I have just turned my car in to my dealer yet again to fix the sunroof. In short, in three years of ownership, it has proved unnacceptably noisy, with several fixes (including new seals) only ever lasting a month or two; it has leaked (which resulted in a replacement), and now has jammed open; yet another new roof is now being fitted - the third in 3 years and 17k miles. It seems to me there is a fundamental design fault at work; either the whole in the roof is too big for the car's rigidity, or too heavy, or both. Either way I've totally lost faith that it is ever oing to be right. What a waste of ?1170, and what a poor piece of engineering from BMW.
Anyone else on this one?
Regards,
Mike

 

Mine occasionally sticks in the tilt position,never had any problems with it going fully back or closing from the fully open position and my car in knocking on 5 years old.When I've had it stick tilted it tends to be when it hasn't been used for a few weeks.

 

My new E61 has noise coming for the roof as well; can it be fixed or is it a design flaw?

My old X5 had the same type of roof but it was quiet and I never had a problem with it.

 

The sunroofs, both on the E60 and E61, are simply noisey after a couple of months. I've long accepted its (unforetunately) a compromise you need to make with the 5er, for having the extra light & fresh air via the roof.

A BMW dealer advised me that you can improve the effectiveness of the seals, if you treat them regularly with "silicon spray". It alledgidly keeps the seals soft and in turn they better close the gaps between the glass-roof and the car. (I have not tried this yet myself.) Anyone else tried this??

 

It needs a lot of maintenance; silicon spray, adjustments at the garage... but I only get an occasional "boinnng!" when I tilt it and there is little or no noise from the sun roof, i.e. more than you expect from a sun roof.

 

mine 2008 touring didn't have any problems with sunroof. opens/shuts down fine, no leaks, no excessive noise, nothing. But it is only 18k km so far.
@Mike.Allen which model year is your touring?

Also, which sillicon spray does the diller recommends to use for the seals?

 

My E61 is a 2008 its had noise since day one, have not taken it back to the dealer yet.
This the only issue with the car.

Silicon is silicon just got to a auto store.

 

I think the roof is the best feature of the car, actually.

I get a little wind noise when the shade is retracted, but when the shade is in place, it's completely quiet.

It's like having a Porsche Targa as a wagon!

 

Well, not exactly. We have an older 911 and there's now way it can keep up with our 535xit!

 

so does this mean you have applied the silicon spray yourself? If so, how do you do it; just spray on the rubber seals and wipe the excess away from the surrounding parts ?