Thanks for all the help guys. I just dropped my car off at BMW. The diagnostic will cost approx $150. Even though I know what's wrong with it, I just thought this might me a good gamble. It has 48.5k miles on it and I asked my SA if BMW corp. might comp the fix. I'll probably know by tomorrow morning.

Hi All,

Have the same problem with my E53 X5. The dealer did not want to know about it and said they never see it (BS in my opinion). I even brought half a ream of paper from this forum and others on how common the problem is. Anyway, brought back to my normal service guy who was with BMW for 15 years and started his own specialist BMW service centre. He said they have fixed quite a few of the X5 sunroofs. He has quoted around $900 AUD (about $3.50 USD ;)) to fix it. So my advice would be to look around before shelling out the $4000 USD quoted earlier in this thread.

PS... Love this forum. My wife already says when I get on the computer "let me guess, you are on X-outpost again"... Any cure for the addiction?

I just got the car back and there were two other x5's w/ sunroof issues at the time. The total was 4850 to repair (thank god for warranty) and took 2 days. The guys did a half a$$ job putting back all the panels correctly so i fixed those myself.

:dancing: :woot: :dancing: :woot: :dancing::woot: :dancing::woot: :dancing:

Good News! My Service Advisor calls me up yesterday afternoon and tells me my sunroof is fixed and that "BMW is not willing to let you pay for any repairs on your X5 yet. Maybe next time." Doesn't even charge me for the diagnostic. He said they would honor the warranty. In service date was July 2, 2004. Current mileage 48179.

Invoice says:
One-time goodwill repair by Kuni BMW.
Broken drive clips for front and rear glass.
Remove cassette, inspected and replaced front and rear drive kits.
Reinstalled sunroof cassette and water tested.
Found excessive water ingress. Replaced perimeter seal.
Rechecked operation of sunroof and for water ingress.

Total charge 0 = :woohoo:

Actually it cost me a gift certificate from Cheesecake Factory for the SA for all his help :thumbup:.

So you got the repairs that are now available done, and at no cost to you! That's awesome!

They know that an overly expensive repair done on a vehicle just out of warranty with low miles can drive away future business just by price shock, so they will do what they can to help you out in cases like this.

X5PDX, That is awesome!! Wish the dealer I went to was as generous!

Damn it... I jus thad this same issue pop up (no pun intended) on my '04. Way out of warranty with 80k miles. Spoke with my independent guy this AM who I trust 100% and apparently BMW won't / doesn't sell the cassette without the glass! $3k+ just for the part and then 10 or so hours to install. We're talking a third of the value of the car! I'm speechless right now.

Try to find one at a pick an pull or talk to your SA and see if they can bring something up with BMWNA. I highly doubt this route, but it is worth a shot. A lot of folks have used the BMWNA card to fix the pixel issue, some 100% and some get 50% reimbursement.

Hi Mozzie,

Where in the land of OZ are you...not Melbourne by any chance?

I've had the same problem for the past 2 years. On mine one of the slide cables that pull the tilted rear section down broke so all I did was take a thin long handled screw driver and move the slider manually when you hit the close button.

I can still open the main roof, but I can not vent the rear section any more. I didn't even look into fixing it as I'm sure it would be too ridiculously expensive to make it worth while