wet carpet on driver's side floor
 

We had a real downpour last night, and while I was in the X5 testing android apps & peripherals for my "gauge substitute" project https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...le-gauges.html, I noticed the carpet underfoot was wet. Despite having several such storms during my brief ownership period (5 months now), there have been no other leaks.

The carpet shows signs of water draining down from behind the dead pedal; I'll try to remove it to see what's behind there.

I've never used the sunroof, and removed the fuse for it previously, so there's been no movement of the glass up there, so likelihood of suddenly developing a drain leak (along the front left A-pillar, which shows no moisture) is low, IMO.

I did disturb the firewall plug above the footwell when running wiring for my electric fan installation, but I sealed it thoroughly with pest-proof Great Stuff foam spray, months ago. No leaks before now, and the carpet on the toeboard is dry, directly under the plug, and the firewall area was completely dry underhood, on both sides, as well.

I also checked the drivers door drains and the sill area; no moisture anywhere, either, and so I suspect another area...the bottom of the windshield where the seal meets the body.

On both sides, the seals meet at a crack/hole that seems a logical drain to me. Mine were filled with tree debris (X5 sits under oak trees), and were wet, still. I'm unfamiliar with the bodywork, seals, drains, etc. on this vehicle, but might my wet carpet originate with the left side "drain" hole? My X5 sits tilting forward and to the left, making most drainage flow in that direction. I blew all debris clear before taking photos:

Attachment 81057dry toeboard next to dead pedalAttachment 81058door drain and door sill area both dry

water inside dead pedal and under front half of sill plate
 

Pried off the dead pedal and found standing water in the bottom bolt hole; the top bolt hole was dry. Now I'm attempting to remove the driver's side kick panel, but it's a bear (unlike those on my old project cars from the 50-60-70-80's...one or two screws and they popped off). Anyone have a how-to? or do I just wing it and hope nothing breaks (it's 20+ year-old plastic, you know).

There is a common issue with the drain that goes from the roof window getting blocked. It's almost always why water in the footwell.

Please pull the A-pillar plastic and have a look at sunroof drain..It's one bolt...Make sure the drain hose is still in its metal tube near windshield.

sunroof drain tube? why hasn't it plugged up before now?
 

I saw this while searching earlier https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/x5-e53-forum/101904-diy-e53-sunroof-tube-kink-fix.html
and this https://xoutpost.com/attachments/x5-...roof-drain.pdf, which should walk me thru it, but is there anyway I'd trigger an airbag while in there, or should I disconnect the battery? Remember guys, I only have one key with two generic remotes; I hesitate disconnecting power to the EWS until I get another genuine key...my battery is under a year old, and kept on a maintenance charge 24/7.

Also, should I keep trying to remove the dead pedal/driver's kick panel to locate the leak, or just clear the drain tube? I have a lot of .155 trimmer line, so should I skip ahead and just shove it up the tube first, or use compressed air if it won't go very far in?

Question: is it common for a drain tube on a seldom-driven/never-driven car plug up out-of-the blue? According to the previous owner, the sunroof never was used/never leaked for 3-4 years before I got it from him 5 months ago. I guess it's possible....

For me it was the drain tube in the a pillar as mentioned above. Somehow, someway the rubber drain tubing pulled out of the metal tube built into the a pillar and leaked water down into the driver side foot well. I removed the foot rest/ kick panel and vacuumed as much of the water out as I could.

I have two facelift E53's and therefore four A-pillars...I have encountered a leak, or kinks (resulting in a drain blockage) at all four of them...

I never use the pano sunroofs..

Because the A-pillar leak is so common, I would pull the A-pillar before I pulled the dead-pedal trim.

I can't explain why exactly, but the rubber drain hose has just enough slack to move around and often pulls itself out of the metal drain tube...I don't know if this only happens in freezing weather or not. The solution is to zip tie it so that it has less slack.

I do not disconnect battery when pulling the A-pillars. Yes the airbag is there but don't go near its connector.

You can buy a rubber tipped air nozzle from Harbor Freight for a few dollars and a cheapo regulator for about the same price that regulates down to under 10 psi.
If you also get a press fit to 1/8" pipe thread hose connection from your local Parker distributor and a couple feet of nylon hose, you can make a tool to test the drains. You screw the 1/8" fitting in to where the interchangeable nozzles go. Use very low PSI when you do the job. You can also use the tool to blow air up into the two drains next to the transmission that drain the AC condensation reservoir that has caused the wet carpet in my 2001 several times.

preventive airbag procedures, preparing for rain event
 

I never go near airbags If I can avoid them; a friend set one off years ago, how he did it unknown, but it made a mess of his dash that he never repaired. So, I couldn't sleep last night, and looked up fuse positions for airbags & SRS (clockspring in the steering wheel):
And I looked up fuse locations for Airbag diagnostic module #44, and steering wheel clockspring/contact ring #29, from two sources (not the list in the X5...it was 3am). So, just to be "safe", I'll pull those two fuses before I pull the A-pillar panel.

