Panorama Roof shattered on a country road.

[Quicksilver]

The dealer finished the X today but the insurance company told
the dealer to hold on to it until Monday so the estimator could take
pictures of the submittals for the additional labor that was done.

No telling what the insurance is up to. Maybe trying to figure out
a way to make me absorb some of the cost because I had to go
to the dealer the get the job done instead of the neighborhood glass
shop.

I did try to get my indy to fix it but he essentially said no because
he had no idea what to charge for labor because he hadn't done
one before and he knew it was a complicated job.

My favorite collision shop said it makes no sense for them to do it
because the final adjustments needed to be done by BMW so they
recommended I take it there to start.

So that where I stand. In the mean time I'm driving a Chrysler 300
rental. Pretty cool electronics. I paired my iPhone to make calls and
it worked just like that. In the process I pressed the CD player button
thinking maybe someone might have left a CD in the player. No CD
but it started playing songs in my iPhone wirelessly. way cool.
It didn't identify the songs being played but the wireless thing was cool.
BTW I could get seriously addicted to Sirius. Very Cool.

[Quicksilver]

E61Silver

After hearing what's involved in replacing the glass it turns
out that it it's more than glass coverage. I believe both
glasses have to be removed and the cassette needed to
be removed so that everything could be cleaned up and
reinstalled.

It turns out that some of the shops I called were not equipped
to do the job so that's why it ended up at BMW.

[TwinTurboGTR]

That is so weird!!! Ok, so I asked my Fiancee if an acorn could shatter a window. She is a Physics teacher. So she looked online to try and see what the average weight of one was. Basically, 1 acorn is difficult to weigh. There must be a sample of 50 or so and dividing by that number, to achieve an average weight and mass. So then she started to make a hypo scenario with s=d/t and some other formulas. Basically, the short type... She said it would be highly unlikely an acorn (A single acorn) would do it. Its terminal velocity doesn't seem to be high enough to shatter a windshield. She is saying, depending on its size, buy the time it hits the car, from its highest point till impact, it is slowing town at some point because of resistance and gravity. The higher the object, the more time it has to slow down. But it also depends on what type of oak tree the acorn came from. Then she started thinking about her mothers house. There she had a lot of Black Walnut trees. Now the weight of those and their ability of achieving terminal velocity in the beginning, would be enough to do the damage. Because of its smooth exterior coat, it cuts down on wind resistance, allowing the object to not slow down as much as it hits the impact point.

She also mentioned if there were scratches on the glass. Moderate to deep scratches would be enough to alter the surface tension of the glass, minimizing its tensile strength. As the body is loaded under stress, that stress is transmitted to the glass. Since the surface has been compromised, the surface is no longer as strong as it should be, altering the strength of the glass and shattering it.

[PersonaNonGrata]

That's a crazy sight, B!

After my E36 had to have an entire cassette replaced and my E53 moonroof got stuck open, I would actually opt not to have a sunroof/moonroof. To me, they're nothing but trouble. Unfortunately, my new car has a big ol' pano. My fingers are crossed.

[tdgard]

Weird.

I had my glass blow out Labor Day. Cruise set at 80 on an interstate no one around. No chance of it getting hit. I had a cargo box mounted so nothing could fall on it. I assume there was some sort of scratch and a weird pressure variance took it out. The remaining glass was actually curved upward like it blew from the inside out.

Went to a local dealer-I was far away from home-and they did a quick patch job. New glass and a down and dirty cleanup. ~$600 for the glass and another $600 for labor. I was told its about 20 hours labor to do the job right and I could not use the sunroof until it was done. Drove home & could hear glass moving around every time I accelerated, hit the brakes, made a turn.

This was the most rotten thing I have ever done on a car. Pulled the A, B, C, & D pillars, headliner, and sunroof cartridge. Stuck that on a table & had to figure out how to get it all apart with glass all in the mechanics. Taking it apart when it functions is relatively easy-with glass all through it-it sucks. I'm still finding glass a month later leaching out of every nook and cranny even after damned near wearing out my shop vac.

I feel for you. I'd almost rather have the transmission blow-it's only some bolts and a lot more straightforward.

[Quicksilver]

Insurance covered everything but the seal. BMW told them it should be replaced
to insure that nothing would leak in the future. Insurance said no that they couldn't
see where the glass breaking cause any damage to the seal.

I paid for the seal myself and will file an appeal for the additional cost. After all
the seal was 7 years old.

[tdgard]

I became quite intimate with that damned thing and think that the external seal doesn't do anything. I think it's designed to leak which is then channeled into the drains. The actual seal comes from the pieces that press upward when the roof is closed. Hopefully that is what they replaced.