E39 528i sunroof and window wash issues (not my car thankfully !)

Ralf*

///Member
So a customer comes in to our shop today, with "non-related" to our business issues on his E39 528i.

1)whenever he gets in the car in the morning he finds no water in the window wash system, when he fills it up, lots of water pools near the front wheel, so today we lifted it up on the lift, and had a look, but it was already 16h45....so almost closure time, I found the window wash tank, but couldn't really get a good look at it, as it will require a lot of underside panel removal.......he will return tomorrow, has anyone here had any similar issues, and were to start looking first ?

2)Sunroof...when he tries to open it, the trailing edge (glass) dips in preparation to start moving rearwards and then it stops, followed by a grinding noise as if the motor's teeth are slipping on the worm gear flex-tube

I have spent the last 3 hours searching and reading all the sunroof threads here on the forum, as well as looking at the parts catalog breakdown images, and I have decided that we (workshop) would go so far as to have a look at the reported issue discussed elsewhere that it could be a loose screw that holds the motor flush, thus causing its gears to slip on worm-gear flex, if it is worse than that we will probably advise the customer to go to one of the sunroof specialists mentioned here before....but now...where is the electric motor situated on the E39 ?.. all the threads I have read refer to the E36, would access be easy to get to it so that we can look at the integrity of the screw holding the motor onto the frame of the sunroof mechanism ?

thanks
 

Solo Man

Well-known member
The washer bottle/container having a cracked casing is a common problem. Sometimes the crack is about half way and you can fill the container and have about half of the reservoir is then available to wash the screen. Sometimes it is at the bottom, then you will have no water available. I am currently on my third E39 and my first one, a 1997/8 528i was the first with this problem. Cannot remember if my 2001 540i also had this problem but on my current E39 530d 2003 model i can only fill it to about half way. As i very seldom wash the screen with the washers it does not bother me much.
On a E34 530i V8 had the same problem. No glue that i know of will seal the crack, but maybe using a soldering iron could be the answer??
 
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