E39 Sunroof Repair tips including cassette removal

[geargrinder]

While there are scads of threads on this already, there are a number of errors in almost every one of the ones I looked at and used, and I kept a ton of notes while going through my little sunroof hell, so here's my take on it…

Overview:
TheE39 sunroof mechanism is very similar to other BMW roof designs, and issomewhat complex. While each mechanismis fairly straight forward in how it operates, it does take some time tounderstand how all the various parts work, and there are a lot ofsub-assemblies and parts that all work together in Rube Goldberg harmony…

The key components of the main system are, from front to rear:

1. The front wind deflector. This snaps in/out very easily. Not hard linked to the other parts, just gets 'pushed down'.
2. Front metal glass sliders. Generally impossible to fork up I think. They are moved by being pushed around by the glass itself. They also lower/raise the front wind deflector #9 via pins that stick out on the sides.
3. The main middle slide & lift assembly. This is basically #7/13 (glass or steel is diff between those). This gets pushed around by the box-section lift-arm, does whatever that does. This includes several sub-parts.
   
   • Forward plastic slider foot for the lift arm. This is what breaks 90% of the time and can be sourced aftermarket now.
   • The box-section lift arm that extends forward
   • The top plate and 'axle' that tie the glass, box-arm together and to the rear slider parts.
   • A 'pivot-shoe' for the lift arm. The box section slides on this, and when it hits a certain point moving forward, flips up to push the roof upward instead of forward.
   • The actual main slide that secures the pivot shoe into the track, and is the main operator of the entire roof. Nothing else moves or is attached to the cable except for being pulled/shoved by these guys.
   
   
4. Rear metal arms that connects the middle lift to the rear sliders and the rear rain deflector. These are a critical part of activating the 'lifting' function of the roof, without them the roof will not move upwards at the forward part of its travel.
5. A rear plastic slider. Part of #8. This carries the rear rain deflector and is an anchor point stabilizer for the lift-actuating arms. It gets pulled/pushed around purely by being connected to the lift arm mechanism.
6. Rear rain deflector, which actually also serves a metal arm and rear slider alignment and stabilization function IMO. These last 3 parts at first seem 'optional' but really are not as without them the roof won't push upwards.
7. In addition there is an entirely separate mechanism of sliding rails on either side to carry the accordion bellows ('boot' in aka 'boot support' rail in BMW speak), AND to 'interlock' with the sunshade to make it open up when the roof is either opened or tilted, These ride in their own channels, but also slide on to engage the main sliders, and also slide on to engage the interior sunshade.

Link to realoem page for part # ID's...
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DN53-USA-02-2000-E39-BMW-540i&diagId=54_0195

Prep and disassembly:

• Tools required:
  
  • Mostly Torx screwdrivers in T10 (if you take cassette out), T20, T25
  • Phillips screwdriver
  • Hex/Allen drivers 4mm (used to manually cycle the roof), 5mm (perhaps only needed for Touring net retainers)
  • I like to use a mini-cordless driver with bits for all above, makes everything go 10x faster
  • Various interior trim prying tools, right angle picks
  
  
• Tape the perimeter of the roof w/ painters tape to prevent scratches
• Raise the roof to remove the bellows. If your lift function is broken, you should still be able to put the track/motor in the lift position, then manually lift the glass and slip a prop between the glass and roof at the back side. A pizza box is a remarkably handy thing to have for this process by the way - its about right size to prop the back up, and as well makes a good thing to put the sunroof glass on on top of the roof when you get it out (putting a blanket on the roof first to protect from scratches).
• If you use fine 90 degree pick you can hook solidly into the corner of the metal U clip for the bellows/boot and reduce chances of boots tearing (most references just pull or push on the outer edges of the clip, which can slip off and result in your pick / tool tearing the boot).
• Remove the 3 screws on each side that hold the glass in - one at each front corner and 2 at each back corner
  
  • Consider marking or photo notating the screw positions to make realignment at a later date easier. They are slightly slotted for alignment purposes.
  • Remove rear glass screws first / attach last so that can lift glass up to make front screws and pin insertion easier.
  • Again - you can use pizza box or similar to slip under back of glass to prop up much higher than the lift position while attaching/removing front screws. This is especially helpful in reassembly but also in removal.
  
