Guys-
My 940's moonroof has been dead for a long time, and for the heck of it I had West County Volvo take a look at it this morning. When they called me back, they said the motor was dead and it can't be replaced because it isn't made anymore. Given that winter has basically arrived in St. Louis, I don't have much of a need for it right away, but it would be nice for the spring. Do any of you know how I can go about getting a decent motor? Thanks for the help, -Scott Nauert
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Scott Nauert

Sounds like West County Volvo is staffed by swinging dicks -- or at least the person you spoke to is one.

Perhaps the motor is not sold by Volvo anymore (which is unconcionable IMHO) but it took me about 30 seconds to find your sunroof motor. A Bosch (original manufacturer) unit IS still available from any online dealer who is a WorldPac affiliate -- which is just about every dealer on the net. (WorldPac is simply the distributer that everyone uses.) Granted, West County Volvo doesn't usually deal with online parts suppliers, but they should know about WorldPac since WP also supplies shops and dealers, and WCV should have a source for getting parts like this. Furthermore, they should be falling all over themselves for this job. This should be like a brake job for them: it's a high-dollar, very easy job. A tech could bang this out in about 30 munites, and send you on your way with a $500 - $600 bill after replacing the motor and the switch.

In any event, go here: http://www.foreigncarpartsonline.com

Select your car, then the "Body Mechanical & Trim" category.

Now admittedly, the motor is $325 -- which is outragous. But for them to say it's no longer available shows they are either extraordinarily lazy, or profoundly ignorant. Either way -- not the folks you want working on your car.

As another poster stated, the extremely common failure is the switch rather than the motor. You would assume that as a Volvo dealer they would have trouble-shot the system to correctly isolate the problem to the motor. But you would also assume that a Volvo dealer would know where to buy a replacement motor. So seeing that they didn't even know the motor was still available, I would definately not trust their diagnostic skills.

Pull the switch, and pry it apart with a small screwdriver, then clean the contacts. (You'll want to disassemble the switch on a work bench or table/counter, because it has some little pieces that you don't want to have fall between the seats)

Good luck.

BTW, it would be a good idea to include your year and model (turbo/na, wagon/sedan) in future posts. It doesn't make a difference for the sunroof motor, but for other items, it may.

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Jeff Pierce (Post back with your results... it's what makes this forum work.)

I cannot believe they left you with that answer.

Fuse 10 feeds the sunroof and it probably feed other things but check it anyway.

98% chance that the switch is bad, carbon build up on the contacts just like the window switches. If you tap on it 20-30 times it may move the sunroof. I never took one apart but it should not be too hard. You may be able to wipe the contacts with a cloth and contact cleaner. Switches are available from a dealer, ebay, after market maybe or from a pick and pull.

You can for voltage at the motor located under the plastic cover. Blue and red wires supply the open and close circuit. The brown wire is the ground. If the motor is in fact bad, another good salvage yard part for 35 dollars, ebayor go to car-parts.com.