Panorama Sunroof blind replacement .

[Sunny43.5]

I have just today completed a change over of the roller sunshade in a VW Tiguan for a customer , A couple of things owners should be aware of . 1/ From what the customer told me they had loaned the car to a friend and the opened the sunroof but left the blind closed , the wind pressure on the blind caused it to separate from metal side tape . 2/ Its B%%^d of a job to do takes lots of courage and a calm temper . The whole roof trim has to be removed then the internal locking ring comes out easily , then remove the sunroof blind motor remove the blind housing two screws and two locating pins which engage into the end of the track . Next remove the plastic cover each side which is covering the cables , now the reason for that is that unless you want to remove the whole sunroof from the car this method will save 8 hours of work . The plastic cover over the cables also acts to hold the tube the blind cable runs inside of from the end of the track to the end of the cable guide . Now as there is virtually no pressure on the cable system you need to break a small piece of plastic off this will allow the end fittings that hold the blind to the housing to slide out the very end of the track . The actual cables will disengage from the two end fittings easily as there is a just allocating lug which fits into a small cut out . The blind itself is a real piece of retro styling , they have glued the fabric to a thin metal strip which is about 6mm wide there is only about 3 mm of fabric glued along this strip. But here is the best part for those of you who are older you may remember the old fashioned wind up toys from way back the one with along metal strip which is wound up to then be released with the toy rocketing off along the floor . These gizmos where something you never dismantled as the resulting coil would shoot out into a tangled mess of metal . Well VW have reinvented the same stuff for the blind , once you hook the front of the strip back onto the two guides you have to feed the metal strip very carefully into the guide that it fits into track on each side . Here is where the fun starts this metal strip will wind itself up and just keep twisting itself around itself as you are trying to feed it into the guide . So slowly as you feed it in you have to untwist a small bit at a time until you get it right to the front . Naturally you will have refitted the two cables at the same time as you start the fitting process . When the blind is fully closed you then have to fit the very rear section which is a very cheap plastic tube with a locating slot for the very end of metal strip to engage , if you are lucky it will stay attached but I doubt it . Next the end roller part has to be fitted into the shade housing and the fabric fed into the guides inside that housing . Once that is done you then need to refit the plastic cable cover parts and remount the blind housing . Before remounting the motor its is critical to retime the motor , with the blind still fully closed and the motor loose run the motor with the switch and observe the running . The motor will only run so many turns in each direction so you run the motor until it thinks it has the blind in the closed position , now you can refit the motor and then the roof lining etc and job is done .

[tigger73]

Nice write-up.

Did you have to replace the blind or did you just re-fit the existing unit? Approximate cost???

I wonder if the friend is paying for the repairs.....


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[Sunny43.5]

Yes it was a brand new blind .

[Umai Naa!!]

Have replaced one on a car that was barely a few weeks old.

VW paid for it, though.

[Sunny43.5]

Yes I will admit here that I had never done one before so the next one will be much easier to do {not that I would want to do them to often} one can only stand so much pressure . Funny enough today I had to replace the sunroof blind cables in a Mercedes C200 coupe and to be honest I would rather do those all day long than the Tiguan blinds . Then I have an Audi A3 sportline to do a blind on next week Groan . The problem is no bugger in Qld seems interested in doing this sort of work except me . Dealers want arms and legs for doing these jobs so the customer then picks themselves up from the shock of a dealer quote and rings me .

[Snail Style]

The blinds lock into the plastic sliders if you do abit of modifying of them, I remove the steps on either side of the main locking tab. Seen plenty of them get damaged during replacement and need to be redone.

[Chrismacca]

Thanks for sharing mate. Sounds like you're a trimmer and I wondered whether you had done any driver's seat mods? I'm sliding around too much on the standard seats for my liking. Any ideas would be appreciated...
Thanks

[hippyhippy]

I've got the exact same problem in my car, this tiguan is by far the worst car I've owned. If it's not 1 thing it's another. Op, I'm gonna send u a pm with details of where u purchased the replacement, the stealer wants me to pay 300 just to tell me it's broken, 500 bucks for part and 8 hour labour at 240 an hour. Mine just suddenly popped, and started making loud scratching sounds when I closed it one day.

[Guru73]

I bought mine knowing the filter needed attention but with no idea on the cost of repair. Love the car but this is driving me crazy.

[vdubmotorworx]

Did one the other day...they are crap!!