[trixxwabbit]

Hey wasup guys! I found this great site even though Iv'e had my car for almost 2 years now.

Sorry to say, but my first post/thread is sharing my story about this morning.

Details:
60ish on freeway
all windows closed because its getting cold here in LA.
passed under an underpass and a second or so later, i hear this shot-gun explosion from my roof. I thought someone threw a dam rock at my roof or something since there wasn't really any cars around me. I pull off the freeway and begin taking pictures freaked out that this can happen. WHO HAS AIM LIKE THIS? I never ever thought that these things can explode all of a sudden as I read in another post.

Well I called my insurance and CHP because I had no idea that spontaneous explosions can happen. I will go to BMW tommorrow for a chat and possible repairs from "good will."

Can anyone give me ideas of what they went through to get this fixed from BMW? I really don't have $500 to throw around for an insurance deductible.

FYI, its krazy but the glass is kind of bending outwards So yea im just trying to figure it all out to see how to resolve this issue. Sucks, looks like rain for this week too.

Thread is useless without pix as forum rules depict from gixxer.com also haha. Here you go.

Thanks and wasup guys, great forum.

Mike

[trixxwabbit]

aww crap sorry guys, these pictures from my LG Dare, didn't think it would be this huge. Apologies.

I did not take any of the shattered glass out either, you notice how little debris there is?

Mike

[akack79]

sunroof exploding - it's happend before, hope you get it resolved with BMW.

[The_AMG_Hunter]

Holy shit that sucks,if your car is still under warranty they should fix it free of charge.
Welcome to the forum!

[Donald-335i]

wow man thats fucking insane and the glass is bending outwards!!! i don't have a clue to what i can tell you i just hope BMW takes care of it GoodLUCK!

[trixxwabbit]

Hey thanks for the support guys! Stealerships get all shifty when you come in with a claim of problems on their product. Yea my car is only 2 years old so it is still under warranty. I know from past experience when dealing with insurance companies repairs are pretty fast, but I'm not sure how stealerships handle it with all their protocols n all.

Mike

[hobbyistinc]

I read about something like this a while ago on bimmerpost. As far as i'm concerned that's a warranty repair. It is definitely a product defect when the glass shatters on its own without u throwing something at it. Don't even think about paying for it, hopefully the dealership wont give u trouble. If they do call up BMWNA and they'll sort it out. If i were u i'd be pissed lol..

[SES_D]

your definitely not the first that has had this happened. There are a bunch of threads discussing this and hopefully one of them can help you.

Good luck!

[Seminole]

Wow, that is insane!

+1 on the getting BMW to fix it. Don't get your insurance involved.

[MCMLXXXIX]

whoa thats crazy man!... theres no debris anywhere

oh and the inside of the sunroof is nasty lol

oh, good luck with the problem!

[bmw-hoya]

Originally Posted by akack79

sunroof exploding - it's happend before, hope you get it resolved with BMW.

Personally, I'm glad that the OP posted this. This sunroof exploding shit happens too much and we need to know about it. Complete bullshit.

[lkn]

looks like a clean fracture. hope you get everything resolved at the dealership.

[KkSc]

Ouch!!

[bsamoul]

Lucky you had the shade closed!

[Phil G.]

Hope BMW doesn't tell you that your sunroof must've been hit by some object like a rock. I've never heard of this happening - incredible!!! Good luck.

[chazzz]

Seems that "exploding sunroof" often happens right after going through the underpass. I have an interesting theory. Everytime you go through the underpass you'd often hear the noise due to echoes from other noisy cars & trucks. The dB (noise level) is always high in underpass area.
The certain sound waves can break the glass, somewhat similar if you play the music with very high "C", the wine glass will break. I think BMW's sunroof glass is low in quality and weak, it "breaks" right after going through the high dB area underpass. Let's compare between the wine glass and sunroof glass: the wine glass is structured much differently from sunroof glass. I believe that the wine glass is much more stronger due to design & shape. The sunroof glass is more of flat and is designed to break into thousand tiny pieces (to prevent from hurting the driver & passenger during the accident). I believe that the sunroof glass isn't as strong as a wine glass because it's flat. The center of the sunroof is probably the weakest point.
Maybe BMW engineering/design want to the sunroof light and thin, to save the weight for better fuel consumption?
Maybe someone out there have a special measuring gadget to measure the thickness of our 3-series sunroof, and compare it to other brand...say Nissan Maxima's sunroof. I'll bet that Maxima's sunroof is thick and stronger...

[Lassaxi]

ANOTHER exploding sunroof? Hadn't seen anyone report one of these in a while. Be sure to do some searching and reading about this- there are a lot of reports of this happening to various people, almost exclusively while driving at highway speeds. Different people have differing degrees of success with getting BMW to cover the repair under warranty. Far too many dealers are calling this non-warranty work when there is clearly a defect in the glass that is the culprit.

Good luck, and keep us all posted!

[scollins]

Originally Posted by bsamoul

Lucky you had the shade closed!

EVERY blown sunroof has had the shade closed! I've not read of a single occurrence where it happened with the shade open.

My theory is that the shade seals up a little too tight, creating a pocket of higher pressure between the shade and the glass. A change in pressure on the oustide (either higher or lower) then causes the glass to flex beyond its breaking point. And BAM! busted sunroof.

I know it is a workaround, but I suggest leaving the shade open just a little bit to help alleviate that pressure build up......

[K330i]

Originally Posted by scollins

EVERY blown sunroof has had the shade closed! I've not read of a single occurrence where it happened with the shade open.

I know it is a workaround, but I suggest leaving the shade open just a little bit to help alleviate that pressure build up......

+1..... just say yes to crack (that sunroof shade)

[bsamoul]

Now that I think about that, you're right. They have always been closed. I have always found it weird that the shade doesn't have any vents on it. Our MB sunroof has a vent on the shade so that probably helps alleviate some of the pressure.

[darkphantom]

Originally Posted by akack79

sunroof exploding - it's happend before, hope you get it resolved with BMW.

definitely need to search, 103284 threads came to mind when I saw this.

Sorry for your troubles OP - it's a known issue, and I believe they have a fix for it.

Good luck!

[777ER]

Originally Posted by scollins

EVERY blown sunroof has had the shade closed! I've not read of a single occurrence where it happened with the shade open

Oh really? I already heard at least 1 that had the sunroof shattered and rained bits of glass into the cabin.