Answers to Common Sunroof Problems

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

ok heres a question of mine.. my little brother was standing on the car a while ago.my pops let him. then he just droped and landed on a corner of the sunroof.. since then the switch works. but its like the motor is not grabing and it will not go up or down

[greyis89]

my crank sunroof works alright but the roller black piece is missing, how do i remove one from another car? i have a parts car and i cant get it off to swap it. i could even replace the whole crank peice if i knew how to remove it. also the lever doesnt click back up and hold after to open or close the sunroof, not a big deal to have it hanging, but id like it to tuck up like its supposed to. is this an easy fix? thanks - phil.

[GOOBER]

Whenever I close my door, the sunroof pops up a little bit. Is there anything I can do to fix that?

Adjustment. Read post #1

[Av8r]

Whenever I close my door, the sunroof pops up a little bit. Is there anything I can do to fix that?

[GOOBER]

Heres one for you

The sunroof motor has 3 stops right?
mine will stop but if i hit the button again it keeps going and it doesnt seem to be able to keep the timing right anymore. do i need a new motor?

To be honest with you I have no idea man, I'm not really a sunroof guru I have just taken my own crank sunroof apart a million times. I suggest posting the question in a new thread, I'm sure others have had the same issue.

[NC325iC]

Heres one for you

The sunroof motor has 3 stops right?
mine will stop but if i hit the button again it keeps going and it doesnt seem to be able to keep the timing right anymore. do i need a new motor?

[NC325iC]

I need to remove #9 in the first diagram to do my headliner, how do i do that?

[NC325iC]

sunroof adjustments:

http://e30.bmwdiy.info/sunroof-adjust/index.html

[sector6]

Thanks for the reply GOOBER. I'll see if I can hit up japandrew for some tips. See the problem is the glue has separated from the rusty metal frame, but not the glass. It may come off of the glass without trouble (who knows), but the glass is painted black where the glue is adhered, so you don't see the glue from the outside when looking at it (that's how they are from the factory). And that is what I'm afraid of bitching up, so a razor blade I think is out of the question on that old painted surface. I'm also a bit leery of using any sort of solvents to remove the glue, who knows what will happen to that 20yr old painted surface. I'd want to kill myself if I screwed it up at all.;)
Thanks again for the help.

[GOOBER]

I have the glass sunroof on my 89'. It leaks bad (light or heavy rain), needs a new gasket for starters (haven't checked the drains yet; probably clogged), but also, the glass panel is separating from the metal frame. Glue looks old and dried out and the whole assembly flexes when moving to the "seated" posision. Any suggestions on properly restoring this? I'd like to take all the old glue off the glass and restore the rusty metal frame. I'm not sure how to go about removing the old glue without damaging the glass in ANY WAY. I know they are very rare and I really don't want to do ANY damage to it. Anyone have suggestions on removing the glue without damaging the glass?

I do a search on the moonroof as I'm not too familiar with them. You should definately do a lot of research to see what others have done because I can't imagine that these kind of problems related to moonroofs are uncommon. There's a project thread on e30tech started by japandrew that has a picture detailed installation of a moonroof that might help you.

When it comes to removing the glue, that shouldn't be too difficult as it seems to have already began to break down on a molecular level. Different kinds things would work and if you look on google there's probably products available for that sole purpose, but a steady hand a good old fashioned razor blade would probably do the trick. ;)

[sector6]

I have the glass sunroof on my 89'. It leaks bad (light or heavy rain), needs a new gasket for starters (haven't checked the drains yet; probably clogged), but also, the glass panel is separating from the metal frame. Glue looks old and dried out and the whole assembly flexes when moving to the "seated" posision. Any suggestions on properly restoring this? I'd like to take all the old glue off the glass and restore the rusty metal frame. I'm not sure how to go about removing the old glue without damaging the glass in ANY WAY. I know they are very rare and I really don't want to do ANY damage to it. Anyone have suggestions on removing the glue without damaging the glass?

[GOOBER]

I lol'd at this... Shows where my head is right now.

Seriously though, I used compressed air to clean out my drains. The rear gutters drain into the trunk behind the paneling and near the battery. The fronts drain down to behind the front speakers in the kick panel. Mine had a bunch of crap blow out when I hit it with 80psi.

Yeah from what I've experienced compressed air can sometimes do more harm then good because it could potentially blow the drain pipes out of place, but hey if you got them clean and it's working fine for you power to you!

Anyone have an idea about re-installing the crappy fabric piece to the sunroof panel? You know, the part that has the six or so clips on the front of the panel. That thing is a royal PIA.

It can be for sure. Most of the times if you can get the clips aligned with the holes it means it's getting snagged, probably because the frame is bent. To fix it, I'd pull the panel out again and from there the headliner piece should be able to move forward freely. To take it out you'll need to unlatch the linkage pieces from the rain gutter carefully. Then straighten out the frame. Reattach everything and it should be good to go.

[surfgoheels13]

Anyone have an idea about re-installing the crappy fabric piece to the sunroof panel? You know, the part that has the six or so clips on the front of the panel. That thing is a royal PIA.

[deansbimmer]

Clean front drains, get rear gutter. Finally have dry head?

I lol'd at this... Shows where my head is right now.

Seriously though, I used compressed air to clean out my drains. The rear gutters drain into the trunk behind the paneling and near the battery. The fronts drain down to behind the front speakers in the kick panel. Mine had a bunch of crap blow out when I hit it with 80psi.

[87e30]

Ideally yes it should, but that's also assuming that everything else is set up correctly.

Well my drains are slow... I should clean them out. But they do drain after like 30 minutes. haha. But in a light rain they work fine, I just notice dripping coming through that back area and never understood what would stop it. That gutter would definitely help.

Thanks for the help.

Clean front drains, get rear gutter. Finally have dry head?


Then to the trunk and footwells. :(