we just bought a 2009 Clubman. I knew there was a little something "off" with the sunroof because it would briefly chatter when closing or just after opening. It would also do the "refusal" when closing or sometimes "jam" when opening.

When we got the car home, I started investigating. It turned out the tracks for the sunroof were horribly caked with old lubricant that had become dry and chalky. Both in the front and the rear.

So I pulled both the front and the rear glass off and thoroughly cleaned out the old grease and other filth, then re-lubricated with lithium grease.

I followed the glass alignment process in the Bentley service manual when reinstalling the glass.

But the roof still chatters and/or jams.

A little more troubleshooting revealed that if the rear glass is removed, the front glass travels nice and smooth like it should. Reinstalling the rear glass brings the issues back.

If I put the slightest upward pressure on the rear edge of the rear glass and hit the switch, it all moves nice and smoothly. That's both opening and closing. If I don't put a very light "push" on the rear glass, it chatters horribly again or goes into it's jam/refusal behavior.

I haven't done the "relearn" yet, I want to get it moving reasonably smoothly before letting it relearn the forces involved. I don't want the control module going nuts and over torquing the small motor to move everything. That's a sure way to burn out a light duty motor.

So I'm about to take it apart again and have a good look around.

Any ideas what might be the issue here?

It's acting like there's too much resistance in the rear lift mechanism that's more than the motor can deal with. I'd buy that if it was still caked with dirt and grime, but it's clean. Nothing looks bent or excessively worn.

It's not a sun/heat issue. Car has been in the air conditioned garage for the last two days.

I know BMW likes to do "gadgety" things, but if they had just made the rear glass fixed instead of "venting", this wouldn't be a problem. At least not in this case.

I'm also now reminded why I've always avoided European cars like the plaque. Wonderful driving cars when they work, total nightmare when anything goes wrong.

I still remember when I was working as a mechanic (loooong ago) and when a Volkswagon (or any other European make, 12 cyl jags being the worst) came in for work, the shop was "mysteriously" deserted when the counter guy came out looking for someone to take the work order. When someone did take the work order, European cars never got flat rates. It was always straight time and an aneurysm popping bill at the end........

 

Well, after chasing my tail for a day, I've got it working again.

The fix was to remove the wind deflector at the front of the sunroof opening.

I think this worked because the spring on the deflector is pretty strong and when the glass/track hit it, the force required to pull the glass down was too high and tripping the "anti-pinch" function.

I suspect this is more to do with an aging motor not having as much "umpf" as when it was new.

The deflector isn't that important for this car anyways. It's the wife's car and she never opens a sunroof. At least now she can use the vent function if she wants and be able to close it afterwards without the glass doing it's "open/close shuffle".

 

thankts for your update NoBrand.
I too just picked up a 2009 R55S and the sunroof needed love, so I also removed all old crusty and sand covered "lube" from tracks and put back lithium grease and also have hte chatter issue with rear pano glass, so I have to close mine in 2 steps, to avoid the glassing hitting so hard that it auto opens back to vent. I have once removed the front pano glass bug deflector screen but that didnt seem to solve my problem originally... perhaps i will remove it again (since its a joke to do so).

 

BMW recommends a special grease for the sunroof --> https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/83192157321/

Discussion here on whether lithium or other lubes are okay --> https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...oof-rails.html

Personally, I was having the same issue with the front roof sliding until it hit the additional tension of the pop up deflector, then backing up. I thought my motor must be getting weak. But after I cleansed the tracks of the old hardened grease, and reapplied the above BMW product, all is good.

 

great follow up thanks! Definitely a recurring issue, but the involvement of the rear glass is new to me.

(even with the extra trouble, I wish my F55 had the same rear glass venting as my R55 had. Good for internal airflow.)

 

I wish my R56 had the same fixed rear glass as your F55 has (and R53/50 had). Less of that annoying rattle noise.