  
• With the glass out, in the majority of cases the problem should now be visible - most often the problem (if the roof doesn’t tilt anymore and is periodically jamming at the front) will be a broken slider at the front of the roof that is supposed to be at the end of a box-section lifting arm that was concealed under the glass. You should now see shards of plastic where these used to be.
• Once glass is out, just remove front wind deflector immediately. Ignore any and all other complicated posts about how to get around it or how to improperly disassemble it or how the arm bushings can't be removed - there are some really bad posts out there about this part with a lot of factual errors. It comes out in a second. The springs at the front that hold it up also retain it. Lift them up and pull slightly rearward and they'll come out of their retaining locations. Then lift the blade back up until side arms are vertical. Arms then can be unclipped towards rear of car - they only remove when vertical but pop out easily of their spring clips. Once freed up the arms may fall out of the front deflector but this is no big deal and how they assemble is obvious (they also rotate to a certain spot before sliding in) and effortless. Do NOT think you need to pop the plastic bushings out etc. Again, buncha BAD information on these out there.
• Consider taping down the bellows/boots w/ painters tape after glass is out to keep from flopping around and getting torn up as you do other stuff and test the movement.
• Remove front stops to the main channels on each side with torx screw. Then slide off front sliders.
• Remove single screw from top of each rear lift plate, rotate plate rearward, and remove the locating pin/ 'axle' you just took the screw out of. This will free up the lifting plate, and square box lifting arms as well.
• You can now slide the square box section lifting arms forward on the pivot block that is part of the main middle "shoe slider", and remove them by pulling them all the way forward. They may hang up slightly at the back as the plastic bushings they slide on hang up on the plastic cap at the rear but a little wiggle should free them. If the front tilt sliders are not broken, then they will slide out the front as you do this. If they are broken and/or gone, then the arms will just come out on their own.

Inspection:

• With broken parts removed, you should be able to inspect what you've got. The main shoe sliders on either side should be in the track on either side. The pivoting metal block on each of those shoe-slider assemblies should ideally be in a vertical position (the tilt position). If the middle plastic sliders were shattered on both sides and/or the rear arms were screwed up then it may be the shoes are not pivoting up properly. If anything is wrong with the main shoes or pivot blocks vis-a-vis the tracks, then you really need to take the cassette out.
• The rear plastic rain-deflector should be snapped into the far rear sliders on each side, so that it pivots on them down on the floor. It should pivot up on those points, and also be snapped into a metal side arm on each side which is what lifts and drops it. The plastic deflector easily can pop on/off at the front and that’s easily doable with the cassette in, but the rear pivots for them are much harder to fix in the roof, especially if one of the rear sliders has slid back too far into the roof (there's nothing to hold them still making it hard to re-snap the plastic deflector into them) so cassette removal may be needed if the rear plastic rain deflector sliders are really 'lost' back there.
• Those metal side arms that connect the rear sliders to the main slider shoes should also be well secured to the rear sliders. The rear sliders should move freely when gently pushed/pulled fore & aft by the rain deflector and as the rear sliders are moved forward, pins on the metal arms should engage the fixed plastic blocks on either side and be pushed upward at the end of their travel (this is what activates the 'lift' function). There are plastic retainers on the metal side arms that can deteriorate and make those arms move around which then can lead to other stuff falling off. Eyeball all that for play and missing plastic.
• With the sunshade partially open, the bellows supports (which normally are attached to the glass but right now are not attached to anything) should now slide very freely fore/aft on either side, at least until the point that they 'grab' the sunshade to retract it. The sunshade inside should slide freely to a point similarly (it should slide back, and forth up until it gets to where the bellows are.
• If you decide to try move the mechanism with glass out, be extremely careful sliding mechanism even by hand w/ hex wrench in motor. Can be pushed off the back of tracks and/or break things if moved too far back. Will definitely break things (like the middle plastic sliders) if moved too far forward with no glass in. And you want to be sure you return everything to the proper lifted spot when all is done (might make some match-marks on the tracks to mark where you started..) Even if all is perfect, turning the mechanism by hand has a lot of resistance due to turning the motor & gears. This is normal. But be SUPER careful of any resistance. Do NOT push through anything, its super easy to break things.
• Also if you are moving the mechanism w/ stuff out, watch the bellows. They'll get pulled back and 'crunched' unless you tuck them under or otherwise secure them. I used painters tape to tape the bellows all folded down tight and that let me manually work the mechanism without worrying as much about the bellows getting snagged or crunched and destroyed.

