The sunroof in my recently acquired 2002 didn't "vent" when I first tried it. It would either open all the way, or close all the way. I was happy with this, but thought it weird that it didn't have a stop for the vent position, like other sunroofs (such as BMWs of the same vintage, that use the same switch). During some casual reading of the Bentley manual, I accidentally discovered the "reset" procedure, which as most of you with the panoramic roof probably know is to hold the switch in the vent position until the roof closes (15 seconds). I performed the procedure, and now I have a sunroof that vents, opens, and closes - kind of. From any normal open position, pressing the switch forward to the close position now brings the sunroof to the vent position. At that point I can close it by simply pushing the switch forward again, and holding until it's closed. Now this is annoying. Since I use the sunroof in the open position frequently, and the vent position very seldom, I wish I left well enough alone. Besides having to reach for the switch twice, or hold it in the closed position (for something that is supposedly auto-closing), I'm worried that one day I'll forget, and leave it in the vent position, and my car interior will get wet with the frequent heavy rain we have here.

So my question is: Is this normal sunroof operation, or is something actually wrong?

 

I haven't opened mine in years, but it has the vent and full open positions. I also think it could be stopped at any point with a brief counter touch on the button. But I might be misremembering it.

Anyway, I'm going to pull the fuses for the sunroof and seal up the perimeter gasket with silicone. It leaks sometimes and I want to get it taken care of before something electrical dies. Then in the future, I'll get a no-sunroof roof skin and headliner.

 

In my 2011, there is the "toggle" switch for the sunroof right above the rear view mirror alongside the interior light "toggle" switches. It definitely took me time to get used to how it operated in that, from a closed position, to vent both sunroof panels upward, you slightly pull the switch toward the rear of the car to the resistance point (it takes a few tries to "feel" where that resistance point is, however once you get the hang of it, you got it down). To slide the front panel all the way back over the back panel (full open sunroof position), you keep your finger on the toggle switch past the resistance point, still pulling the toggle switch toward the rear of the car. To close the fully open sunroof (front panel completely slid back onto the back one), you can either 1: push the toggle switch to it's resistance point pointed toward the front of the car. This will leave both roof panels vented upward (I commonly use this feature in the hot weather because it's nice to get some air in the car while it's parked), or 2: if you're threatened with rain or whatever other reason, you keep your finger still on the toggle switch aimed toward the front of the car past it's resistance point and the entire roof will close, both panels in the down position.

 

Nabeshin - That is exactly how mine works since resetting. I normally wouldn't have gone for a sunroof car, especially with a white roof. But I've kind of grown fond of this one - in great part to the roll up sunshade that lets you enjoy fresh air without direct full sun. It doesn't leak (yet).

Eddyboi77 - While the sunroof in the newer cars is different, your description is exactly what I'm seeing with mine, except that our switches appear to be different. On mine, besides forward and rearward with the two stages of resistance, I can also push upwards (for vent). But the fact that you need to keep pressure to fully close after the sunroof goes from all open to the vented position to fully close tells me it's this way by design.

 

yeah that appears to be the case, I remember in my old civic, the sunroof didn't go to "vent" automatically when I closed it fully from open because it dipped down and slid like under the roof, so I guess because the mini's sunroofs go upward and back, they figured to have it stop at tilt on it's way back down.