While the headliner is out....

[Henn28]

I'm having my headliner redone at some point in the near future and am thinking about taking advantage of having the liner pan out. Not sure if the following are needed, or the best way to do things. Thoughts would be appreciated.

The second stage of my sound system upgrade is to swap out the BMW amp with a good aftermarket unit in the left cubby, put a 10" powered sub in the right rear cubby and new speakers (using the factory speaker wires to/from the new amp. I'll need to run RCA cables from my kenwood amp to the new amp and powered sub and am thinking of running them overhead. I haven't had the headliner out, but I'm assuming there is a void between sheet metal stampings? I'm not excited to pull old, brittle plastic trim and consoles again to run these cables through the sills or center. I'm having the pillars redone as well so I'm hoping I can snake the wires into the dash at the A-pillar. Any drawbacks to this that folks can think of?

Also, I have the standard moon roof (non-pano), which is working fine currently, but I know the failure rate is high as they get older. Are the failures limited to pano-roof, or both? I could work with the installer to give me access while he's got it all out so I could r/r whatever parts tend to break. Is this juice worth the squeeze? Frankly, my sunroof works great because in 20 years we have very rarely used it. But I always order cars with a sunroof for some reason. Who knows why!

Thanks all

[Effduration]

I have the pano roof, and have never owned an E53 with the standard sunroof, But I think it may be similar (identical ?) to the E39 sunroof which is pretty near bullet proof..as compared to the Pano roof which will fail if you look at it wrong...

Removing the E53 headliner (which I have done) is not too tough.. I would not pre-emptively maintain the non-pano roof in your case...It's likely to stay fine.

[Bdc101]

I'm pretty sure the normal sunroofs fail too -- or at least mine has! It worked until a couple of years ago. Now it will make a little noise but it will not raise up, and I'm too afraid of opening it for fear that it will never go back. Also, it rattles when I open the shade, even though it's shut tight.

[X5only]

The normal sunroof on my 1997 E39 failed. I spent quite a bit trying to fix it to no avail. I finally managed to find an intact sunroof cassette from a part-out E39 and just swapped the cassette. It's been working great for the last 8 years or so.

As for the speaker wires, I'd rather have them on the floor rather than the pillar where you could get rattling issues down the road. It's also much easier to snake them through the floor, I think.

[Effduration]

Okay, Per a quick perusal of RealOEM, the E39 and E53 non-pano sunroofs are certainly not identical...they may or may not be similar.

However the interwebs are not awash in reports of failing sunroofs on E39 and pre-pano E53's like they are with the pano roof.

[80stech]

I would pay some attention to trying to make it so that there are no noises after you get it back together. I'm not totally sure what things look like when it's apart but the foam blocks (I think) in mine can drive me nuts at certain temperatures.

[crystalworks]

Since you are into audio and will have the headliner out, I'd install some damping or deadener on the roof. I did this to my wagon when it's headliner was out and that thing is the quietest BMW we own. Though it is also running on Tesla tires with the foam insulation so... I went out of my way to make it quieter.

With the standard roof, just clean and then lubricate the workings. I'd be surprised if you ever had trouble with it. Not impossible, but not likely as is the car with pano roofs. I dread the day my 4.8 doesn't retract after venting...

[Henn28]

Thanks all, I appreciate the insight.

I’ll take a look at the sunroof internals and see how they look when the liner and shade are out and grease it up liberally. I’d rather not just throw parts at something. I put a brand new edge molding/gasket on it after the paint job, which took forever to come in and wasn’t cheap so I know this piece at least is good!

The sound proofing is a very good idea. I was thinking of how much wind noise comes through the roof for some reason, especially with the roof rack x members on. Did you just stick it on between the liner and the roof stamping or is it something that you stuff into the voids?

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Henn28

Thanks all, I appreciate the insight.

I’ll take a look at the sunroof internals and see how they look when the liner and shade are out and grease it up liberally. I’d rather not just throw parts at something. I put a brand new edge molding/gasket on it after the paint job, which took forever to come in and wasn’t cheap so I know this piece at least is good!

The sound proofing is a very good idea. I was thinking of how much wind noise comes through the roof for some reason, especially with the roof rack x members on. Did you just stick it on between the liner and the roof stamping or is it something that you stuff into the voids?

I adhered it to the roof sheet metal. The stuff I used is from Amazon NOICO brand, used it many times. Works great as a damper. You could fill voids with foam and such but think you'd be hitting diminishing returns. BMW does use some fabric style insulation in places to try to mitigate vibrations with the headliner panel.

[Henn28]

Thanks Crystalworks, I just made my way back to this thread and saw your excellent photos.

The car is going in on the 18th for the headliner install and I spoke with the owner about giving me access to it while it was torn apart. I ordered 17’ RCA cables in both 4 channel and 2 channel for the amp and powered sub and am going to try to run them thru the roof while it’s open. I can always baiil and run them through the sills or under the carpet, but all of it seems painful, but the roof being open presents a nice opportunity to try that route.

I also bought 25 sqft of Dynamat Excell, which is their thinner product for use in thighs spaces…like presumably between a headliner pan and the roof. I’ll update the thread after the 18th.