Panoramic Sunroof Deconstruct

[salbol1]

Hello -

My wife's X5 got the pano sunroof sickness last week, and after a severe fit of vomiting on my part after looking the boards and seeing the pricing, and having my trusted Indie indicate that indeed, he was willing to "molest" me for around $4,200, I decided to embarq upon the adventure of fixing it on my own.
The "can't replace the components of the sunroof" was confirmed to be the fable it is - and I ordered the 3 kits to make the repairs from my friends at BMA Imports for <$600. BTW, if anyone tells you that, they are living in 2008 since in November of that year, there was an "official" guidance document (SI B 54 13 09) that shows how to do this.
Yes the repair is time consuming, yes the TIS for doing the repair is woefully inadequate, but there is no way I'm dropping $4k for a sunroof - a few grand more and I could buy another stinkin’ X5!!
I’m going to share the nuggets of wisdom I found out – and the intent would be to later update this with some youtube add-in’s after I shoot all of the stuff in action.

Why does my sunroof rear panel vent, and then not go down?

The answer to this question is represented by a small aluminum tab, that with an increased manufacturing cost of about a $1 would probably save this from ever even becoming an issue on these roofs to begin with. The 2 components involved in this “fiasco” are 1)Front Glass Drive Cable Plate and 2) Rear Glass Drive Cable Plate



Here are some of the different movements of the mechanisms involved:

What moves when the glass tilts up: Rear Glass Tilt Up - YouTube
The headliners moving forward: Headliner moving forward- YouTube
The headliner moving back: Headliner moving back - YouTube
Tilt mechanism retracting: Tilt mechanism retracting - YouTube

The small tab shown here, which has been reinforced with some strong polymer plastic and JB Weld in the "U" shape - will help to keep that tab aligned over continued use. The tab has to align with a smaller "Channel" piece that sits on the underside of the Drive Cable Plate.



There is stress on that tab - because constantly aligning with the channel ends up cracking the plastic that helps mate that piece onto the plate. Very poor design, IMHO.

The rest of these are some postings of differing parts of the assembly, the ones that come into play when dealing with the rehab on this.

Alignment hole on the front assembly (pieces that make the front glass tilt and recess back into the rear). This is the alignment point before putting the motor back in on the front.



The is the "Rear Glass Carriage Control" which basically serves the purpose of elevating the rear glass when wanting to go into tilt mode.



This piece is part of the "Sunshade Mechanism" repair kit and serves 3 purposes:
1) Be the end of the track and stop piece for the headliner
2) Has the rear drop down area so the back roofliner can fall into this area, and then the top one rides over
3) Is a complete PIA until you figure out how to put it in correctly, and not following the TIS



Front Headliner attachment and mechanism to show vent mesh

This is the small tab that is part of the "vent mesh" and ties the front and rear panels together when they are moving.



These are the attachment points for the front panel and the mechanism - a pulley system - which moves forward to expose the mesh between the 2 panels.



Front and rear motors. The rear motor is ONLY for the headliner movement.



I'll add more later......

[Qsilver7]

Wow...great info. Thanks for posting. Not everything you gave us makes sense to me now (I just got my e53 this past Thursday)...but it has lit a fire within to make sure that I do at least an annual inspection/lubing of the pano/roofs tracks with some Tri-Flow lubricant (which contains TEFLON) which may help in some of the areas you mention that get stressed where some moving parts interact with each other.

Again, thanks for the great pics and documentations...good luck with your future endeavors on this project...and do keep us updated.

[subieworx]

So what you are saying is don't open the panel and if it breaks hope that it breaks in the closed position.

Great info!

[salbol1]

I think more what I'm saying is don't let someone dupe you into thinking a $4k repair is your only option!!

[SlickGT1]

Great writeup. Keep us updated. Also post up some part numbers when you get a chance. Will deff help people reasearch them.

By the way. Use my pano every day, and I mean every time I get in, and every time i get out. At least 3 times a day, it gets open, and closed.

[gti_g60]

Hello. I need help. I'm rebuilding X5 e70 2007 sunroof. Where should be "Crossmember seal"? Mine was probably lost before I bought this car. I bought a new seal, but can't find where should it be.

[gti_g60]

As I understand, it's number 18