Eventually you will have to remove the glass to replace the pieces that fall out as you giggle it cause some will. To loosen it up you could open and close the glass while moving the lid in the same direction. I never got around to replacing the broken clips since other members who did replace them only ended up having the same problem again. the roof is a major weakness in our e46s....

thanks bm-man.
as i have access to the 3 screws to remove the roof, I will save and prevent screwing anything up by taking the glass out to see whats blocking things...

I finally got round to taking my roof out yesterday afternoon.
Once the roof was out it was easy to spot the issue.
It appears somehow that the driver got ahead of the front clip. I removed the front clip by taking out the 2 screws to allow me to move the shade and front clip behind the driver.
Put everything back together and voila!
The plastic on the driver was a little pushed up, but I managed to clip it back into position.

Thanks all for your good support and posts.

Took me no more than 45 mins to remove the roof, fix the issue and re-assemble the bits on my own.

Thanks guys for the posts, I have the same issue and will attempt to DIM since I'm now armed with valuable knowledge and have a starting point and a direction to follow. If anyone has the part numbers to this kit, that would help. I have a 2002 325i BMW.

Even easier DIY

Another way of doing this that is much easier iswithout removing the glass. The shade slider has 2 very flexible rubber pieces at the front of it which is used to push it back when the actual glass moves if you just slowy open it and pass these two rubber pieces under it you can open the glass fully and work only with the shade slider. There are 2 perks i noticed when i did this:
1. you dont have to worry about placing the glass back on correctly and no need to recalibrate it in some cases
2. you can remove the entire slider and still close close your sunroof normally, so like for me, i could still drive around with no worries while i waited for the parts to come in!

Pt #'s
54-13-8-246-027 (left 2 needed)
54-13-8-246-025 (right 2 needed)

good job!

This post saved me $260+ from the dealership to have it fixed! Thanks for sharing your detailed work for the sunroof man!

No Problem! Glad it helped!

Hey Chris, thank you for the sunroof DIY, it saved me mula

Thanks for sunsadediy! Fixed my problem in 15 minutes!!!

This is a great thread! Thank you for putting the DIY together for this! :thumbup:

do all cars have a "driver" i have an 05 330i and my sunroof rattles when i try and open it the shade doesn't close all the way either and no clips are broken what i do notice is that the passengers sliding tab doesn't move. i have no problem sliding the drivers side back and forth

maybe you shade doesn't close all the way because the glass is sitting to low, readjust the glass to a higher height, unscrew the lid retaining screws, push the glass up, then tighten the screws and see if you can close the shade

mrgilbert said:

do all cars have a "driver" i have an 05 330i and my sunroof rattles when i try and open it the shade doesn't close all the way either and no clips are broken what i do notice is that the passengers sliding tab doesn't move. i have no problem sliding the drivers side back and forth

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hey thanks for the reply i failed to find out what is keeping the passengers tab from sliding back and forth, as a result the window is piped out just a bit but when i put the shade back on it worked fine x)
i guess thats a plus haha

That's definitely a plus... Lol... Glad u fixed it

mrgilbert said:

hey thanks for the reply i failed to find out what is keeping the passengers tab from sliding back and forth, as a result the window is piped out just a bit but when i put the shade back on it worked fine x)
i guess thats a plus haha

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Great thread - the DIY was accurate and it's an easy job. Thanks for saving me a trip to the dealer!

I have a 2006 BMW 330i, the information was helpful I took of the sunroof glass but when I was going to remove shade the clips are different they don't have screws, do you know how can I remove them?

Thanks

I have the same problem and my plastic driver part is missing also. It fell back into my headliner bowels I'd imagine.
Can that plastic piece or the driver be bought separately? And how would you get the old driver out and the new one back into place?
Thanks for any help on this.

-

BM-MAN said:

How exactly did u achieve that? There is a tab that automatically pulls the sunshade back when you open the glass? Seems to me that holding it shut would break something?

My problem right now is the Driver; the metal that holds the plastic driver in place is bent. I just don't see how to bend it back in place...

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SO HOW DO I REATTCH THE SUNSHADE TO THE GLASS.... SO THEY BOTH SLIDE BACK IN UNISON IF THE SHADE IS CLOSED AND GLASS IS BACK?
Thanks!!!

johnewhite said:

Very nice DIY. But the glass does not have to be removed in order to remove the shade. All you have to do is just hold the shade closed as you fully open the roof. The shade will be then be exposed and you can lift it out.

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GREAT post!
My sunshade will not move back with the upper glass... the inside stays closed while the outer glass opens. What in your opinion could be the issue?
Glass opens and closes fine, sunshade (manually) opens and closes fine.
What will I need to look for when I open the sunroof and the sunshade from outside the car?
Does it sound like I***8217;ll need to remove the glass?
Thank you!

ChrisF said:

Like many others, I've had problems with the sunroof shade on my 330. It was not sliding properly and was binding up when I operated the sunroof. There are four "clips" that attach the shade to the slider mechanism that are notoriously poorly designed. It doesn't take much to break them.

I put together a quick Sunroof Clip DIY (with pictures) describing how to replace these clips.

When I did this repair I found that none of my clips had actually broken. In my case, one of the clips on the right side, had popped out of the slot in the sliding member and it was causing the shade to bind up when the sunroof was opened/closed.

Now that I've had it apart, I'm certain that I'd be able to replace them if/when my clips break.

Enjoy.

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