Cassette Removal:

• If cassette needs to be removed, headliner needs to drop obviously and that's the big thing. The headliner is held in almost entirely just by the screwed in fixtures around the edge of the roof.
• If possible, on both remove and install, retract the sunroof glass a little bit - just an inch or two is fine - so when you're fitting it in and out you aren't fighting to get the glass out or back up perfectly into the hole.
• Remove all headliner fixtures (visors, light housings, hooks, motion sensor, etc.) first. This will mostly be torx fittings but there are some Philips as well for the "Jesus grips".
• Remove A/B/C/D pillar trims. A pillar trim requires removing hidden bolt behind the airbag logo cap, then pulling out and lifting up (latches in at bottom). B pillar trim requires removing lower hard plastic trim first, then popping out snaps at bottom and pulling down and out (latches in at top). You might be able to just pop the middle retainers where the bottom/top trims meet and then get the tops to come out, but I found that was fraught with problems and could result in broken trim. For the touring at least, the C-pillars latch in at bottom, so, pull out at top first, then rotate out and pull up. On sedans you may be able to get away with not removing the C trim, at least for removal I was able to do this on a sedan but not sure how hard it would be to tuck the headliner back in later if I had to. For the touring, I found I could 'cheat' the D pillars and not take the bottoms out but just unsnap the top of the trims to pull them out a bit enough to sneak the headliner out. However cheating like that always has danger of breaking stuff so… up to you.
• Now, the cassette attaches to the headliner with a series of clips around the perimeter of the hole. There's 2 ways to go on these - either unscrew the clips from the cassette, or unclip them from the headliner. I went 'hybrid' for various reasons and took out all the front clip screws but then left the rear ones and just unclipped those clips. So either…
  
  1. Pry down on the edge of the headliner and through the crack, reach in with a pick or tiny screwdriver, and release the clip from the headliner. This is doable but helps by far if the sunroof is open so your noggin can be in the hole peering into the cracks. Or.
  2. Remove all the small T10 torx screws holding the headliner clips to the sunroof cassette from above I believe these may not exist for metal sunroof versions? (also contrary to another erroneous thread, these are not T8). In this case, you MUST have the sunroof at least open, but even then you can't get to the rear screws without the glass fully removed. If your glass is out already, this whole thing is real easy.
  
  
• Touring has one last snap in headliner clip at the far rear middle that must be pulled out. This may snap out of the headliner instead of coming out of the roof if yours is like mine. In which case it just needs some warming up w/ a heat gun and reshaping to clip back in later when you reassemble.
• At this point the headliner should be free after you do a final step to work around the entire perimeter to pull it free from the black weatherstripping which retains it quite effectively in fact. Drop it down and then fight it out of the car. Super easy for Tourings, notable hassle for sedans - recline seats all the way for sedans and take it out the drivers side rear door. Touring it basically flies right out the back. Now you can start working to remove the cassette.
• Work around the perimeter of the cassette and free all wiring. There are 4 or 5 wiring clips that have to come out of either the cassette or something next to the cassette to really get it free.
• Remove only the 'middle' screw for the drive motor. Contrary to a few other write ups the motor does not have to be taken all the way out, and in fact the other 2 screws perform a sub-assembly support function for the front tab as well so my firm opinion is that it's better to leave it in for the remove/install process. Note it slightly longer than the others that goes up into the exact middle location of the cassette frame. This is very important on reassembly and is easy to miss if you've had the motor all the way out.
• Remove all the black large-head torx screws holding cassette in. There are actually 2 screws you do not remove, and those are the ones just to the left/right of center up at the motor. Those only hold the main roof frame to the motor support and front 'tab'. Look behind the motor electrical connector on the right side - that is the screw you don't need to remove, nor its companion on the opposite side. However other than that, work your way around removing the perimeter screws. For sedans you can remove them all - for Touring do all except the rearmost one on each side. For sedans there's a handy little clip on each side holding the cassette from dropping even with all the screws out. The Touring does NOT have this and will drop as soon as those last screws are out.
• The cassette is now ready to be removed. Before dropping it, recline the front seats all the way if you haven't already to get them out of the way. I also suggest covering them with a moving blanket or similar to protect from damage as you wrangle the cassette out.
• The frame is held in with a plastic 'tongue' tab in the front that slides / hooks into a metal strap in the roof. Therefore when you release either the left right clips for a sedan or the last 2 torx bolts in the rear for a Touring, the back of the cassette will be free to drop down and once it does, you need to pull it backwards to disengage the forward tongue. This can take a bit of force assuming it hasn't been out of there since Germany, but will come out.
• If the glass is removed from the cassette first, this is easily a one man job, as the empty cassette is super light. With the glass in its not too bad but 2 people is pretty handy to have, esp for the Touring where you're taking out the last screws and having to hold it up at the same time.
• BTW, if you tidy things up , the car seems perfectly OK to drive around with no headliner, aside from the missing functionalities. The motion sensor will be missing of course. I did a few errands sans headliner and all was fine although weird. It may be the safety of the front curtain airbags is compromised without the A pillar trim, so that's one reason you might not want to do this, but otherwise, car works fine, doesn't seem to care.

