[zaza]

This message and a warning chime come up every time the driver's door is opened, but the moon roof is fully closed and even went through a car wash without issue. Thoughts on how to fix this?

Maybe unrelated, but it also does not open more than half of the opening. Is this normal? As one might guess I'm new to the Venza as of a couple of days.

 

[zaza]

Oh, and it appears the tilt up/down rocker buttons don't work at all. Something is clearly not right. My thought is to check the fuse (#12, 25A) in the driver footwell fuse box. But since the roof does move, I wouldn't expect the fuse to be blown.

Another thought is if a sensor is malfunctioning or needs to be cleaned or aligned, but I don't know where that would be.

 

[VA_Venza]

Oh, and it appears the tilt up/down rocker buttons don't work at all. Something is clearly not right. My thought is to check the fuse (#12, 25A) in the driver footwell fuse box. But since the roof does move, I wouldn't expect the fuse to be blown.

Another thought is if a sensor is malfunctioning or needs to be cleaned or aligned, but I don't know where that would be.

If you search this forum for "Moon Roof" and choose "Moon roof opening when vehicle is turned off?" you will find a calibration procedure you may want to try.

 

[zaza]

Thanks, I found that thread, and every other one that seemed relevant:

Moon roof opening when vehicle is turned off?

Wife told me that she has noticed that the sunroof has been open slightly a couple of times. I did a quick visual inspection and see nothing in the track. I put the vehicle back in the garage, turned it off and sure enough the sun roof pops open an inch or two when the vehicle is shut off. 2013...

www.toyotanation.com

Moon Roof stuck in Open position after battery change

Hello there! LTOFTP here! (Long Time Owner, First Time Poster) TL;DR: How do I manually close an '07 Avalon moon roof? I have a 2007 Toyota Avalon. It was hot outside when I bought a new battery, so I left the moon roof open when I made the change. From what The Internet™ tells me via Google...

www.toyotanation.com

moon roof stopped opening automatically

Does anyone know why the what would cause the moon roof to stop opening/ tilting automatically. It works, but I just have to hold the button down to operate it. Makes it hard to make sure its closed up in the right spot, its a fine line between it dropping down to slide back, or tilting open...

www.toyotanation.com

Unfortunately none of the attempts at initializing the sliding roof worked, partly because the tilt up/down buttons do absolutely nothing in my case. Another post suggested the problem can be dirty switches, which is seeming likely:

Moonroof Up/Down Switch

the Up/Down switch on my 2012 Camry SE doesn't work half the time. Of course it works when opening it, but half the time won't work when closing it. I called today to order a new switch and the dealer told me they do not sell just the switch and I had to purchase the entire overhead console...

www.toyotanation.com

Before attempting a disassembly of parts not intended to be taken apart, I took a look at the diagnostics in the service manual:

Toyota Venza: Sliding Roof does not Move by Operating Sliding Roof Control Switch - Sliding Roof System - Service Manual

www.tovenza.com

Most measurements check out fine (eg. the P4 sliding roof motor ECU harness voltages and resistances, and the P6 console switch open circuit resistances), except all of the ones relating to the switches being pressed (close/open, tilt up/down) which should be less than 1 ohm are all in the range of ~25 ohms. I'm not sure if there's something else to check, but those results don't seem good...

In case anyone is curious, removing the map light console is easy, but scary at first. It is held in place by two metal clips and two plastic clips all on the end of the console closest to the windshield, and a bit of velcro at the center, while the side away from the windshield is held by large fixed supports, so it should not be pulled there. Toyota Venza: 2011 Venza passenger map light, how do you remove… It took some nerve, but pulling in a controlled manner from the windshield side suddenly popped out all 4 clips in one go. After that, the connector harness is easy to remove after pressing in a tab.

Now I'm not sure if I will brave a disassembly because it is clearly not intended. To get at the electronics and switches, 12 melted plastic "rivets" would need to be freed (orange ovals). Re-securing them might be tricky if melting the plastic, or messy if using glue or epoxy.

Luckily the measurements can be made first at the pins corresponding to the service manual (green square), or also at the five long metal contacts (red square). Of those in the red square, the right-most contact in the image is ground, and the other four correspond to the four possible switch positions (close/open, tilt up/down).

That's as far as I've gotten. Maybe I can brave it and try disassembling and cleaning the switches, or try to find a replacement console, or just live with the way it is. Any other options?

 

[zaza]

For future reference, the leads in the red square in the image above are, left to right: tilt up, tilt down, open, close, ground.

I thought of another option: bypassing the switches by manually shorting the leads (that's what switches do after all) in the red square to the ground lead with the harness plugged in. Effectively, if the switch is the problem, bypassing it would allow me to operate the sliding roof to test this hypothesis, and also give me a chance to do the initialization/calibration which requires tilt down.

Unfortunately it didn't work. Shorting the leads got the same result as using the switches. The tilt up/down functions do not operate at all, and the open goes only half way, while closing tries to close the roof but then backs off as though the anti-jam feature is activated.

So maybe the switches aren't the (only) problem after all. I doubt it's the motor, since it works. Perhaps it's the sliding roof ECU, which would be unpleasant. I could verify the fuses again (I think just one for the sliding roof in the driver's footwell area), and maybe inspect in case something is jamming the rails. But I'm running out of ideas.

As far as I can tell, the core of the problem is that there are two overlapping issues. 1) for some reason the tilt up/down functions do not work at all. On top of that, 2) the sliding roof needs initialization to set the fully opened/closed positions, but that requires the tilt down function. So right now I'm stuck.

 

[zaza]

I had another thought: what if I try to "initialize" the open and closed positions mechanically instead of electronically? i.e.:

1. open the moon roof as far as it will go electronically (currently about halfway open)
2. turn off the ignition
3. manually turn the gear (near the motor, above the map light console) until the moon roof is actually fully open

Would this align the actual position with the ECU's perceived position? Or does it sound like a good way to mess things up further?

 

[zaza]

Success! The sliding roof now functions exactly as described in the owner's manual.

I opened the roof electronically as far as it would go. Then dropped down the map light console, undid the three bolts that hold a support bracket and the roof motor / ECU assembly, and carefully rested the motor down on the headliner making sure the gears did not get moved. Then I manually pushed open the sliding roof as far as it would go. After reinstalling everything, full functionality is restored. The roof slides all the way back, the "moon roof open" message is gone when the roof is closed, and the tilt buttons work too.

For reference, here is an image of the metal bracket that was removed along with the three 10mm bolts holding it and the roof motor and ECU:

The white plastic cover over the ECU is just held on by some tabs that are easily undone. For the curious here's what it looks like underneath:

The circuit board seems like it can just drop down, but I did not need to go that far.