what actually breaks on the panoramic sunroofs??

[Ricky Bobby]

If the seal is good I wouldn't worry about it too much, I don't know anyone who has replaced themselves and I have the regular sunroof on my '03 so I should be one to talk lol!

yes i'm fairly certain the glass panels will need to be removed from their tracks, and the headliner dropped down as well.


Once again, like the OP said, it seems a lot of people are only having troubles needing the rear repair kit, but honestly its just extra money in parts, if you are dropping everything down anyway I'd replace all parts prone to failure and do it once. Even if it costs you $1k I'd have the peace of mind knowing it works properly instead of doing a ghetto fix like dremeling the rear roof closed.

On the facelift E53's, gotta pay to play, especially with the panoramic sunroof. I would have definitely made sure if I was buying a used X that anything broken is factored into the cost I pay.

I wouldn't for one second accept the guy's offer that "pulling the sunroof fuse" negates any need to accept a lower than asking price offer for the vehicle. In my mind you are entitled to buy a vehicle that has all functioning parts and options and is mechanically sound and if it is not then you start chipping away at the price from there. I know the OP had to make a 10 hour drive for this car too so the guy kinda had him by the balls, luckily his mirror fixes should be free.

[mcurcio1989]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

If the seal is good I wouldn't worry about it too much, I don't know anyone who has replaced themselves and I have the regular sunroof on my '03 so I should be one to talk lol!

yes i'm fairly certain the glass panels will need to be removed from their tracks, and the headliner dropped down as well.


Once again, like the OP said, it seems a lot of people are only having troubles needing the rear repair kit, but honestly its just extra money in parts, if you are dropping everything down anyway I'd replace all parts prone to failure and do it once. Even if it costs you $1k I'd have the peace of mind knowing it works properly instead of doing a ghetto fix like dremeling the rear roof closed.

On the facelift E53's, gotta pay to play, especially with the panoramic sunroof. I would have definitely made sure if I was buying a used X that anything broken is factored into the cost I pay.

I wouldn't for one second accept the guy's offer that "pulling the sunroof fuse" negates any need to accept a lower than asking price offer for the vehicle. In my mind you are entitled to buy a vehicle that has all functioning parts and options and is mechanically sound and if it is not then you start chipping away at the price from there. I know the OP had to make a 10 hour drive for this car too so the guy kinda had him by the balls, luckily his mirror fixes should be free.

Hey here is a question, from looking at the rear kit from ecs tuning, doesn't it contain the piece that gets dremeld?? I am thinking maybe I'll do the ghetto dremel cut off fix now until I order the kit. Then it will be replaced anyways. . .reason being I need to fix and sell my old e46 before taking on a leisure project like this. I would kind of like to make sure that I can get the rest of the roof functiond working properly before ordering the kit. I can't even initialize it now with the back section not functioning.

Yeah the mirrors were free I had those fixed in about 30 min. Just laughing that the PO was gonna pay a dealer 1400 for that . Anyways I think the cost was based on the issues with the vehicle and like you said I'm pretty sure I got a steal. I kind of planned that any x5 I bought witha pano was going to need fixed at some point or another.