It might be awhile before I can do the work: jacking up the X5 enough so I can feed trimmer string thru the drain port underneath, removing airbag fuses & A-pillar panel, un-kinking/un-plugging the suspect drain hose, and the re-assembling dead pedal and A-pillar (after testing). I'll be working in the dirt/sand/gravel/leaf debris that the X5 is parked on, and it's supposed to start raining for three days, starting in about 2 hours, so I'll probably get little done. I'll cover the sunroof with a tarp, in the meantime.

I intend to buy four 4'x8' pressure-treated 3/4" thick plywood sheets to make another work area just for the X5...I have smaller versions of the same under two other vehicles already, the plywood lasts for years (but plywood prices rose too high to do so over the summer...now that the prices are lower, I can get the sheets, soon).

to blow out clogged lines
 

I'll order some rubber tips for my airgun; I have some nylon hose and some fittings that might work for the test assembly, already. Good idea!

drains not yet OK'd, but another possible water leak diverted?
 

After leaving the tarp on for 3.5 days, I removed it and started again looking for the leak. The floormat was now completely dry, and left no trace where the leak had originated, so I hosed-down the front of the sunroof, and also the driver's window, but not the windshield (where I'm thinking the leak may actually emanate from). No further leaks.

I probably didn't direct the water straight enough downward to bypass the seal on the sunroof, but I did take off the A-pillar cover to inspect the hose. The hose was pretty straight, didn't feel like it was clogged, and the bottom end was still fully intact and inserted into the metal receptacle (part of the A-pillar), showing no stains or past leak evidence there. I couldn't tell if the water came out of the bottom of the drain, as the ground was still wet, and water was dripping pretty much everywhere, after the garden-hose-testing.

I decided not to try crawling underneath (due to a blood-clotted left arm...Dr. says not to bump/lay-on/impact it until he gives me the OK, after a few months), and using the trimmer string trick (my .155" string would probably poke a hole in the hose anyway). Even using the air gun (at reduced pressure) would've been inconclusive, from the underside, since I couldn't observe what came out the top...which raises a question.

How can I get the sunshade to move to the open position (just far enough to access the drain inlet), without making the glass open, and/or the sunroof cartridge itself cycle? I'm afraid of damage (that may already be present) from previous owners, or from just this one-time-only operation (never intend to use it again). I've removed the fuse, and would like to go full manual just to inspect the drain.

Also, the driver's door passed the leak test: Absolutely no water even entered the door, much less leaked inside. I'm 30% sure the leak was from the sunroof, or more likely (in my opinion) from the cracks/hole in the front of the windshield/body-seal interface, adjacent to the hood hinge area (actually on both sides, right & left). I used liquid electrical tape to fill the holes, thus re-directing any water to flow off the windshield and into the hood/body channel, then down towards the front.
Attachment 81121

So, unless I can safely hand-crank the sunroof sunshade, and or the glass itself open enough to clear the drains from above, then I'll just wait and see if the windshield/body seal repair will stop the leak, or not, instead of risking damage and worse leaks, from the untried, untested sunroof.

The Roadside repair kit came with the hand crank and I do believe it works both directions. You will know right away if the gears are meshing and it will work. Mine are completely hosed and with encouragement I've gotten them closed a few times when opened accidentally.

Thanks. I'll try it tomorrow. I've never had a sunroof before, but have seen many with multiple problems, that make me quite leery of operating them. Especially one 20 years old, with no knowledge of its' past history, and with the poor reliability record of BMW's sunroofs.

I was sorta hoping that the sun shield was manually operated, but I guess on a BMW that's too plebeian.

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The inner shade is manual. It won't get you to the drain though.

manual shade? it won't budge!
 

Is it really manual? I've pulled with perhaps 50 lbs force (using my good arm), with no apparent movement. It is the small sunroof (not pano).

My intent for opening the shade is to see if there's debris under the glass, and if there's any gap in the seal (none was evident viewing from the topside).

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If you have a handle like mine it's manual.

excessive application of headliner glue by a previous owner
 

Yep, you're right, the shade is manually-operated (I couldn't find any statement to that effect, until your reply). It was stuck to the front seal with headliner glue. I pulled, pried, and stretched it loose, then scraped-off the residue from the seal, and managed not to tear or tear loose the headliner material (though it does need some attention).

