TIME89

I read about exploded sunroof more then one time on BMW forums.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...nroof+exploded

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...nroof+exploded

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...nroof+exploded

Stuttgartrob

Looks to me that this will be an insurance claim more than a warranty issue.

Evlengr

Take a close look at the "Bat". It appears to be a ice scraper/brush.

The way the glass buckled it is very unlikely that it was due to something dropping on that. It is shifting upward like two tectonic plates.

If they fight you on it talk to your insurance company and let them duke it out with the dealer. I'm sure an experienced adjuster will find the cause immediately. Expecially if you have brought it in for service for the rattles previously?

Jacou21

Yes it is indeed my winter brush/scraper - which btw i've never used on the roof itself.

This week was the first cold week in Montreal. The first 2 days before the -19C, it was actually around 0 with freezing rain and then it went to -19C in less than 24 hours.

I sure hope i will not need to fight with the dealer over this one (some of the comments make me think they might argue this is not a defect but more an accident). Nothing makes me believe this was actually an accident however. I live in a pretty safe area, doors were locked and i don't see how this could have been done from outside the car. As for the kids, well the oldest of the 3 is 3yr old so needless to say he never goes in the car by himself, or he would have the strenght to do this. The "tectonic plates" is to me a good representation on how the cracks appeared on the roof, with pressure on each side

I will update the thread once i speak with my dealer. I might be a bit naive but i have a feeling this will go well. We shall see ...

On a brighter note, it is snowing in Montreal this morning - hard to have a better Christmas morning for the kids.

Thunder22

And in all 3 cases, BMW denied the warranty repair, with the dealer fixing one in good faith.

It's not a BMW or Audi exclusive.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1291fc

To the OP: is it possible that the cause was vandalism?

Jacou21

About possible vandalism, i doubt it cause if you look at the picture or the video, really before we close the door all the pieces of the roof are still there. So it is almost like the person would have "pulled" the window towards the top, which appears very difficult to do. Would have been so much easier to throw a baseball in window or hit the car with a bat if someone wanted to do vandalism - unless this was the dumbest vandal ever.

I have read the different BMW stories that you mentioned. They all seem to have in common the fact that something happened on the high way with a big "bang". English is not my first language and as such "Exploded" is probably too big of a word in my case. I didn't hear any sound or seen anything, the car was ok when I parked it around 7pm the previous evening, and then we found the roof as in the video when my wife wanted to take the car around 8am the next morning. The picture where there is a missing part on the roof is once we close the read door, at which point it fell on the floor. This being said, there was certainly a sound when the window cracked (presumably during the night) but i wasn't around to hear it.

One thing though that i'm happy I mentioned to my dealer when i called him to take an appointment (Monday 20th) was that:

1) When it was below 0C, i could hear very loud rattling when going over small bumps, a bit like if you put a piece of glass on a floor and you jump around it to make it bounce.
2) As soon as temperature would go above 0C or the heater in the car would have been running for 30 minutes or os, then the rattling would stop.
3) When i opened the roof on the 20th to try to see if opening/closing it would "fix the rattling" - i could see some humidity/droplets in the aluminium roof rail.

I'm glad I took the video before we drove the car into the garage, but looking at the BMW stories i can see how bad it can go.

tridentnyc

What a great attitude you have on this, good for you! I hope you and your family had a great Christmas.

Chrispmoto

Good luck, Merry Chritmas, and keep us posted please. I am sure it will all work out.
I am curious, as I asked about this before ordering our car WITH the sunroof.

loscoz

???
would this be remnants of the 'water' folks are mentioning is the cause?

I can speak from experience here, my previous car had a glass roof and some ice chunks fell off the 4th story roof at work and went through it and these images, is as mentioned, are showing damage occurring from the inside out not from something falling onto it!

Glad no one was hurt & keep us updated how this goes.

mtberman

Looks like water was trapped and then froze, creating lateral pressure on the glass. You can see in the photos that the car was wet, and where freezing water had then bubbled up and out of the seams as it froze. The freezing probably happened quickly, before the water could evaporate or seep down.

The front roof panel has soft-ish edges that allow for some "give" for this sort of situation. Not sure about the fixed piece. Regardless, whatever space Audi designed into the roof for this purpose was clearly not enough for this particular situation.

My guess is that the only way to prevent this would have been to dry the car before it froze, or maybe to let it thaw slowly until trapped ice had softened and either drained or evaporated away. Thank goodness it happened when no one was in the car.

We sometimes get drastic temperature changes (50-60°F swings in less than 24 hours) here in Colorado. It's common to see windshields and glass roofs fail in those conditions. Fortunately, we don't get freezing rain.