield or dash (sort of like one of the reflector car shades). I'm sure it'd be easy to hardwire one of those to the battery then add wiring from the solar roof to replace the solar panel that came in the kit. However, like you said, I've never experienced a flat battery so there hasn't been a pressing need to look into this.

[Vinchenzo51]

I've been trying to source a set of rear door cards with the sunshades in them along with a power rear deck for the longest time... now your telling me to make my car have the complete warm weather package... I need to do one of these fancy sun roofs too... FML

PM me if anyone has any of that stuff ^ lol

[beemercer]

I've been trying to source a set of rear door cards with the sunshades in them along with a power rear deck for the longest time... now your telling me to make my car have the complete warm weather package... I need to do one of these fancy sun roofs too... FML

PM me if anyone has any of that stuff ^ lol

my car has the rear power sunshade and door card sunshades... buy my shell and you can have them lol

[Audi4.2]

got it out without removing the sunroof, but if you do it my way then the headliner has to come off, but yea unclip middle clip and press back, and keep pressing till the end of tracks, then just pull to one side and the spring clip comes out

[mithril]

The sliders on those kits LOVE to break so be careful with this technique. I'll be interested to here if you can get it back in without removing the roof.

[Audi4.2]

:D

tomorrow ill put it back in ill see how it goes

[Vinchenzo51]

my car has the rear power sunshade and door card sunshades... buy my shell and you can have them lol

Are they black?

If your shell was white and wide body, I would buy it. But if you are parting out the interior, i'll take the door cards and rear deck.

[Slavchob]

:D

tomorrow ill put it back in ill see how it goes

Wow... How strange is it that I'm doing the EXACT same thing. Just swapped a black interior in my car and wasn't gonna leave the headliner beige. So u thought to myself why not wrap it? The removal of the headliner was the easy part. Wrapping everything in suede is probably one if the BIGGEST PITA's. Ever. Oh, and I did my sunroof piece removal the same way [ :D]

[beemercer]

Are they black?

If your shell was white and wide body, I would buy it. But if you are parting out the interior, i'll take the door cards and rear deck.

yeah everything is black. Not sure if I'm gonna part it or just dump the whole car off cheap though.

[A6Avant]

Well done marcel!

[Vinchenzo51]

Sorry to dig this up again. But I have another question about the Solar Sunroof.

Does it retract fully and tilt like the regular sunroof? Or is it stationary?

I found one for dirt cheap on ebay, and if it opens up the same as the regular sun roof, I'm going to pick it up and attempt the trickle charger setup. I just don't want to lose the functionality.

[mithril]

Yes it does, just doesn't have the manual slider since it's not see-through like the moonroof. You'll need the track as well as the panel it's used both for electrical connection and to attach the back of the cloth headliner panel cover.

[Vinchenzo51]

Yes it does, just doesn't have the manual slider since it's not see-through like the moonroof. You'll need the track as well as the panel it's used both for electrical connection and to attach the back of the cloth headliner panel cover.

Thanks. The one I found comes with the tracks, wiring, the panel itself, along with the headliner cloth cover thing.

So functionally its the same, just you can't slide the cover back and look out of it or let sun in. hmmm, I'll have to weigh out my options. I rarely open that anyway, normally I just pop it up.

Again, thanks for the quick info.

[mithril]

Yes, tilt and slide. The cloth panel is actually attached to the track frame and in tilt mode it flexes about in the middle and bends up with the panel while the front 50% stays flat. From the outside tilt mode looks the same, from the inside you never see the tracks. I'll snap some pics tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

[mithril]

Here's that pic of what tilt looks like inside with the fixed panel instead of manual slider:

[Vinchenzo51]

I think I can live with that.

Not sure if I should request the HVAC controls from the guy too and actually hook it up properly or figure out a way to turn it into a trickle charger. I found a DIY for another car where they made it work.

Thanks for your help mithril

[mithril]

Honestly I'd do the trickle charger... or just nothing at all. I find the solar roof more or less pointless and would prefer to have the moonroof to let better light into the cabin.

[Vinchenzo51]

Thats probably what I'm going to do. Too bad you weren't local... We could just swap. When I get my new one, I'm not going to know what to do with my old one lol. Definitely going to collect dust in my garage.

Seems simple enough. I'm just going to pickup a solar controller (http://www.batteriesdirect.com.au/sh...731/sc005.html) which will control the power so it doesn't overcharge the battery. Even if it only prolongs the life of the battery by a few months if anything at all, at least I know I will very rarely have to worry about a dead battery or weakened alternator.

[Vinchenzo51]

Or this one

http://www.amazon.com/Brunton-Contro.../dp/B002LBPEX4

Seems like this could be a useful mod to those of you who seem to hate your Solar sunroof. Very simple to just take the feed wires from your sunroof, run them into this controller and out to the battery terminals.

[mithril]

Ya, definitely not local! If I decide to keep the car I may see how much you want for the glass roof. My wife and I are expecting our first so That may require looking at trading in on an AllRoad or A4 Avant. We're a single car family and baby haulling in a 4.2L doesn't sound like the most economical plan to me

[mithril]

Seems like this could be a useful mod to those of you who seem to hate your Solar sunroof. Very simple to just take the feed wires from your sunroof, run them into this controller and out to the battery terminals.

I think I'd run fresh wiring, like you'll have to do in your car, and leave the factory wring alone. You''ll see what I mean when you get to it, but the car wiring plugs into the roof frame by 2 simple spade connections so running dedicated wiring for the trickle charge controller would make it really easy to either reverse the mod or swap back and forth if you so desire. I'm always a big fan of not cutting up factory wiring harnesses, I've seen way too many hack jobs over the years from that kind of stuff!!

[Vinchenzo51]

I hear ya. I purchased my car specifically because I wanted the extra room for when we have kids. So I'll definitely be the cool dad picking the kiddos up at school HAHA.

This is the best controller i've found so far. My only concern is the output of the solar panel. This controller will support 10amps so I need to make sure the solar panel doesn't put out more than that.
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Controlle...7978830&sr=1-1

I need to see if Scotty or someone who parts cars out has one they can bring outside in the sun and test with a meter for me. Because obviously there isn't much information regarding this on the internet. I've been google'ing for a while. All I keep getting is Audi A8, Solar Sunroof, 1400watt stereo lol. Useless!

[mithril]

I can put a multimeter on mine to check the output the next time we have a sunny day, but we had sun last week.... it that may take a while for that to happen again this time of year

[Vinchenzo51]

If its really that easy to get to... I assumed it was a paint in the ass to get to when installed.

This project won't happen until a month or so anyway so if you do get a chance to test the output that would be great. Im going to mexico for a week in march so probably won't start until after I get back

[mithril]

Super easy to get at. The electrical connections are at the front corners of the roof. Just pull the headliner panel back and you can easily see/access them. More pics to come when light and weather permit

[mithril]

This is the wiring attachment on the panel itself. There's a set of what look like capacitors on the underside of the panel that run to this connector and it's mate on the drivers side. This is were you unplug if you want to disable the solar roof.



These are the connection points in the roof frame that connect to the car wiring. To get at these wiring connections I believe the headliner has to be dropped.



The points indicated by the arrows in these 2 pics mate when the roof is closed or in tilt to provide the electrical connection from the solar panel to the car.

[Vinchenzo51]

Dude your the man.

[doobiesdaddy]

Solar sunroof was offered in the C5 allroad 2.7t in the US as well...