Also, there are rubber strips just above the cover (on both sides that feel somewhat loose), but I'm not going to pull on them, since I'm not going to use the sunroof, ever. Are they supposed to be loose?

Now, I need to find the tool to crank the sunroof open for the next step.

I think you were talking about the rubber Bellows and those are stretchy and folded to allow the sunroof to lift up


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found the tool, but not the hole
 

I found the hex tool for manual operation, but didn't locate the spot to insert the tool, yet. It was after dark, and my interior lighting just wasn't enough. The hex-hole is inside the sunglass holder, correct?

Attachment 81122

Use a flashlight to locate the hole. I think you correctly marked up the location


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used the wrench; then used the power, thinking it was jammed
 

The hole had headliner material inside it, so I had to dig it out to get the allen wrench in. Once in, I turned it a couple of turns in one direction, with no apparent movement of the glass, then three turns the other way, causing the rear of the glass to lift.

I tried turning it a little more, but the allen wrench seemed stuck, not turning easily (and I feared that I was forcing it to move in the wrong direction, or I would wallow out the hex fitting, and would never be able to use the wrench again), so I did what I said I wouldn't, and put the fuse back in and tried the controls (for the first time ever).

I tried the "reset" procedure I saw on a couple of YouTube videos, where you press the button in the center, and hold it there for 30 seconds. The glass moved back and forth a few inches, but never closed. Left with no choice, I used the buttons to open/close and got better results. I was able to open it far enough to examine the mechanism and drain holes.

I cleaned and lubricated the tracks on both sides, and the sunroof worked great after that, so I opened it again and went to work on the drain holes. I checked the rear ones with a can of compressed air, and saw bubbles in the water I had poured in the sunroof...then the water came out as it should (they weren't plugged).

The left front (suspected-to-be-plugged) didn't respond to the canned air, so I tried inserting my .155" trimmer line (first downward, but it was too stiff to go in more than an inch), then upwards from the drain exit (only two feet of line went in, before jamming). I didn't have any other flexible line to try, so I pulled out my air compressor.

I set the pressure to 30 psi, and had no luck, so I raised it to 75 psi and tried it...I saw a stream of water exit the bottom outlet, success. Poured in some more water to see it flow straight out. Great! Then, I tried the other drain by pouring some more water in, and I showed no stoppage at all, so I was good to go.

Following the successful servicing of the sunroof, I used the power to close it, and I pulled the fuse. I'm going to use 3M Clear Paint Protection Vinyl film to seal the sunroof forevermore. My HHR Panel came with that film on its' rear fenders (on the leading edge), and it has protected them now for 13 years. I expect at least half that life on the roof of the X5, but will probably replace it in 2-3. No more leaks.

I also watched water flow off the roof & windshield down to where I patched the gaps in the body seals (shown in previous photos). All the water goes into the hood channels, and none disappears into the firewall "hole" on both sides. It may have been unnecessary, but why not try everything I can to keep water out?

P.S. I had to remove my home-built "roof rack" to work on the sunroof, and to clean the sunroof and rooftop itself. Sitting under oak tress sure makes a mess of the paint, IMO. I'll need to make removal/reinstallation of the rack simpler, after I apply the protective film.

that much pressure can easily blow the hose off the drain pan connector...It's a pain to re-attach, possibly requiring the dropping of the headliner...Glad it worked out

no more wet floor:final sunroof sealing, with roof rack's help
 

I sealed the sunroof around the perimeter, starting with with 36" of film on front and back edges, then 23" on the sides (actually 23" on the driver's side, and only 20" on the right). I should've ordered a longer roll, and cut the strips before I applied them...and found out I was shorted 3".

Anyway, the 6" wide strips cover 3" of glass and 3" of roof, so every edge and corner has plenty of coverage. The shorted side still gives me full coverage as-is, so I'm not too unsatisfied (I might not have stretched it as much as I could've).

I'm letting it sit under two layers of mover's blankets, while it cures, for at least 48 hours, shielded from sun, wind, and of course oak tree debris. I expect it to be just fine in two days, and then I'll re-mount my home-built roof rack.

Another item to fabricate, for further roof top protection (first was the roof rack, second was clearing sunroof drains/sealing the sunroof) will be to modify/attach a 6'x8' reflective tarp to the rack, while sitting in the sun and subject to oak tree debris and T-storms. The rack is 48"W x 54"L (with 8" upraised front and side rails), so a 6'x8' tarp should fill the bill nicely.