2006 GS430, 175k miles.

A few weeks ago I noticed that the moonroof wasn’t opening when I pushed the button. Sometimes it would take 2-3 times for the power to engage. As of today, I can still open it, but I have to push the button fairly hard. No issues at all with closing or titling it, so it’s definitely the button and not the motor.

Any suggestions as to what I can to to address this? I assume it will get to the point where one day I won’t be able to open it.

Thanks much.

e

 

I wonder if this is related to your water leaking issues you had. Maybe the contacts in the panel are corroded, and need to be taken apart and cleaning with electrical cleaner and or replaced with new or used overhead console

 

I was thinking about that, but the only reason I think it’s not related to that is because a) all the other buttons and functions work, and b) the moonroof open button is as far into the cabin and away from where water was leaking in as can be as compared to the other buttons so I would think the other buttons would be the first ones to go.

In any event, I was poking around on eBay last night and it looks like the overhead console is pretty cheap to replace, so when it eventually goes out I will probably just replace that entire panel. It looks like those consoles can be had for less than $50. Thanks for your help.

By the way, I don’t know if I updated you on the leak, but I determined that it was coming from the moon roof channel. You were right that there must’ve been some pinhole or something that I couldn’t see that was letting water in. I basically lined the channel with black gorilla tape and that stopped the leak.

 

Hey, I have been struggling with this issue for a while in my 2008 GS350. I always thought it was a mechanical issues until I tried to reset it with the 'sunroof reset by holding the close button' method. It still would intermittently work and then not work.

I took apart the center overhead console with the sunroof controls and sunglasses holder. I was able to see some corrosion and am like 50/50 on whether it was a circuit that was even connected to the power roof motor controls. I still ended up cleaning it with some anti corrosive method from YouTube. It actually worked!!!!!

So, try taking it apart and just running an old toothbrush with a tiny bit of water and baking soda mixed together (mostly baking soda, with the consistency of a paste) and run it along the corrosion if you see it on the PCB.

So this fix worked for a couple weeks, but we just had some heavy rain here in Southern California, so I’m thinking that it started to corrode again due to the moisture and possibly having a sunroof seal leak in my GS as well. I realized that I totally forgot to spray it with some type of electrical sealant so that way it wouldn’t corrode the metal again, but that was after I had completely put it back together again and reassembled the console, and I fixed it to the overhead.

So TL;DR: if your GS is having issues with intermittent sunroof controls not working, take apart your overhead center console and check for corrosion on the circuit board. Try to clean up the PCB as best as you can with some baking soda and water mixture. Then seal with an electronic sealer or a silicone spray to prevent further corrosion.

For future readers: I'll try taking it apart and doing the same anti-corrosive procedure, but this time applying an electronic sealant, then updating this thread to see if it holds up. Otherwise, if it’s still problematic, I will also just buy a used one off of eBay and install it.

 

minor update: we just had rainy conditions in SoCal and it (probably) caused the corrosion to return and the controls stopped working again. I also park my car outside my parents house, and leave the sunroof tilted to allow heat to vent out. I might have left my sunroof when there was a light sprinkling and I wasn’t able to close it in time.

Like I said earlier, I’m going to try and remove some corrosion off the PCB and see if it starts to work and then seal it. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll go to eBay for a replacement overhead console.

TIP: I’ve been using the key turn in the door lock and holding it to close my sunroof and windows before I get in the car and drive to work.

 

UPDATE: I ended up going to the junkyard and found a new overhead console board and swapped it and it started to work reliably again. Old one probably got too corroded and shorted, glad to see it was a quick fix and replace job.