Reassembly Tips:

• Mostly 'reverse of disassembly'. But a few things…
• Especially if you've got the cassette out, now is the time to obviously lube the entire channels/tracks etc. while it's all in your face. I am now using Triflow as anything heavier seems like it’s a problem for these things over the long run. I do use a bit of grease on a couple of point that are more like pivots, but nothing that is a track/slider type situation.
• Obv good idea to cycle the entire cassette GENTLY by hand on the bench / floor / waterbed / whatever before it goes back in to be sure all looks good. Note warnings above about neither stripping the socket in the motor assembly, and about breaking things by pushing them too far by hand.
• Triple check rear rain deflector position and function to be sure its fully clipped in before the cassette goes in. But this is also true if only glass has been out - look back there and be sure it's all in place, it can pop out easily while messing with the assembly.
• As previously mentioned when reinstalling cassette - retract the roof slightly before reassembly, it will make your life much easier.
• Note the sedan rear cassette retainer clips can be fitted to the Touring but the reason they are not is that they interfere with the rear seat interior roof lights. They work perfectly until the point you get to install the rear lights and then they rub against the back of the light. There are workarounds to this (bend the metal tab up / in a bit, or maybe possible to modify the light housing), and I chose to retrofit them but I also pray I never have to find them useful again.
• Be careful of torqueing the large black cassette screws. These can and will strip their threads in the car roof. They do not need, and do not come from factory with, very much torque!
• If the glass has been out, when refitting the bellows bit, I like to lube the boot/bellows seam w/ non-petroleum grease (ex: teflon or silicone etc) to make easier to insert & remove again if necessary. This worked very nicely for me during the time I was still trying to fix my old cassette and kept having to take the glass in and out.
• If the glass has been out, put the roof in 'tilt/jacked up' mode to screw the glass back in (when you took it apart it may not have been able to go into that position properly).
• This is important: Once the glass and/or cassette is back in, DO THE MODULE INITIALIZATION FROM THE MANUAL FIRST THING BEFORE TRYING TO OPERATE THE SUNROOF ON THE MOTOR! This is key because if the car is confused about where the roof is in its travel, it can crunch your new parts and break them for you. Guess how I know this. Others have suffered from it as well. Manually put the roof in 'closed flat' mode. You'll feel a little detent stop point there before it starts to tilt. Then run the procedure which starts with putting it in tilt mode but holding the button down for an extended period, then releasing and holding down again. This procedure is slightly different for pre/post facelift. Lookit up.
• Especially if the cassette has been out, for obvious reasons, you really want to do the above and be sure you're pleased with sunroof operation before even thinking about starting to reinstall the headliner.

[philly98540]

That's a mouthful! Nice recap. I hope I never need this, but good to know it's here.

[300kplus]

WOW! Good write up. Had no idea it was this intensive and lengthy to tackle one of these. So a couple questions;
Does the module initialisation have to be done if you don't remove the cassette?
"DO THE MODULE INITIALIZATION FROM THE MANUAL FIRST THING BEFORE TRYING TO OPERATE THE SUNROOF ON THE MOTOR! This is key because if the car is confused about where the roof is in its travel, it can crunch your new parts and break them for you."
I can push my sunroof up at the back the way it is right now. If it was not broken, is that normal or would I not be able to do that?
To that end, is this indicative of the part you mentioned in your write-up being broken? Or am I getting opening a can of worms and a wild goose chase?
Perhaps what are the second and third most common brakes on these E39 sunroofs?
A little history: the sunroof always needed a little bit of help but worked with me helping it. The car was always garage kept as well. I moved to New England and the car is not garage kept and was out in the driveway this winter. I never opened it in the winter. So it went from needing help to open, and then not opening at all while developing the rear passenger side corner being higher then the rest of the glass [with the back of the glass being higher than the rest so if you look at it from the rear of the car, the passenger side corner sits up and tilts down to the driver side but not completely flush on the drivers side rear corner] when I pull the switch, it makes a quick short noise as if it's trying to work but then quits.
Strategy is important in my case as I don't have use of a garage here. I'm thinking if I pull the glass out and make sure all the drains are clear, I can set the glass back in the top, and the weight of the glass with clear drains, should be just enough to protect the interior if it does rain. Is that a correct assumption?

