[king_khan]

Hello,

It seems like I have had the worst luck with this new to me E91.

The day after I bought it, the starter went on it. I had to replace that on my driveway with the cold/snow and it wasn't fun to say the least. After I replaced the starter, all was well until the first snowfall/rain.

After that I noticed that there was water pooling in my passenger and rear foot wells. I checked under the hood and noticed that there were a bunch of leaves by the cowl which had slipped under the grate on the passenger side. At this point I thought the water was coming in from the HVAC system since the drain on the passenger side was clogged. The A-piller and headliner were dry.

I was able to get the car into my garage and I spent a few days with the carpets pulled up and a leaf blower to dry everything out. After cleaning out the drain in the cowl, I thought all was well.

Unfortunately, the passenger foot well was wet once again after another snowfall. This time I wanted to check everything as drying out the carpets in -10+C weather here in Southern Ontario isn't fun.

With the car in the garage, I decided to test the sunroof drains to rule them out. I poured water in the sunroof track at the front and everything seems to be draining fine. The leak itself was coming from a gap in the passenger door vapour barrier. The water in the foot well area is now frozen which left a trail that showed where the water was coming from.

The issue I am now having is that the sunroof isn't closing. From the halfway open position, it would get close to closing and then go back to its previous position. After reading up on it, it was likely due to the sunroof needing an initialization (probably due to me disconnecting the battery when removing the passenger seat to dry the carpets). At this point I do not have the sunroof error message on my dash.

I held down the sunroof button to relearn the positions, but when the roof is almost in the complete open position, it seems to get "stuck" and the initialization stops. I now have the sunroof error in my dash, and the roof itself is still open. The control for closing no longer works, and the open control only moves the glass back for a sec before I hear a sort of crunch and the roof stops. It sounds like the roof is getting stuck on something which is preventing it from opening fully.

I'm wondering if there was any water that possibly froze in the tracks from when I was testing the drains, or if there is anything obvious I can check.

Tomorrow if I get some time, I will try the manual closing of the roof so that I can at least take the car outside.

I just seems like it will never end with this car.

[StradaRedlands]

My first guess is ice, but it is just a guess...

[king_khan]

I'm thinking ice as well and wanted to pour some hot water in the tracks.

The issue is that it's still -15C here and I don't want to further exacerbate the issue. We might finally get a couple days above freezing next week which will hopefully help.

For now I'm going to try and closing the sun roof manually.

As per typical BMWs, the tool kit is MIA in this car. Thankfully from what I'm reading, it is a standard hex drive to close the sun roof which I should have. I would like to replace the toolkit, but is the dealer the only option?

[Mike K]

Sorry for your woes. Here's links for the sunroof crank tool. It's not very pricey:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226036271711

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Tools/BM...r-Sunroof.html

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Mike K

Sorry for your woes. Here's links for the sunroof crank tool. It's not very pricey:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226036271711

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Tools/BM...r-Sunroof.html

You can use a 4 or 5mm (forget which, think 4) hex key as well if you can't wait for the actual tool to be delivered.

[king_khan]

Originally Posted by Mike K

Sorry for your woes. Here's links for the sunroof crank tool. It's not very pricey:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226036271711

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Tools/BM...r-Sunroof.html

Thanks, I'll take a look. I'll have to get a hold of the other missing tools. The only one that was included with the car was the tow hook. What does a full toolkit include?

****EDIT****

I just found this thread which has a picture of what is included:
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=238198

Looks like the LCI cars actually never came with the sunroof tool or the wrench. So in reality, I'm actually just missing the screw driver, but I still want to complete the toolkit. Otherwise the empty spaces make it look like I'm missing parts.

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

You can use a 4 or 5mm (forget which, think 4) hex key as well if you can't wait for the actual tool to be delivered.

This is what I plan to do for now.

[Mike K]

My kit has a double ended screwdriver, the crank (that I bought after I bought my e91, a 10mm & 13mm combo wrench, the tow hook (or engine lift) and a spot for a locking lugnut adapter socket.

I also carry a Harbor Freight scissors jack, a breaker bar, an Ancel BM700 scanner, a mini compressor, a cheapy tire repair kit, a jumper pack (under the passenger seat) and assorted other sockets and e-torx stuff in the under cargo areas in the trunk.

I only carry my full size spare on long trips. Here's a generic web image, mine's slightly different.

[king_khan]

Well I can't seem to catch a break. I tried to manually close the roof today and the hex "bolt" to manually move the glass is completely stripped. I thought I had the wrong size of hex bit and tried a few before taking a closer look.



So one of the previous owners also had issues with the sunroof. I see red paint markings on the sunroof cassette and the motor which tells me they might be replacements from a junkyard.

I have to source another motor just so I can close the roof manually until I can investigate further in the spring/summer. This one seems to be working, but the fact that I can't close the roof manually makes me want to replace it.

Are there any caveats with finding a replacement?

[wagon_enjoyer]

Originally Posted by king_khan

Well I can't seem to catch a break. I tried to manually close the roof today and the hex "bolt" to manually move the glass is completely stripped. I thought I had the wrong size of hex bit and tried a few before taking a closer look.

Attachment 3671305

So one of the previous owners also had issues with the sunroof. I see red paint markings on the sunroof cassette and the motor which tells me they might be replacements from a junkyard.

I have to source another motor just so I can close the roof manually until I can investigate further in the spring/summer. This one seems to be working, but the fact that I can't close the roof manually makes me want to replace it.

Are there any caveats with finding a replacement?

Came across this thread as I am having an identical issue (in the midst of freezing Ohio winter temps...), what did you end up doing? I have a stripped hex bolt on the motor, there is also something causing the system to not complete the close motion from the tilt position. It tries to return to closed position and then kind of slows and moves back to slightly open. Trying the reset procedure does not do anything.

I have a backup motor that isn't stripped so I can at least get it closed, but I'm not sure if I should attempt pressing the button with the other motor attached, worried it might try to brute force whatever the issue is that's causing the weird movement and dash error msg.

Interested to hear how the rest of your experience went. I really just want my shade panel to move, I don't even care much about the glass at this point

[Waffels]

Hello, came to this page with the same kind of problem, my e91’s sunroof doesn’t want to fully close its back glass from the tilted position, makes the same cracking noise every time i try the recalibration and doesn’t solve anything. I’ve read online that sometimes it’s caused by a voltage problem or if the battery was recently disconnected or replaced, wich on mine it was. I think it needs an overall new motor and then to be recalibrated. At this point i only want to be able to use the shade only and to get rid of the error in my dash.

[boringcarenthusiast]

Originally Posted by Waffels

Hello, came to this page with the same kind of problem, my e91’s sunroof doesn’t want to fully close its back glass from the tilted position, makes the same cracking noise every time i try the recalibration and doesn’t solve anything. I’ve read online that sometimes it’s caused by a voltage problem or if the battery was recently disconnected or replaced, wich on mine it was. I think it needs an overall new motor and then to be recalibrated. At this point i only want to be able to use the shade only and to get rid of the error in my dash.

I’ve read that the plastic arms that hold up the rear glass to vent are a common failure point on these pano roofs. IIRC people “bypass” this by breaking the arms so it lays flat, but of course you lose vent functionality in the rear glass. I’ll try to see if I can find the forum posts that referred to this and put it here. (Edit: this post sort of describes how to shut the rear part manually, last comments)

I had issues with my E91’s pano roof and I ended up replacing the whole thing with a junkyard unit. I believe the X3 pano roof should plug and play if you can’t find an E91 locally.