Chazshier

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself as I have just become an E61 530i owner. I will attached a picture of the car once I have cleaned it and it looks half decent. Currently it's missing some trim, a fog lamp etc, so once it's in good shape (a week or two) I will share a picture.

On to business. Thank you to all the helpful threads, they have been invaluable to a new owner like me.

I was inspecting my boot and almost shit myself when i saw about 1cm of water in the RH side covered boot tray. A long night googling and i realised this is a common theme. I mopped up all the water, made sure it hadn't gotten any further down (it hadn't really) and then went to pop off the ends of the rear drain hoses, in line with some excellent guidance on here. I got loads of crud and water out of the ends of the hoses and water runs freely through them now. I tested it by pouring some water through the sunroof channels and saw it merrily slosh behind the rear wheel. Brilliant. I then looked inside the boot however and saw it still dripping quickly into the rear RH tray! Bugger. After pulling all the trim on the B-pillar out and pulling part of the headlining down I could see that half the water ran nicely through the hose, but some water seemed to be running along the inside of the headlining, dripping down the B-pillar and then down into the boot side tray. I attach a picture where i had pushed my camera in between the headlining and the roof, where i was facing forwards looking towards the front of the car if you like. The window on the right is the RH passenger window. You can see the hose is dry and the jubilee in tact; that is not leaking. However you will see this sort of metal frame that curves round to the left with the water dripping off it. That looks like a pipe but it's not, it's some sort of frame. Water appears to be running over that. Please can someone share some insight as to what's causing this and how to solve it. It's winter in the UK and lots of rain is coming. I would rather avoid a huge repair bill and try to tackle most things myself.

Many thanks

Chazshier

For clarity, this car has the panoramic sunroof, hence my issues......

zenocchio

the sunroof has two channels, one doesn't connect to the drain, and water will follow the headliner down to the tray.

Chazshier

Oh. Really? So when I poured water through the channels/gulleys to test my unclogging, was I pouring it too aggressively, down a channel it would never flow down? I'm confused. BMW cannot have intended for water to flow directly on the headlining....

MysticRob

Yeah, just to clarify for anyone else reading this, that portion with the water droplet on it is part of the sunroof motor that I believe closes the cloth cover. It is certainly for the motorized mechanism of the sunroof.
That said, to test for proper rain run off, you need to pour water into the outer channel (closest to the outside of the car), NOT the inner channel, as you look down at the sunroof from above. I mistakenly did the same thing of pouring water down the inner channel and it ran right down the headliner and into the rear of my newly acquired wagon. That outer channel is the correct one, and the sunroof drain rails above and part of the mechanism all channel water to that outer one.
I also had a loose driver side hose, so I used some gasket maker inside that hose where it attaches to the nipple, whereas you used a hose clamp. Either way will work I suppose.

DaHose

My E61 had clogged drain issues due to those funky end caps. I pulled them off, but was still getting some water in the battery area. Turned out the tail light gasket needed replacing. I put on a new gasket, and the problem was solved.

Jose