Hello Mate,

Good idea about the Group, just joined the club, due to same issue.
Will share my experience and problem.

Thanks,

 

So any further news?

Seems if we drill drain holes in the trunk, remove the drain tube ends by the rear wheels and ensure they are clear, and replace the sunroof rubber stripping with a new bmw one we should be fine?

Jesus I'm flapping now having put a deposit on one of these stupid cars with that damd roof!
The dealer I got it from said it is common and a new sunroof seal will fix it, failing that if it does not
I can get a refund, was not really after a gut of worry like this, so hope the above things sort it out for a while and I can enjoy it.

 

I would think if you have a new sunroof seal, which I'm pretty sure most have replaced because of excessive wind noise, not water coming in (as the seal is meant to be porous and let water thru a bit, which is how even with the roof closed, water gets in - it's not because of a bad seal), and your rear drains are clear and you've pulled off the end caps, you should be good to go. Search for those threads.

Just check all 4 drains are free, when you pour water in the outer sunroof cassettes. If you read the threads, or search for my posts, it'll tell you where the drains exit and how to test them and clear them. Do that once in a while, depending how much rain you get where you are.

Don't think there's more to this issue. Good luck with the car purchase!

 

Thanks that's reassuring to know :-)

 

Looking for some help on a leaking sunroof on a 2006 530x with the panoramic roof. I had this same issue 2 yrs ago & brought the car to the dealership & they supposedly fixed it but was told that it is my responsibility to check for these valves that can barely be seen. I assumed this was just a freak incident.


Three days ago while on vacation we had a terrible rainstorm & the next day all the warning lights came on & we eventually figured out the sunroof was leaking again. We found an inch of standing water in the compartment by the module in the rear of the car on the driver's side.


I have never had to worry about water before with previous cars (SAAB, Chevy, Chysler, etc) & BMW is not special enough to start now. The car is currently with the local BMW dealer.


The first dealership told me today that it is not their responsibility on the leaking roof.


Has anyone been successful with legal recourse against BMW as this is just unacceptable for a car owner to worry about their car leaking & then paying $3k+ to fix their issue?


Thx for the help.

 

Legal recourse against the manufacturer on an 8 year old car???

It's not the sunroof that's leaking. The seal is supposed to leak. That's why there are drain gutters all around the sunroof, with 4 drain holes. The problem is most likely that your rear drain tubes are plugged, and the water is backing up into the wheel well with the electronic modules unfortunately.

It's easy to maintain them. To minimize them plugging up, you can pull off the end caps on the tubes. Do some searching on the forums. If your car is parked outside all the time, or under trees that drop lots of stuff, then you need to be more vigilant about it obviously.

If the problem's really bad, some have relocated their modules out of the spare wheel well also and there's even a BMW tech bulletin on that.

 

Hi,


I've only had my car three weeks (2005 535d Touring) and noticed the RH tray had an inch of water in it after the last heavy rain. The LH tray had about half an inch. My car has a panoramic sunroof which I noticed was a bit noisy when the inner curtain was slid back.


Taking advice found on this brilliant forum, I pulled the ends off my rear sunroof drain tubes and bought a new seal (£23) from the stealers and fitted it. Now, no more leaks and no more wind noise! Brilliant.


Just to add that I removed the spare wheel and then the piece of shaped pressed felt to check how much damage had been caused to my electrics. I was surprised to find two things: first, there appeared to be a thin circular polystyrene lid which, on removal, exposed all the electronic wiring and boxes that were sitting in another piece of circular shaped polystyrene and putting them a good few inches above the boot floor. I imagined from all the posts on here that the electronic boxes were all fixed directly to the metal floor of the boot well. This seemed to give an extra degree of protection from water damage as a lot of water would have to substantially flood the wheel well in order to rise above the level where the electronics were sat in their polystyrene block.


Second, I only found an eggcup full of water present at the absolute bottom of the wheel well which looks as if had been there for ages as it was dirty and there was a lot of debris, dust, small stones, etc, in the boot well too.


Anyway, I think I've managed to solve my issues and have escaped without any expensive water damaged.


Paul

 

I have the same problem. Warning light: transmission, air bag, engine malfunction, Rear suspension dropped. Dealership quote me $9000 minimum to get it fix. I end up bring it to a friend of mine, who work for BMW and change 6 modules and now its fixed. Warranty won't cover it cuz they said it's the drain is not clear......I end up spend $2400 in parts, 10% over cost and $2200 labour, Cash deal.....now one of my turbo is not working properly and it is a 50/50 chance to replace it. hopefully I can get a new turbo. $_$

 

Wow, sorry to hear of all that stuff going bad... Our cars should almost have a sticker on them warning of what can happen when not doing that maintenance.

For your turbos, I assume you know that BMW NA has agreed to extend, to a total of 8 years or 82,000 miles, whichever comes first, the emissions warranties covering the Settlement Class Members’ vehicles for any failure of a turbocharger caused by a defect in a turbocharger wastegate.

BMW 335i (N54) turbo warranty extended for wastegate issues to 8yrs/82k miles