Disabling the "Soft stop" in the moonroof

Technical info on the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix including do-it-yourself info
Salsa Guy
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Post by Salsa Guy »

I've been looking at doing this mod, but wouldn't it be easier to put the diode across the yellow and blue wire?
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joatmon
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Re: (Salsa Guy)

Post by joatmon »

Quote, originally posted by Salsa Guy »I've been looking at doing this mod, but wouldn't it be easier to put the diode across the yellow and blue wire? Probably. If I had to do another, I might look into popping the pins out of the electrical connector and soldering the diode to them, then put the connector back together.
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Salsa Guy
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Post by Salsa Guy »

Where is the connector located. Did see it any of the PICs
05 Matrix XR 4WD and 03 Vibe GT
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joatmon
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Re: (Salsa Guy)

Post by joatmon »

It's on the sunroof control assembly somewhere. I have an extra one at the house, will try to grab a picture this evening
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Salsa Guy
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Post by Salsa Guy »

So when I take the Sunroof Assy out the connector should be there.
05 Matrix XR 4WD and 03 Vibe GT
"If you want Government to solve your problems, then you are the problem!" BMSR
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joatmon
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Re: (Salsa Guy)

Post by joatmon »

here is what the sunroof control looks like from the back, showing the white connector you have to disconnect to get the thing off the car. The wires are there, accessible without taking the black box apart, although they are probably in a zip tie bundle

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joatmon
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Re: (Salsa Guy)

Post by joatmon »

For the moonroof soft stop disable, it might be easier to just strip away some wire insulation to solder on a diode, and not mess with pulling pins and soldering the diode onto the appropriate two. However, if you wanted to pull a pin out of the connector 0. unbunble the wires, and identify the wire you want to pull1. Pry up the pin lock. It will not come off, but will just elevate a small amount2. Take a jewelers screwdriver, or a strong pin or needle, and on the inside of the connector, lift up the plastic pin retainer from the pin (area marked by rectangle in picture) while gently pulling the wire from the back of the connector3. When it comes out, you can see the hole in the connector pin where the retainer grabs it.To put it back in, just push the wire in from the back , making sure that the pin is oriented so the retainer will drop into the hole in the pin. When all the pins are in place, push the pin lock down until it snaps in placePulling the pins was a step someone here needed a while back, when they bought an LED replacement for the light bulb, the bulb socket had reversed polarity for the LED. which was corrected by pulling and swapping the locations of the wires for the light.

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Salsa Guy
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Post by Salsa Guy »

Thanks! I did an exploratory surgery today and saw these connectors. I didn't try to remove the yellow and blue pin/wires. I'll post some pics when the mod is done without soldering on the circuit board.
05 Matrix XR 4WD and 03 Vibe GT
"If you want Government to solve your problems, then you are the problem!" BMSR
Trix MODS: SRI w/ AEM filter, Vibrant/Magnaflow Cat-back, Alutec Lightweight Crank Pulley
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Salsa Guy
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Post by Salsa Guy »

Got the mod done today, 99 cent diode (for 2 of them). I was torn between stripping the wire or soldering the pins. I went with soldering the diode leads to the pins pins. The thing to remember is the diode stripe is closest to the Blue wire then the other side connects to the Yellow Wire. I also used shrink wrap around the back of the pin where the diode lead was solder and covering the diode. Reduces the chances of shorting. It worked like a champ! Thanks Joatmon!
05 Matrix XR 4WD and 03 Vibe GT
"If you want Government to solve your problems, then you are the problem!" BMSR
Trix MODS: SRI w/ AEM filter, Vibrant/Magnaflow Cat-back, Alutec Lightweight Crank Pulley
GT MODS: Cosmo SRI, DRL, Auto Stop
knightrace
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Re: (Salsa Guy)

Post by knightrace »

still want to do this.any pics?
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Salsa Guy
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Re: (knightrace)

Post by Salsa Guy »

Quote, originally posted by knightrace »still want to do this.any pics?Joatmon has some very good Pics and you don't want to see my soldering job (the bigger the glob the better the job).All I did is remove the pins, solder the diode to one pin, I did the Blue first, put some shrink wrap around the back of the pin and diode, soldered the other pin to the diode lead, heated the shink wrap and re-insert. Be careful when raising the Pin-lock down on the back of the connector. It only pops up a little bit then you'll need to lift up the tab from inside the connector. The diode strip is closest to the blue wire. Not hard, just 10 minutes.
05 Matrix XR 4WD and 03 Vibe GT
"If you want Government to solve your problems, then you are the problem!" BMSR
Trix MODS: SRI w/ AEM filter, Vibrant/Magnaflow Cat-back, Alutec Lightweight Crank Pulley
GT MODS: Cosmo SRI, DRL, Auto Stop
probowler2286
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Re: Disabling the "Soft stop" in the moonroof

Post by probowler2286 »

back from the dead, lol. If Joatman can edit 8 years after the fact, I can revive about 8 years after that, right? Like most of the forum posts from the era, pics are missing. Someone on the FB page is hopefully going to be sharing pics of the completed setup behind the housing.
zbyers
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Re: (glassman)

Post by zbyers »

joatmon wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:13 am I used a Radio Shack P/N 276-1101 (1N4001) basic small diode, rated at 1A continous, but I doubt it sees anything close to that. package of two incl. tax less than a buck.

EDIT - Here is a better description of the soft stop disable mod:

1 Remove the one screw in the sunroof control cover, then pull the whole cover off (If you try to pry up just the clear plastic lens you'll mess it up)
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2. Remove the screw that holds the sunroof controls to the headliner and pull the controls out, disconnect the one connector and take it to a better place to work on it.

3. On the back of the sunroof controls, there is a black rectangular box that holds the control circuit board.
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It may be possible to remove the two ("C") screws and then unhook the four ("B") tabs to take the back off the black box without removing the black box from the rest of the assembly, but I unhooked the four ("A") tabs to pull the black box out of the assembly, then took out the two ("C") screws and unhooked the four ("B") tabs to open the thing up.
NOTE Inside the black box there are four tiny white plastic pieces that may (will) come out of place if you take the circuit board out of the case, and these are important, so don't lose them.
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4. Solder a diode between two terminals on the circuit board. Pay attention to the polarity, a diode is directional, the silver line on one end has to be connected to the correct terminal. Solder it in in such a way to allow the black box cover to fit back on ok.
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5. Test it out before you put it all back together
6. put it all back together (and don't forget those little white internal pieces I warned you about)
Do you by chance still have the pictures, Joatmon? :D If so, I can make this into a PDF, and upload it so we have a permanent file.
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joatmon
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Re: Disabling the "Soft stop" in the moonroof

Post by joatmon »

A couple of times forum software upgrades seem to have delinked some pics. I still have any I ever uploaded here, so if you find some delinked, let me know.

I re-uploaded the pics into the post where they used to be viewtopic.php?f=28&t=7209&p=111845#p111845

Instead of opening up the black box to g solder the diode to the circuit card, it might be easier to just strip away a little insulation from the two relevant wires and solder the diode to them
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zbyers
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Re: Disabling the "Soft stop" in the moonroof

Post by zbyers »

joatmon wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:59 am A couple of times forum software upgrades seem to have delinked some pics. I still have any I ever uploaded here, so if you find some delinked, let me know.

I re-uploaded the pics into the post where they used to be viewtopic.php?f=28&t=7209&p=111845#p111845

Instead of opening up the black box to g solder the diode to the circuit card, it might be easier to just strip away a little insulation from the two relevant wires and solder the diode to them
You're the best. Thanks!
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