E39 Sunroof Repair tips including cassette removal

[geargrinder]

Todd: You are "on track" 100% on all counts.

If the rear sliding blocks that go on the track are busted, the whole cassette has to come out, no possible way to do in place. And yes if that's the case, and, you at all have multiple parts broken (most people do), then really you might as well buy a used good cassette (trying like hell to get a low miles / use one of course!).

I self pulled mine at a yard and it so was pretty cheap, and it clearly came from a car where the owner just about didn't even know there was a sunroof. You can tell it was probably opened less than a dozen times. The benefit of going that route is then you also have your old one for future parts and/or rebuilding at your leisure if you want.

Oh and to answer your question, yeah as I've said many times - the sliders have to go all the way to the back of the track.
Just cuz you axed so nice I unscrewed my old cassette down off the ceiling of my basement workshop to take a few pix for you.

There are 2 cables in the cassette, and, as you might imagine, they "travel in opposite directions in order to travel in the same direction", so to speak.

One of the more odd engineering features (and there are a number of them) of these super complicated frikkin beasts is that the passenger side one rides around the outside of the main track, and the drivers side one rides around the inside of the main track. Some clever Frederich and Helmut engineering team decided that would be quite clever because instead of having to have the cables cross over each other to go into some kind of inside 'dead' channel (which certainly could have been done instead, would have worked fine...) you just have them traveling 'concentrically' at all times.

Those "pins" are actually 2 tabs on each cable that are swaged in place, and they ain't goin nowhere without destroying the cable. Yes they are kind of copper colored but that seems like a plating and that it is either some very soft steel or even maybe some kind of hard lead alloy underneath.

Now, there is a slot cut in the middle of the track for placing the forward 'slave' sliders, however this is only for the other slider pieces, and NOT the main "driver" shoes, which have to slide off the back.

Right side - notice cable is in the outside of the main track (as opposed to the 'shade' track which is the inside bit):



Left side - notice the cable is on the inside of the main track, adjacent to the inner shade-track:



Mid-track gap - too small for the main shoes:

[jholder]

Incredibly helpful thread, so thank you. After reading through everything a few times, I think finally understand how the system is supposed to work, but I'm seeing an issue that I don't think is the correct behavior.
I can manually move the right hand (passenger) slide by hand (to be truly accurate, I can move the right hand *cable* by hand), but on the left side the cable (and attached assembly) must be manually moved by using a hex wrench and the motor assembly.
This sort of "connected" behavior is what I would expect from the other side. Additionally, I cannot slide the right cable/slide assembly further forward than the distance the the left hand side has been moved, so it seems like some sort synchronizing setup is still at play here. I'm about to pull the motor and see if I can figure out what is going on , but I thought I'd reach out to ye olde interwebs as well.

Edit: Well that was embarrassingly straightforward, once I pulled the electric motor. The cables have a white plastic lead (I assume the guide when feeding the cables in, and through some magic that had worked its way past the single gear the motor turns. With the motor detached, I manually aligned two points of the slide mechanism so that they were equidistant from the gear. (aka. i lined them up on the tracks), and then reinstalled the motor. Movement is now in sync and only possible when actuating the gear. Thanks again!

[pimp cauldron]

thread necromancy!

I'm currently in the middle of a sunroof repair because of a broken tilt function. I have the glass and broken plastic bits removed but the cassette assembly still installed. The left and right main sliders are in different positions in their respective tracks, I think due to one of the sides failing causing the other one to subsequently fail. Is it OK to actual the sunroof using the button to get them to sync up?

[computiNATEor]

They should be synced up regardless? If not, pull out the sunroof motor and move them manually, then relearn the sunroof position.

[E39 Newbie]

thread necromancy!

I'm currently in the middle of a sunroof repair because of a broken tilt function. I have the glass and broken plastic bits removed but the cassette assembly still installed. The left and right main sliders are in different positions in their respective tracks, I think due to one of the sides failing causing the other one to subsequently fail. Is it OK to actual the sunroof using the button to get them to sync up?

No. Pull the motor and align the stuff by cranking the cable manually. Then reattach the motor and reconnect all the bits.

[pimp cauldron]

No. Pull the motor and align the stuff by cranking the cable manually. Then reattach the motor and reconnect all the bits.

Appreciate the help. Will do.

[rjjablo]

Can you use this same Technique on a Touring?

[computiNATEor]

Can you use this same Technique on a Touring?

Yes

[NOmoreBLING]

Hi everybody, I am doing the same tedious job. Everything was fine untill I removed the back plastic part that broke. How can I reattach the metal part? The small pivot seems stuck.

Wysłane z mojego Nokia 6.1 przy użyciu Tapatalka

[jonathanamy]

I have a problem with my 2000 E39 sedan and its sunroof. I got a used one from EBay. I removed the grey sunshade and replaced it with my tan one. Problem is (and I have the cassette out) that when I operate it with a ratchet the rail with the bellows attached does not seem properly connected to the slider which is driven by the cable. When I retract the assembly, all is well for half the distance, but then the rail goes no further and the slide with the box arm keeps going.It seems to me that the rail with the bellows should be firmly attached to the main slider; there are indents on the aft end of the rail, but they do not seem capable of holding it attached all the way. Clearly when I took off the sunshade from my old cassette I must have missed something about how to reattach it. I didn't disturb the rest of the mechanism.

Ideas?