Electric Sun Shade Diagnosis

[Wolfpack Fan]

We've got dual electric sun shades. Pass side doesn't work at all. Drivers side works momentarily when you press retract, but since it's fully retracted for the most part it only goes up a fraction of an inch then reaches the stop. At first I thought maybe a fuse, but since it works momentarily on the drivers side I think I can rule out a fuse.

Has anyone else experienced this or something similar? I figure I'll pull the switch out soon and take a look inside for obvious problems.

[so47]

Had an issue with retracting. Read a few threads on the crappy motors installed with these. Like most products, Chinese junk. Thank you corporate America. I give mine a manual assist as they retract. So far so good. Unlike others that have gone to much trouble to fix these things, when they finally give up the ghost I will toss them and buy better sunglasses.

[Alan_Hepburn]

Yup - classic "bad motor" syndrome. The manufacturer will not repair them, or sell just the motor - tthey would rather sell you a new shade. In our case we have a single shade that spans the entire windshield - AutoMotion wants $800 for a new shade. I said "There's got to be a better way" and after some investigation I found a company that sells a similar motor. It needs a bit of fabrication work to mate the motor to the shade drive, but I spent just under $100 to fix our shade, with a motor that is rated at twice the torque of the original - it's been working great!

I wrote up a description of what I had to do and I've attached it her for your reading enjoyment...