[Pete.J]

Earlier on yesterday I was opening my sunroof and the motor sounded like it was facing a bit of resistance and struggling a bit to open the sunroof. I didn't think much of it. Until I got home late at night and parked my car, as I was closing the sunroof then this happened.

The sunroof glass panel closed fine without issues, it's when I pulled the shade panel to close it I felt some resistance and some powder fell on my head and then I looked up and that's how it looked like



Initially I thought it's an easy fix, I'll just take of the shade panel thingo off and take it to an upholstery shop to get it fixed by cleaning it and sticking the trim back on or may be buy another one from the wreckers. I was up till 3am last night trying to remove the shade panel off, absolutely couldn't figure it out. I removed the actual sunroof glass in 5 mins but the sliding shade panel is impossible to figure out. Eventually, I re-aligned the sunroof glass panel and installed everything back in its place and left it.

I did a search everywhere online and it seems that no one knows how to take these off.

Solutions:

Should I buy the part from the wreckers or buy it new and take it to a BMW specialist for installation? like may be Southern BM or any others

OR

Should I buy the part from the wreckers or buy it new and take it to a sunroof repairer specialist? Or may be just drop the car their and let them deal with the whole job?

OR

Should I take my car to a car upholstery shop and get them to deal with the job from A-Z? I am just not comfortable leaving the car in a shop that doesn't specifically deal with BMW sunroofs as they're pretty complicated . I don't want any broken or bent clips... etc. I want a clean job done on the car


Lastly, if anyone here has taken this off before and can help me out, I'll be very grateful instead of having to take a day off and take the car somewhere to get it fixed.


These are a few links for threads of people who tried to take it off and ended up breaking it or just totally gave up on the job.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=560579

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513258

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=939920

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=791327

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1106155

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1098896

[Pete.J]

Bump

Anyone?

Any recommended sunroof repairers with decent prices and clean work near inner Melbourne.. i.e. Kew, Hawthorn, Camberwell area?

^ Willing to drive out further for good prices and clean work if there's any!

[335i-boy]

Try taking it to a panel beater that does a lot of BMW's. They take trims, hood linings and sunroofs out all the time. They will be able to fix it for sure. It's only a small part of an overall repair for them. Should be cheaper than taking to a dealer as well.

As you already know, don't take it to someone who isn't experienced even if they say they can do it. You will be paying them to figure out how to replace it and end up taking 5 times as long. All at your cost. Let us know how you go.

[Scotty89]

I removed the sunroof on my e46, and it was just a few allen keys. I had to tilt the glass, then remove it from the top and then take the cover panel out.

Where in Melbourne are you?

[totti84]

Generally on most cars , you have to remove the entire sunroof assembly to remove the blind/shade, which isn't exactly a fun job, nor cheap as the entire roof lining has to be removed which can be time/labour consuming as ideally 2 technicians are required to do a proper job without damaging your interior.

IF you are handy, remove the roof lining yourself, then determine whether you are keen on removing the sunroof assembly from there.

Good luck!

[Scotty89]

I only had to remove the glass panel in the e46. I can't imagine they've reinvented the wheel for the e90.

[Pete.J]

Originally Posted by Scotty89

I removed the sunroof on my e46, and it was just a few allen keys. I had to tilt the glass, then remove it from the top and then take the cover panel out.

Where in Melbourne are you?

I watched couple of YouTube DIY videos about the removal of the sunroof shade panel on an E46, and unfortunately the E90 is a different design. There's absolutely no DIY guides anywhere on the internet explaining how to take the the sunroof shade panel on an E9X series. I live in Kew (close to the Hawthorn, Camberwell, Balwyn, Richmond area... etc.)

On Thursday last week I called up more than 10 European wreckers in Melbourne trying to hunt down a second hand sunroof shade panel for my car and was told by all of them that they won't sell it separately! They only sell it as a package with the whole sunroof kit which will set me between $440 - $700 for the whole kit (quoted price range from different wreckers).

I called up BMW and they told me the part will cost me $275 and it has to be ordered from Germany and will take about 3 weeks to get to Melbourne

After 2 hours of frustration, I got my mate to call one of the wreckers that I called earlier and ask for the part again hoping he'll have better luck. Luckily a different person picked up this time and he said $175 for the sunroof shade panel by itself, 30 minutes later I was there at the wreckers with only $140 cash in my pocket and after a lot of haggling I got the part for $140 cash. It's definitely still pricey for a piece of plastic covered in a cloth trim, but it's still better than paying $275 at Doncaster BMW.


Overall the part is very clean except for a few dirty fingers marks which I haven't decided how to clean yet, I don't want to wet it too much with cleaning products or use strong rubbing force coz it might weaken the glue holding the trim on (any ideas?).



I decided I am gonna take a shot at removing the old sunroof shade panel by myself since I done't care if it breaks coz I got a replacement part. It was the most frustrating couple of hours ever I ended up breaking one of the rear clips (it's held by four clips). One of the two front clips has been compressed irreversibly. After this bad experience with removal of the old part, I decided I better get the new sunroof shade panel professionally installed by someone that knows better.


old vs new

Exactly same part number and everything



Clips on old Sunroof shade panel after removal

Rear clip (totally broken)



Front clip



Clips on new sunroof shade panel

Rear clip



Front clip

[Pete.J]

Originally Posted by 335i-boy

Try taking it to a panel beater that does a lot of BMW's. They take trims, hood linings and sunroofs out all the time. They will be able to fix it for sure. It's only a small part of an overall repair for them. Should be cheaper than taking to a dealer as well.

As you already know, don't take it to someone who isn't experienced even if they say they can do it. You will be paying them to figure out how to replace it and end up taking 5 times as long. All at your cost. Let us know how you go.

I found this list of approved BMW Australia body shops, might shoot them an email this week with photos and see how much they'll charge for the job



I am also waiting on a pm from a member of E90post from US who was able to take it off to change his headliner colour, he said it was a massive pain in the ass to take the sunroof shade panel off and install back... WHY YOU OVER-COMPLICATE THINGS BMW??

I might also call the wreckers I got the part from and see how much they'll charge to install. They actually did a very clean job taking it off the donor car, absolutely no scratches or broken clips or any signs of use of force. When I got there to buy the part I had to wait around for 20 mins until they remove the part from the donor car, so it doesn't seem like a big job for them.

The way I took off the old part off my car was by compressing these little tabs and pushing the clips inside to free up enough space to get it out of the rails.. But that doesn't seem like the right technique coz I ended up breaking it

[PerthBMW]

I feel your pain and sorry for the problems you have had to go through.

For what it is worth, your write up and pics are fantastic and I'm very interested to know how you go.

Best of luck and my fingers are crossed for you

[Socket]

+1
Great pics... sorry to hear about the struggles to get a new part... but nice of you to create a DIY to share with the masses

[335i-boy]

Pitos!! You get 10 out of 10 for perseverance mate. I'm glad you got it out in the end. It looks like a real bitch of a job. I agree with you.. Get someone who knows the ins and outs of the job install it for you.

Just think how good it's going to look when it's all in. Make sure you keep us posted.