August 22, 2006. Greenville SC. BMW Plant. "Hey Dinkus, thanks for being working so hard for the last six years connecting the right rear drain hose from the sunroof." Dinkus responds back to supervisor, " .......ummm, shit. You mean to tell me that's what you wanted me to do this whole time?" Musta not have read the TPS reports........

A disconnected hose was my same problem. Right rear.

never got around to testing the drains but I think I'll have to get on that this week. it rained again last week and the other day I thought to pull up the floor mat and it was wet under there again.

Do I have to drop the headliner to get at the drain if that is the issue?

I did look down in my wheel well and it is dry in there. could water also be collecting under the rear seat or inside the trim panel by the seat?

I'd like to just pull everything out all at once and confirm it all and then pour water around with everything out so I can see once and for all.

not only that but I'd like to pull up the carpet in that area so the jute underneath can air out properly if its wet as well.

The A pillar liners have to come out. Pull that air bag plastic tab out. Then there's a torx screw I believe right under there. Then you just pull the liner off and you can see the drain hose. usually they are made out of 2 pieces - one from the sunroof coming down, tied to the other that goes down. That connection gets loose and the water will start pooling inside the cabin. 5 minutes fix.

ok, so I just decided to pop off the lower carpet trim panel. the carpet is wet but the carpet under the trim panel itself wasn't wet.

popped up the lower rear seat so I could pull the carpet up and get under it. wow, that's some nasty stuff under there. lots of human hair and stale goldfish lol! that aside, found out these cars don't have jute underneath them...foam padding instead. interesting. there was dampness on the foam padding but the floor itself was dry even under the plastic wiring panels so I don't think its a sunroof drain.

Going to pull off the door panel and look at the vapor barrier. I'm assuming what you guys mean by vapor barrier is the plastic lining on the inside of the door that is usually glued in place?

Vapor barrier is black foam, kinda like a soft shell jacket, and the problem the X5's and 5 series have is the black mastic sealant used to attach the vapor barrier to the door panel sometimes wasn't adhered to either the door or the vapor barrier very well.
You can sometimes see water stains on the door just under the door panel. I'd still pull off the door panel to make sure though.
There's probably a thread on the forum about this repair. As long as the vapor barrier doesn't have any tears in it, you can typically just use a heat gun (or hair dryer) to heat up the mastic sealant so it is sticky/gooey and reattach the vapor barrier.

Vapor barrier is black foam, kinda like a soft shell jacket, and the problem the X5's and 5 series have is the black mastic sealant used to attach the vapor barrier to the door panel sometimes wasn't adhered to either the door or the vapor barrier very well.
You can sometimes see water stains on the door just under the door panel. I'd still pull off the door panel to make sure though.
There's probably a thread on the forum about this repair. As long as the vapor barrier doesn't have any tears in it, you can typically just use a heat gun (or hair dryer) to heat up the mastic sealant so it is sticky/gooey and reattach the vapor barrier.

ok, finally had some time (ugh life gets hectic!) and the other week I pulled off the right rear door panel. the vapor barrier was intact along the middle and lower area but not connected at the top. only thing I can think is that someone repaired a broken door handle in the area and then just simply didnt re-affix the vapor barrier. I re-glued it along the top and completely checked the rest of the barrier and all is good.

then it rained a couple days and the floorboard was wet. I'm ready to get in and check the sunroof drain but need to know what all to remove so I can check it completely along its path.

I assume I need to pull out the upper/lower rear seat and remove the c-pillar trim panels and that should give me access to the drain line??

During the heavy rains/flooding we had in Denver late last Summer my car sat outside and when I went to drive it after the rain had stopped found turn signals, radio, nav, Bluetooth etc. not functioning. I found the left rear well that contains electronics full of water. I also found the spare tire well starting to fill with water and the left rear carpet damp. I got all water drained and dried up, removed all affected electronics (radio tuner, amp and Bluetooth ULF), fully disassembled and dried them out. I then started going through every possible point of entry for the water and ultimately found left rear sunroof drain tube loose in the headliner and the right one almost ready to become disconnected. I ended up dropping the headliner at the rear to fully access and found that the tubes had actually shrunk and pulled loose from the attached/glued rubber connector. I purchased and installed 2 new drain tubes, reassembled everything and reinstalled all electronics. I was happy to see that all lighting was now functional, nav worked properly, radio worked properly. Unfortunately the Bluetooth ULF was not saved and had to purchase a new one (thankfully found someone selling a 13th gen ULF on one of the BMW forums). In thinking back I had noticed some dampness on the rear carpet one time prior but dried out and thought it may have been due to a window slightly down when washing the car; I think it was actually the beginning of this problem and wish I would have caught it early on......

so did you just pull the pillar trims and upper trims to drop the headliner down?

were there any other sunroof drain attachment points inside the car or just the ones in that area and then just a long hose down and out of the car?

The sunroof drains are accessible without removing anything.

To check if they are clogged pour water in the rail and it should exit at the bottom of the door. You can run weed whacker line though the tubes on either side of the sunroof rails to clear a clog. Often the clog is debris covering the entrance so running anything down the tube will not be necessary. As I recall the drains are at the rear of the channel and to gain access the sunroof needs to be in the closed position with the rear of the sunroof elevated.