Recently, the mechanicals on our 2004 BMW X3 roof malfunctioned with sort of a crunching sound. Looks like it’s going to cost around $3900 to drop the headliner and replace the roof “cassette”! Has anyone else had this experience?
The ends of the lift arms/brackets broke on both sides of the sunroof on my 2000 Blazer the winter before last. I made the mistake of trying to open it when the glass was frozen shut.
The sunroof was attached to the brackets on each side by two screws each. Once I removed the glass I removed the broken pieces that were jamming the lift mechanism. I was able to get the sunroof working after a few hours of finagling. I just pop the back for ventilation, opening the roof completely is pushing my luck. If you can get access to the lift arms and remove the broken pieces maybe you can at least get the roof closed.
Eventually I’m going to order new lift arms, this outfit sells the lift brackets for the Blazer for $120. http://www.sunroofdoctor.com/ They only have parts listed for domestic cars, but they might be worth giving a call.
I’m holding off on the repair because I don’t fell like removing the headliner. A google search using “BMW X3 sunroof problems” showed a lot of hits.
Good luck,
Ed B.
I have had the experience of replacing them. The trouble is that it is hard but not impossible to figure out what exactly is not working right on the sunroof, so they just replace the cassette. Perhaps another Dealer has a Tech more experienced in cassette repair, in defense of the Dealer they are pretty time consuming to diagnois (there is no sunroof school). I never knew they cost that much.
This is occurring to me and mine right now. This is also occurring after one year ago I had to replace the works on both rear windows to the tune of ~550. The dealer had no sympathy about the $2900+labor for additional work this year on the hole in the roof. I guess you might call this my annual contribution to BMW’s quality improvement program. I told the dealer that I am buying elsewhere next time, probably from the Nissan dealer because the BMW dealer also owns the Toyota and Mercedes atores on the import side and GM on the domestic side. Never again. I am not having the work done. I have put a barrier over the control button and sealed the top. BMW is getting no more business fom me.
Regards,
Bert Allen
Johnson City, TN
I expect to see news that the are selling off assets in the morning paper.
How is it the dealers fault the sunroof or windows failed. They simply sell and service the vehicles they sell.
I think you should address this with BMW (customer care) themselves. They can good will repairs. Although you state you’ll never buy their product again in the correspondence you will get nothing.
It is unfortunate you had bad service from your BMW. Fortunately the majority of cars sold irregardless of brand or notority have few if any issues. You just got on the unlucky side of it.
on my 528 last year the weather was cold and tried to open the sun roof, it went up but heard a pop. i had to hit to get it back down. what i did to fix it was to order a new set left and right, rebuild kits form the dealer. all i needed was a the arms that rise it up and down. but they only sell them in kits. go to a site called realoem.com enter the last 7 digits of your vin. then scrow down and click on the browse catalog button, and then search the various catagories to find the kits. i paid 70 dollars for both. now you can do this your self, if your handy, and theres two ways to fix it. one is just take the sunroof glass out and i can tell you how, or take out the whole casset, which i did the second and it’ll take two people to get it out and some cursing. the first is a lot easier, but give little room to work. but is doable. or you get the parts your self and take to a shop that puts in aftermarket sunroofs, and see if they will do it. and the nice thing about the website i posted is that, looking at the diagrams, you can detrimne on how to fix it your self.