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[300kplus]

WOW! Good write up. Had no idea it was this intensive and lengthy to tackle one of these. So a couple questions;
Does the module initialisation have to be done if you don't remove the cassette?
"DO THE MODULE INITIALIZATION FROM THE MANUAL FIRST THING BEFORE TRYING TO OPERATE THE SUNROOF ON THE MOTOR! This is key because if the car is confused about where the roof is in its travel, it can crunch your new parts and break them for you."
I can push my sunroof up at the back the way it is right now. If it was not broken, is that normal or would I not be able to do that?
To that end, is this indicative of the part you mentioned in your write-up being broken? Or am I getting opening a can of worms and a wild goose chase?
Perhaps what are the second and third most common brakes on these E39 sunroofs?
A little history: the sunroof always needed a little bit of help but worked with me helping it. The car was always garage kept as well. I moved to New England and the car is not garage kept and was out in the driveway this winter. I never opened it in the winter. So it went from needing help to open, and then not opening at all while developing the rear passenger side corner being higher then the rest of the glass [with the back of the glass being higher than the rest so if you look at it from the rear of the car, the passenger side corner sits up and tilts down to the driver side but not completely flush on the drivers side rear corner] when I pull the switch, it makes a quick short noise as if it's trying to work but then quits.
Strategy is important in my case as I don't have use of a garage here. I'm thinking if I pull the glass out and make sure all the drains are clear, I can set the glass back in the top, and the weight of the glass with clear drains, should be just enough to protect the interior if it does rain [EDIT:] During the repair if I have to stretch out the repair due to time constraints or prior commitments... Is that a correct assumption?

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[WBAD530i]

This book sucks, there's no pictures.

You should re-write the verses in Jims sunroof DIY and preach the scripture with pictographical images of proof.

I replaced my control arms and other plastic crap in my casette, and have yet to get it working right. It makes a lot of grinds and creaking noises when I try to operate and the only way I can get it to sit flush with the roof is by closing it all the way and then using the tilt to move it up where it sits flush. I don't touch it now.

[Kenny1958]

Absolutely fantastic write up GG.

I know i'll never need this info as i don't have a sunroof but the guys that do are in your debt.

[scottieducati]

The man, the myth, the legend. Masterful work as always, GG.

[JimLev]

GG, it that an an update on the one I sent you a few months back?
Where's the pics, cough them up.

[whiteghost1]

The man, the myth, the legend. Masterful work as always, GG.

My thoughts exactly. Someone threw up the big GG in the sky (through their e39 sunroof I might add) and he answered.

[jp5Touring]

holy moly

[geargrinder]

Does the module initialisation have to be done if you don't remove the cassette?

Theoretically no, if you NEVER manually cycle the parts, and/or ensure you return things to the exact spot they started.. but.. .from my experience breaking parts I would just recommend it every single time to be safe.

I can push my sunroof up at the back the way it is right now. If it was not broken, is that normal or would I not be able to do that?

Not normal, that's the usual broken parts issues. The glass should be firmly secured at all times.

BTW, pushing down on the roof to 'help it' from above can absolutely break the plastic sliders. I think a number get blown out that way.

The other symptoms could be the rear rain deflector falling off its clips and jamming things up behind. If you're lucky you can take the glass out the top, do the 'normal fix', find what is forked up back there and set it all straight, and be on your way.

This book sucks, there's no pictures.

You should re-write the verses in Jims sunroof DIY and preach the scripture with pictographical images of proof.

I replaced my control arms and other plastic crap in my casette, and have yet to get it working right. It makes a lot of grinds and creaking noises when I try to operate and the only way I can get it to sit flush with the roof is by closing it all the way and then using the tilt to move it up where it sits flush. I don't touch it now.

Heh heh yeah. I know some pix would really be helpful. But on other hand sometimes too many pix are a PITA, personally I like something that has the key info somewhat concise that I can print out and have handy. Videos, with some exceptions, can blow my balzac with extreme predjudice. I can't STAND watching some d-bag blather on in a video for 10 minutes about some dumb process that if you have a micron of mechanical aptitude should be 75% self explanatory. I mean for engine timing or something where it's really complicated, sure, but otherwise... I got better things to do than watch videos. Anyway.

