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      05-10-2009, 02:29 AM   #1
BMWfan
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Angry Sunroof exploded

I've placed this topic here, as I've discovered similar cases mentioned on E90Post and Bimmerfest forums. No one seems to have any solid theory on what causes this and dealerships seems to shy from taking responsibility - so people are gathering information from forums for proof. Perhaps this can help someone else somewhere down the line.

Last night I was driving home on the freeway, only doing about 100km/h in the middle lane. Suddenly I heard a massive explosion which was like a shotgun going off inside the car. Pieces of shattered glass fell on my head and I immediately pulled over into the emergency lane. At first I thought that someone threw a rock at the car, but the last bridge I passed was a way back. I drove on a few km and stopped at a service station to inspect the damage. I was expecting to find a piece of scrap metal or a rock lying in the car...but there was nothing...just pieces of glass all over and into every little crevice (aarrrrgh!). The interior was undamaged.
I noticed that the remaing glass on the sunroof was angled outwards, like it blew from the inside out. I now understand that this is due to lower air pressure outside the car when driving on the freeway. If the sunvisor was closed then at least all the glass wouldn't have fallen into the car *sigh*. I closed it to give some protection from more glass falling in and drove it straight home.

After reading other forum posts, I'm now 90% certain that this was not due to an object striking the sunroof, but rather a structural defect somewhere in the glass...possibly combined with a stiff frame around the glass stressing a hairline fracture or small chip and causing the glass to shatter. The outside temp was about 10degrees(C) and I didn't have the heater or aircon switched on. The sound system wasn't playing loudly at all.

I'm not quite sure what do about this on a Sunday. I'm leaving the car parked in the garage and driving it to the dealer first thing on Monday. Call me pessimistic, but I think they're going to say it was a rock and deny responsibility...redirecting me to my insurance company. This is what nearly everyone else in the US has experienced with the same problem.
What worries me is that this is unsafe. I could have been seriously injured or caused a major accident from the noise and glass falling all over me. Windscreens don't shatter into a million pieces when they develop cracks or when small rocks chip away at them.

Oh...there are now a few new little deep paint chip marks and scratches all long the back of the roof, down along the rear sides and few on the trunk (no doubt caused by pieces of glass). So much for a perfect paint job and hours of weekend detailing
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      05-10-2009, 04:06 AM   #2
Robert
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I thought this was a e90 only issue....
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      05-10-2009, 04:22 AM   #3
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Another reason to not order a sunroof, glad I didn't. Keep us updated on what happens
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      05-10-2009, 03:36 PM   #4
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A pic that I took this morning..

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      05-10-2009, 04:52 PM   #5
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I would take a bunch of pictures if you haven't already-try to capture how the glass is curving upwards. That way if they try to tell you that it was hit with something you can tell them you have pictures that indicate the exact opposite. This really sucks and I feel your pain. Hopefully BMW is made aware of this and can act towards making sure this never happens in the future.
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      05-10-2009, 05:08 PM   #6
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scary...
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      05-10-2009, 05:23 PM   #7
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I have never heard of anything like this happening before....

How common is this in the e90 community??
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      05-10-2009, 05:43 PM   #8
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very scary indeed.. keep us in the loop.
dealer should cover this, if this is a defect
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      05-10-2009, 06:00 PM   #9
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Sounds like the sunroof frame was put on too tight, and caused the glass to try to buldge outward to releave the stress. That's scary shit! Hopefully they take care of you at the dealership.
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      05-11-2009, 10:22 PM   #10
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wow!
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      05-11-2009, 10:28 PM   #11
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You'll find this happens to all other makes and models of cars at some time. Not sure if its a defect or bad install but its not just a BMW issue.
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      05-11-2009, 10:33 PM   #12
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Oh man! I'm sorry to hear that! That makes me wonder now, I just had the dealer adjust my sunroof last week...I better go take a look at it.
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      05-12-2009, 01:23 AM   #13
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Update 1:

I spent a lot of time on the phone and at the nearest dealership to my office yesterday. The dealer was sympathetic and said he'd heard of this happening on an X5 before. Unfortunately, BMW SA declined my request for this to be repaired under warranty...and I suspect they did the same for the X5 driver. They reminded me that:
A) Motorplan doesn't cover glass.
B) They have no way of knowing that it wasn't a rock or something else.
C) The glass pointing upwards will always happen due to lower air pressure outside (which I have to concede with).
D) My insurance should cover this fully anyway (but what about the excess?)

So now the car will be repaired at the dealer and sent for a BMW approved paint fix up job. I just want to get this done. Maybe I'll trade the car in for a 135i - sans sunroof.
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      05-12-2009, 06:49 AM   #14
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We just had this happen to the windshield of a combine sitting at the port of Baltimore over the weekend. Stevedors heard a loud pop / explosion, walked the rows and found our combine with a shattered windshield. Glass bowed outwards.

Back in the BMW E30 days they had an issue of rear windows shattering / exploding. Seems the rear window defroster was too powerful. Heated up the cold glass way to quick.
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      05-12-2009, 07:02 AM   #15
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It's a cryin' shame we can't order a 1-series coupe in the USA without the sunroof...
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      05-13-2009, 09:59 PM   #16
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Holy shit, that pic scares the crap out of me!
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      05-13-2009, 11:09 PM   #17
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A mate has a 2003 325ti and exactly the same thing happened to him....
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      05-14-2009, 12:31 AM   #18
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The same exact same thing happened to me in my Prelude years ago. Only, it was the back window. My initial instincts were the same as yours, too.
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