Recently, I foolishly left my sun roof open

Sounds like you need a dealer's service manual or a dealer to service the sun roof to restore it to its original operating condition.

I'm no expert with cars but it does sound like the sun roof is getting stuck because the two functions are working at the same time. Did you open the switch assembly, dry it out and check for damage?

Maybe you can't do this cos you need a special Nissan tool to do it but it sounds like there is something bridging the two switches.

Do you have access to the motor(s) so that you can test what voltage you are getting when you open and close the switches.

It does sound like you will need to go to the garage but whatever they do ask to see the old part(s) and explain why they had to do what they did.

Can you apply volts directly to the motor to ensure that the mechanism is ok?

If you can get into the switch assembly and bypass the switches then yes you can. Two problems I've found with things like this though. One is that the manufacturer uses their own bolts etc and you need their tool to get in and the other thing is that the switches will be made in such a fashion that to bypass them you pretty much need to cut them out and it is almost impossible to reattach them.

I know what you mean, if there is no accessible connector fitted to the motor a method I have used in the past is to carefully push a couple of needlework pins through the wires & apply power to them. Obviously you have to be very careful not to short any thing out as you will be working in a constricted space.

I'm completely confused by these switches and up and down and forwards and backwards!

I just wanted to say that I have a motorcycle which hasd a fusebox situated under the tank, just behind and below the lower fork bearing. It is so attached to the frame that it's 'upside down '. i.e the lid to the fuse box was under the 'baseplate'. Result: it collected rain water (when it was fitted). You'll have gathered now that this is an Italian motorcycle, coming from a country where it never rain of course.

Anyway, the point is that the first time the fuses got wet, they dissolved in a matter of hours, well in a very short time. To get to the point, Im just wondering if there was a potential on any of the poles during the night while they were drowning? It may mean the poles have corroded significantly.

Possibly but in most cars the fuse box is under the bonnet or under the dash board in the footwell usually quite well protected.

Without seeing the car it's hard to say. I'm assuming the switches are on the roof just in front of the sun roof and if it got rained on you may have the same situation as you did with your bike. This is my gut feeling and where I would start investigating.

I myself have been accused of being boring but I like the Japanese bikes. Had a Honda Hornet for 3 years and the only thing that ever went wrong was it regularly needed new tires cos I rode the nuts off it every day. Didn't eve have a car for all that time and there was only about 1 week a year I couldn't ride cos of snow. Poor thing was out in all sorts of weather but never let me down.

Give up, take it to a dealer, pay the price for your error. If you start taking things apart they never go back together again. There are always a few screws you wonder where they went. If you love your car let a dealer who knows what is going on fix it for you the right way.

Nice to hear such a positive reply.

Anyway my feeling is that if it is broken then you can't break it any more. There is no harm in unscrewing the cover to the switches and having a look. If there is nothing you can do then put the cover back on and take it to the dealer. The manufacturers rely on people taking their cars in every time there is a minor fault so they can charge huge sums of money to "fix" the problem and lets face it these guys nowadays are no more than fitters.

Have a go yourself, if you are not confident then either find a mate who knows or if all else fails take it to the garage.

I'm with you on this one! If it's broke, you at least stand a chance of fixing it!

...but if it's under warranty, or the subject of one of those double-secret recalls, goofing with it will put the total cost of repair in your pocket. I would at least take it in for an estimate, ask them to see if there is a special factory notice on it, warranty extension, or recall. They probably won't check if you don't ask.

And if they repair it, their repair is probably warranted, at least 30 days and maybe longer. Again, ask. Some states stand by the consumer on things lke this and others don't.

Maybe I'm a babe in the woods, but if I were designing a sun roof that is apt to be thoughtlessly left open in the rain (who hasn't done something like this?) I would, at a minimum, make it water tolerant. And while I would fully expect something produced in detroit to self destruct if you sneeze on it, something designed and probably built in japan ought to be done better than this.

I also wanted to add that possibly the jerkiness of the top is due to slightly moist things rubbing against a steel track. You might get it to operate more smoothly if you spread some silicon grease wherever there are parts rubbing together.

The warranty issue is a valid one and I would certainly think about that on a new car but to my knowledge I think it is only Hyundai who give a 5 year warranty and on a 2001 car this would be expired by now. Yeah yeah some people will buy an extended warranty but I've never met anyone who has bought a 6-7 year warranty.

I've also had problems with garages refusing to take responsibility for thier mistakes. I had a rover coupe and the head gasket went. Took it to the garage and was charged £800 for it to be replaced. The mechanic happily informed me that he had changed the timing belt while doing the work. Couple of weeks later the idler snapped off it's bracket and the timing belt came off resulting in complete engine destruction. Two weeks after he had looked at the bloody thing I find it hard to believe that the idler bracket suddenly developed a crack. Garage said "nothing to do with us, it wasn't weak when we looked at it". Result- £3500 car now worth £300.

Now when I have car problems I have a look myself and figure out what I think needs to be done then once the garage has done the work I inspect it and quiz the mechanic about what he did and why he did it and if there is anything else which he noticed while doing the work. The bloody hate me cos they can't add on little jobs here and there to increase profit.

I think (depending on the engine type) that the idler comes with a new bracket, and to change the cam belt, the standard recommendation is to change the idler as well, as these are known to fail regularly. I'd have tried for a at least a second hand engine out of them!

From all I'm reading elsewhere, tensioners and idlers have a worse reliability record than belts. Opel reportedly wore out two engines on one belt when testing for their first toothed-belt arrangement. The idler/tensioner bearings seem very often to be inferior, the pulley is often plastic and the tensioner arms are 'whippy' and usually come with a yard of slack in them. What chance has the belt got.??

On the other hand, what do the agents get to charge for these days? Oil, filters and occasionally brakepads.

Man , that was foolish, well, what I can tell from your narration is that the electronic control board of your sunroof got a shortcut, and also that the lubricating grease from the mecanism got washed, so I sugest two things, buy some white grease and lubricate all the mobile parts of your sunroof and and after that take the motor and the control boar to an electronic technical service center to be cheked, If they cant fix it, well take it to a NISSAN service.

If it was white 'grease' and it washed off in the rain, then it was soap.!!! Unless your car was hit by a tidal wave of salt water I'd look for electrical problems first.

Hope this helps.You need to remove the sunroof motor and then the plastic cover on the motor and inspect the circuit board.