Sunroof Express close

[writeb]

Umnitza has the "Sunroof Eclipse" retrofitted sunroof button that makes an e36 sunroof close with just one push, for about 35 bucks. Anybody pick one of these up yet? If they work for the Ti, (and there's no reason why they shouldnt, if they work on the other e36's), might be a neat mod to add. $35 bucks is borderline though...


writeb

[2ndBimmer]

Ive thought about it, but my moneys not where my curiousity is yet.

[Techti]

I've actually been debating this for a few days and almost bought it today but then I watched the demo video on Umnitza again and I noticed something. When the sunroof is opened it opens completely. In our cars when you open the sunroof it leaves about 2 or 3 inches closed that you can then open if you press the button once again. But I find when I do this I get bad noise in the car and a strange warble or fluctuation in air pressure. If the switch doens't express open to the same position as the current factory switch I think it'd be bad. Anyone else see what I'm saying or have any experience with the Umnitza switch?

[John Firestone]

At the moment, it is difficult to look at Umnitza's video as someone has hijacked their website. I wonder if it shows a E36 sedan or coupe sunroof, in which case, their module might still open a 'ti sunroof and leave a few inches to go.

It is not a huge challenge making a newer E36 sunroof one-touch close, but doing so safely is another matter. Ron Stygar and I considered this project a few years back but we dropped the idea after I talked to a couple engineers from Webasto.

They said the E36 sunroofs do not one-touch close because they have no pinch protection, that their design made it too difficult (expensive?) to add, and that closing the roof without it would be unsafe.

Ron confirmed a simple, current-sensing stall detector would not work because the current change is too modest and unpredictable.

The danger of closing the roof without pinch protection was vividly demonstrated last summer by a young German boy playing in his grandfather's C-class. For some unknown reason, the sunroof decided to close by itself and strangled him while a neighbor looked on helplessly. The boy was revived at the scene but later died from his injuries.

I would be very hesistant to add the Umnitza module if it doesn't have some kind of pinch protection, and from how they describe it, it doesn't. I certainly wouldn't add it if you are ever going to have children in the car.

Ron and I eventually added console-mounted "skunk" switches that let us manually close the sunroof without taking our eyes off the road.

[vwt3]

Great answer John Firestone thanks for thinking this through,this is what I like about this Forum,ask and somebody will have the 411 on what ya need.


vwt3