bmwe21.net forums

These seals dont glue on. you take the chrome bit out off then the windscreen you kick out from the inside.

you can buy a tool on ebay for a tenner, so that you can put the chrome strip back in, dont bother trying to do it without cos i read its a complete pain in the back side.

Surely though before you put yourself through that you will want to make sure that this IS the problem lol.

Had the hose pipe on it this morning and its deffo the sunroof thats the main problem, it absolutely pisses water through. I peeled all the silicone off that i tried to block it up with and tried to figure out how to take it off. There looks to be four screws holding the panel in place to the runner brackets but i can only access 2 of them due to the lining being in the way. I dont know how to remove the lining without breaking something. There appears to be some quite bad rust at the back corners next to the rear water gutter which has me worried

Im starting to think this aftermarket sunroof is rubbish too. Dont know who told me it was but why would an afternarket one be a metal panel and have a winder?? Could anyone please take some pictures of their sunroof and mechanism please ?? It would be a massive help

Your winder was the same as mine, and afaik mines factory. You said yours only tilted and didn't slide.. Might be a stupid question, but have you tried winding the other way?

Yeah but it feels like it would break if i wind it the other way. May just be some shit obstructing the runners. Will have to try get a vacuum end in to clean it up and cake it in dw40. That rust dont feel good tho. Scared that i may have to strip the whole roof lining and weld patches in if its bad

had exactly the same problem, water in glove box & down the feet.
changed the windscreen seal & problem solved.

Got one on the way. Did you do it yourself?
Sunroof is main problem though so going to put my time and effort into that firstly

Hi,
You can fix the windscreen at home and not a tough task it is.
But if you are not taking it easy then you should get it to the shop and it will be better to use the proper glue to fix it.
Thanks

My good freind is car stripper and replaced the seal at home in abaut half an hour.

I could do with a man like that. Waiting for some nice weather to start and rip things to bits. Have'nt made my mind up wether to have a go myself, or get a pro on the case. There's a bloke i work with who used to do body repairs and spraying. Might try convincing him to help me for a couple o'quid. The old girl turns 30 this year so im gonna get it looking good again!

Regarding the windscreen seal....When i change it over (and fingers crossed there's no rust) what would be the best option for rust proofing without effecting the physical seal. There are things like waxoils etc, would it be a good idea to spray something like that around the mating surfaces? Has anyone done something similar ?

Rub it all down, wire brush/grind out any rust, weld in new metal of fill the holes, repaint it and refit the screen is the way forward. Sadly you the end up repainting everything else too. It should be possible to sort out the area that will be under the screen rubber with a coat or two of paint, brush it on or mask carefully.

If there's no rust in there just clean it up and stick the new rubber in - that'll keep the water out for another 30 years!

Got the sunroof off and discovered the horrors that lay beneath.....rust.....water.....scratches = fu*&ing nightmare!
I have a plan tho! Ill put some pics of the mess up in a bit

Right, the good news is that the rust behind the rear gutter under the sunroof is not terminal. Its flakey but seems solid so im just going to grind away the shit, fill it and paint it.

The bad news, and it is chuffing bad news from here on........The front drain channels are shagged, properly shagged


The panel came out and there's just a 2 inch spot of rust under where the seal sat so thats not too bad...But it got badly scratched on the roof when i had to force it open so i could get to the fixings and take it off, gonna have to be a spray job


Anyway, the good thing out of this is i now know why its leaking!!! My plan is to grind and cut all the dead metal out and then either use some thin sheet metal or plastic to place in the corners along with some hose pipe to join into the drains. I cant weld so its going to either have to be siliconed in or i might use some car body filler to join it all up. Then ill give it all a lick of hammerite and waxoil. Just started with cutting the shit out now but as usual when you want to do something its chuffing raining, and ive got a stinking hangover. Ah well

Whats the best adhesive to use on the new sunroof seal ?