Sunshade under the sunroof problem
 

My granddaughter pressed up on the rear corner of the retractable sunshade that hides the sunroof. Then a small white 1" long plastic piece fell out and now the 2 part sunshade is separated in the middle. Retractable sunshade now has difficulty opening and closing along with some awful noises. Any ideas how to get to the hidden side of the sunshade without causing more damage? TIA!

unfortunately, i believe you need to remove the entire headliner to access the sunshade. the two pieces on mine (front and rear) are somehow separated (the piece connecting the two came apart i think). thankfully, the front one still works with no issues but the back one is stuck hidden in the rear of the headliner. i have only found a few documents that detail the pieces in the headliner and how they are assembled in order to fix it again. i ended up getting the sunroof tinted extremely dark and now leave the sunshade open most of the time.

thanks, unfortunately I've come to the same conclusion re removing the headliner too. You have links or sources to get to those documents that detail the parts to assemble?

this is what i have. realoem.com is an ok reference also.

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BostonJon, thanks! Looks like some helpful info in there. I'm going to have to study/ponder in depth. I found realeom barely useful due to insufficient detail. Did I miss something there?

no, you didnt miss anything. i should have been more specific. realoem is good if you need to track down a specific part number that you need to order.

Well. apparently the reason realoem has insufficient detail is because the dealer doesn't have any more details either. Went to the dealer and their parts diagram is the same as realoem. Was hoping for some special dealer only source of info.

So my next idea is to remove the sunroof glass from the topside and then have access to the sunshade mechanism from the top and thereby avoiding having to remove the entire cartridge from inside the car. Did a quick search and just saw a youtube video on removing the glass on a E70 X5. That looks relatively simple. Since the X5 panoramic mechanism is almost the same as our E61's, this should work? Any comments or feedback before I dig into my sunroof?

good luck and please take a lot of picture - not only for our benefit, but for reassembly.

i hope i'm wrong, but i dont think you are going to be able to access the mechanism from the top with the glass removed. based on how the mechanism works, i think you need to access the entire sunroof cartridge in order to work on the sunshade. perhaps based on your specific issue you might have more luck, but with my sunshade partially stuck retracted into the headliner, i dont see how i would be able to access it without removing the headliner.

on ebay from time to time there are auctions for the entire cartridge. perhaps if there is one near you, you could go take a look at it and see how it is all put together.

I'm really hoping you're wrong. The one difference in my situation is my front and rear sunshades are still connected tenuously. My granddaughter pushed up on the right side so the 2 panels are dislocated on the right side so there's a gap there but the still connected left side is keeping the 2 pieces together when sliding back and forth. So my panels are right there under the glass.

Now in your situation, I think removing the glass could work. By removing the glass or both front and rear glass, you'll have a lot more room to peer into the back of the cartridge and much more angle of attack room to maneuver eyeballs and tools. Anyway, that's the way it looks to me as a pseudo-engineer. Seems to me, it can't possibly be that deep. Well actually, I guess it's going to be as deep as the length of the front panel. Hmmm, with a hook and long needle-nose plier, you could be in luck.

OK, I'm planning to take a crack at it this weekend. Definitely will document the operation with a bunch of pictures.

Oh yeah, great idea re eBay part sale. Thanks!

good luck! please do take a bunch of pictures of how the thing is assembled and installed.