casualvic

Well, I have been driving for the past weeks and when I got in my car I noticed an irritating smell. I would ndescribe it as 10% mold and the other percent I couldnt figure out! well, today I looked all around and to my surprise, my rear passenger area ( behind the passanger seat) the little carpet mat was soaked!!!! So I started thinking...wtf??? how did it get there, since Im the only driver of that car. So the only thing I can think of is a couple of weeks ago my inlaws came over and someone droped a water bottle and never told me. But man!!!! there was allot!! I used a regular sized towel and it soaked allot!! here is the question worrying me. Lets pretend that my inlaws had nothing to do with it, can it be phisicaly possible to have some kind of leak or crack that lets water into that only little area???? its been raining in my area, KS. Also is there a good (proper) way to clean these moldy smell. thanks group

gildagjg

You have a water leak in either your sunroof or the drains are clogged. Look under my log in gildagjg i had the same problem and ended up selling my car b/c after having it fixed it came back again. Its a common problem for the e60 so I have been told by bmw and numerous service reps at bmw. Bmw will fix it but if they find out the drains are clogged tehy wont fix that under warrantee since cleaning them is the sole responsibilty of the owner. Good luck and check out my post there are alot pertaining to this problem.

Jil

turboawd

and how would one go about cleaning the drains?

if you have an older e60, i'd go ahead and change your sunroof seal. it's cheap, and will make a difference.

CWS530

Don't kid yourself, most everyone's inlaws stink.

casualvic

Don't kid yourself, most everyone's inlaws stink.
[/quote]

lol!!!!true

gildagjg

open the sunroof there are drain holes on the front two corners, under your hood on both corners by your windshield there are grills that can fill with leaves. I would shoot compressed air at bmw suggestion everytime i would clean my car which was every saturday.Just use your judgement on the air pressure that you dont blow out the line. Any leaves or muck would come out behind your front rims on both sides and in front of your back tires on both sides. If the sunroof is the problem the water which in most cases will end up with the water build up in the back right passenger flooring. b/c it would drain from the sunroof down the right side pillar into the floor. check the roof liner see if there are water stains.

Keep in mind that most of bmw electronics are on the floor so if you have water pick the rug up and pull the plugs so it drains out fast you dont want to burn them out.be care with the air bag on the floor where your feet go on the passenger side, you dont want to get that wet.I had about 2 inched on my floor I removed my carpet and everything / anything that was on the floor to get in there and really dry it out before it started to effect the idrive which is not covered under warranttee.

My car was an 06 it was in the shop for a few weeks in 09 for this problem my sunroof was replaced and all the seals. this June i noticed the roof liner was getting some stains on it and when it rained condensation in the inside was occurring which is a sure problem of water getting in the car.

This is a common problem with the e60 body style I've discussed it through and through with bmw and they all confirmed that it is a common problem BUT not enough people come forward to make a valid recall. I know the manager and service manager very well they both had the same car as me and sold once there water issue came up. That was a sure sign to me its time to let my car go even though I loved it and it was a beautiful car i didnt want to have to go through the water issue again since my car isnt garaged and everytime it would rain hard i would freak out. It shouldn't be that way on our type of car so when the offer came up for me to trade my car in I jumped on it.

Good luck with your outcome..

Jil

turboawd

good info

v_therussian

I thought I read somewhere that BMW says that the drains are NOT customer-serviceable. Meaning, there's no way for us to clean them ourselves and almost no way to know when they are clogged. Which would mean that BMW has to cover this issue IMHO.


Also, the leak could be from a number of different things - damaged door sill, underbody leaks, could be many things - so there's some eliminating involved with zeroing in on the actual cause.

Lastly, I've had some water get into the car and damage the transfer case module last winter, while the car was at a body shop (some a-hole left the front pass window very slightly cracked open right before a huge snowstorm, while the car was parked at the shop's lot outside ) - insurance covered the repairs. So worst case, you can always count on your comprehensive coverage.

Good Luck! And please keep us posted on the cause and solution of your issue.

casualvic

Well, Im very concerned now and will monitor everything that goes on from now on. It looks like its going to start getting wet, so Im going to keep a close eye. As far as the roof, it has now signs of water stains.

casualvic

I am going to call my local bmw dealer. But before I do that Jil, what is the key phrases I must use when calling. I guess so I can pinpoint the problem and they know what Im talking about. Also, My 530 xi is a 07 with 55k miles purchased from non bmw, but I purchased the extended warranty (non bmw)will the dealer take that?