IIRC Jim has a Word doc version of his write up he's offered to send, maybe I can try to fold in some of the pix here...

[300kplus]

Thanks. Fyi "helping" was only ever done from inside the car and gently at that [probably was a lube issue previous owner never bothered with to begin with...]

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[biglow63]

What is meant by the cassete? I'm new, just got my 1st bmw. It is a 97 540i/6, previous owner had parts for the repair but hadn't gotten to it yet. Thanks

[geargrinder]

"Cassette" indeed is a weird term for it, but its what we call it for some reason.

It's the whole entire sunroof assembly - big frame that bolts up under the cars roof and contains the cables and the motor and the tracks for the sliders etc. etc. etc.

[Plattus1000]

Huge.

[geargrinder]

Huge.

That's what she said.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I've been toying with the idea of welding in a roof from an X5 so that I can have the X5 sunroof cassette, figured if the sunroof' in the Touring ever goes bad, seems like such a pain in the a$$ to repair them, I might as well blow it out of proprtion and have a unicorny wagon.

[jp5Touring]

I've been toying with the idea of welding in a roof from an X5 so that I can have the X5 sunroof cassette, figured if the sunroof' in the Touring ever goes bad, seems like such a pain in the a$$ to repair them, I might as well blow it out of proprtion and have a unicorny wagon.

Your talking the big Panoramic roof right ? That is actually a very cool idea.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Your talking the big Panoramic roof right ? That is actually a very cool idea.

Yeah man! I wonder if anyone else has done it. I will, when my sunroof takes a poop. Will have to relocate the motion sensor, I guess.

[jp5Touring]

Yeah man! I wonder if anyone else has done it. I will, when my sunroof takes a poop. Will have to relocate the motion sensor, I guess.

The motion detector would be the least worry. I wonder if any coding would be needed ? This has never crossed my mind, brilliant idea.
Thinking this needs its own thread.

[geargrinder]

INTERDASTING.

The E53 cassette looks - as you'd imagine - very similar to the E39 in how it bolts up and everything. Wonder if the front bits would all bolt directly up to factory? Would be easy to compare the 2 cassettes side by side.

https://xoutpost.com/classifieds/bmw...roof-sale.html

Hmmm. Whole cassette looks longer? If so you might be in danger of losing the rear speakers too?

Wonder if you could retrofranken the E53 headliner too.... Or at least splice the clean 'hole' for the roof into the Touring headliner. The headliner clips to the cassette so you definitely need that to keep the HL and cassette junction tidy.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Thought about that, I would cut the E53 headliner sides, front, and rear off, cut the exact reverse off of the E39 headliner, mate them together, epoxy them together topside with fiberglass tape over the seams. Be nice if the two edges just met up nice and clean, but we all know that might be impossible to pull off, so.... what? Have an upholsterer stitch a matching material to patch the two together? I don't know, but I'm betting it would come out looking like stepped on dog sheet, so..... Since it is a headliner, rip out the material off of the foam, both sides, get some of that finer fake suede.... alcantara, ... microfiber material from the textile supply, some good 'ole Super77 spray glue properly srpayed on both surfaces, dried the proper amount of time, apply the sucker on there.... and walla!!! Piece of cake!!! Yeah, right, but I know I can do it.

The big question is the roof speakers, didn't think of that.

[Plattus1000]

I've been toying with the idea of welding in a roof from an X5 so that I can have the X5 sunroof cassette, figured if the sunroof' in the Touring ever goes bad, seems like such a pain in the a$$ to repair them, I might as well blow it out of proprtion and have a unicorny wagon.

That would be fun. A total PITA but if done correctly would be a neat feature. I'd settle for a cool ashtray cup holder that didn't retail for $500. (hint dropped)
Could you be happy just adding a glass section to the roof that didn't open or vent, just added light?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Haha! I know, I know.... my engineer flaked out on us! And that was after I did a brake job on his wife's car for him, you believe that????! But another mech engineer I work with caught wind of what went down, he is stepping up to the plate for us. As a matter of fact, I am handing him the center compartment tomorrow, he will also go out to the car and get some measurements. Three holders will be 3D printed, one's got your name on it. And I will have the mechanical drawings for them if they turn out like I think they will.

On the X53 sunroof, it will surely be a huge undertaking, but anything can be done, if I really put what's left of my mind to it. I believe the rear roof speakers and tailgate struts will be fine where they are.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Dang, look at what I found.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E53-X5-3...4AAOSw2xRYbNx8