Rolling marble sound in roof

I have a 1999 540i and I have been hearing what sounds like a rolling marble in the roof of my car when driving. I thought it might be something that came loose and was rolling around in the motion detector which is in the center of the roof. I removed that and found nothing loose. Is there anything else in the roof that could have come apart and is rolling around? Or is this marble rolling sound coming from somewhere else but it sounds like it is coming from the roof?

thanks

LOL, never heard of this one before...

Maybe a pissed off BMW worker put something in there that would not roll for ? years(we don't know how old your car is)

Then, all of a sudden, starts to roll around...

There was a famous (probably not true) story of the angry Cadillac employee who stuck a Coke bottle in the door... before sealing it up- took forever for them to find it.

You sure it is in the roof. Perhaps bats in belfry, or just a few loose marbles upstairs?

I had this happen in my E34, I think something got loose from the sunroof. Got rid of the car before I figured it out.

mine is doing the same thing. but my sunroof doesn't work... everytime you go over a bump or dip its like the "marbles" sound... does your sun roof work?

yes my sunroof works fine

I'm having the same problem since I bought my car in April. It sounds like a screw rolling around up there...and it's not me

It is really annoying. Did anyone ever find out the problem?

2002 530i

Originally Posted by SwapMag1c

mine is doing the same thing. but my sunroof doesn't work... everytime you go over a bump or dip its like the "marbles" sound... does your sun roof work?

This is a fairly common symptom of a known problem w/ our e39 moonroofs that don't either tilt up in the back and/or not sliding open all the way.
9 out of 10, your noise is coming from a broken track rail. these rails don't seem to last very long.

My local German mechanic found all but one of the ends to a keychain like this one. The parts were separated and rolling around in the moonroof drainage tracks. I'm guessing the chain belonged to the original owner. I'm so glad to have that rolling gone!

Since the keychain was engraved with "Grace", my car has a new name. Instead of Bertha Dos (after my first Bertha E39 this car replaced), she is now Bertha Grace. It fits her nicely