PaulW

My S8 has a black alcantara headliner, and the solar sunroof with a black interior. So it's pretty dark in the car.

I keep coming back to "what would it take to retrofit a non-solar sunroof".....they are all over ebay for cheap, and there is one 10 miles away from me.

Anybody ever take the sunroof out of their car? I figure I would have to re-cover the shade with alcantara, but I could do that easy enough.

Or should I just leave it alone and go on my merry way.



Here is the one near my house.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2004-2005-Audi-D3-A8L-4-2L-moonroof-sunroof-glass-/141030875812?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item20d61862a4&vxp=mtr

mishar

This would be my choice. I like it dark in my car. It's less distraction from important things outside. Replacing it also means lots of plastic clips easy to brake.

MP4.2+6.0

So, start with the question of shop or DIY. I expect the shop expertise is out there to pull these. Probably body shops these days. If the cables snap that move the roof, probably needs to be pulled. Used to be on older Audi's I owned. I pulled one once on a C3. Dealers used to have to pull them routinely back in the C2 and C3 (and its spin off the D1) days when Audi was early in motorized roofs and they were very temperamental even in first few years under warranty. The C3 had about as many roof TSB's alone as the D3 did for the motorized trunk learning on-the-job experiment.

If you DIY, first question to me is can you actually just cannibalize one for the other without having to pull the whole cassette/assembly. I think the glass roof panel is the easy part; it's the shade that may be trickier. I had the solar roof panel out of my C5 a couple times to diagnose, eventually replacing it once I figured out both the solar panel itself as well as the control electronics and voltage up converter were shot. To do that you basically just detach the trim panel underneath, push it back manually and then get right at the few screws that hold the roof panel to the moving mechanism in the tracks. The harder part will be that trim panel. They are obviously different. One is meant to be slid by hand and has the grab handle on it; the other one stays clipped to the underside of the solar panel as it moves. First, I don't know if the rails in the cassette for them are the same or not. The solar one always travels with the roof, yet when I detached it, I seem to remember it still slid backwards pretty linearly like it related to the rails. The non solar one clearly uses the rails for its tracks. You would need to look at both more closely to see if they are the same or not at the rail level. If so, then you would also need to transfer one panel to the other. Not sure if that can be done w/ the cassette in the car or not. The panels do flex some, but not that freely.

Net, I bet taking the whole thing to a motivated body shop who entertains some simple filler work might be the way to go if you want to do it. I would think you could just get a fixed price quote too since the job is known and all parts on hand.

Having owned both solar and non solar, I agree w/ your thinking in general. I still don't open the roof much, but definitely prefer the more open feel of the conventional one over the solar. I didn't notice a huge benefit to the solar, plus of course it died along the way. Earlier on, I felt it might have been partly to blame for earlier failing HVAC fan motors (which on at least the C5 is what it spins all the time car sits in sun). When I look at D4's occasionally, I'm probably drawn more to a short body now (S8 or 4.0T) w/ kids out of house, but I like the pano roof only found in the LWB--as in, sky view is good. I'm liking that from the Q5 (and Mini S) too, and w/ an extra layer of high performance aftermarket tint, the heat isn't bad either.

PaulW

That's for the reply, I would say if I was really interested, I would go look at the part in person and maybe the guy took it out of the car and I could see what it would take.

gedis080

In my opinion and from my experience I would go to that guy and would try to make a deal that he would kelp me to change sunroof for some cash.
P.S. I really would love to swap mine non solar with solar one !

MP4.2+6.0

because when you install it instead of pull it out, you also need to get it interconnected with the blower fan (or what ever it drives on the D3). On my C5, the control electronics and voltage up converter were on a board screwed to the underside of the roof panel, but then there were the contacts at the roof panel and opening edges, and then the wiring from there.

Thus, plausible to swap one out, but a very big prospective + difficult job to get one in.