Originally Posted by g300d

Gorgeous ride!

Yeah, these trucks (and most all BMW's) are high maintenance. Thank God for forums like this where people help each other out.

Let's start with the pano roof. Yeah, it is infamous for just what you described.

When I first got the 3.0 with the pano roof a few years ago, I had already heard the stories and so opened it just a few times to see if it was working. Then left it alone for years.

Fast forward to last week and I just had my falling ceiling recovered. I had a slight leak so I decided to try to synchronise the roof. Thats when it decided to get stuck on tilt just like yours.

There are a number of options, you can replace the entire pano cassette, or repair it as I have seen repair kits being advertised.

Or you can disable the rear glass while the front retains full tilt and retract function. A gentleman from Australia flooded all the BMW forums some years back with this fix, and I just did it.

2nd, yes, low fluid can definitely make that noise. It's the first thing to check, especially since I have not seen an X5 without a leaky power steering system.

Thirdly, the X eats front tension bushings that can cause that. In the rear it is usually the upper control arms that give way first, that also have the side effect of giving you too much negative rear camber that cannot be adjusted out.

On that door, the handle rarely breaks, it is usually the handle carrier. If you have window rattle when moving up and down, replace the clips at the same time while you have the panel out. And always keep the windows up when closing the door. This prevents window from swaying and putting undue stress on the mechanism.

Good luck, hope the wallet flush isnt so thorough...but if you slacked off badly enough on maintenance, it may get bloody.