sun roof blind runners

[david75]

I am trying to fix the inner blind on my sun roof.

Three issues:
1) The runners on the passenger side are bent, and I have a bought set of new ones, so that's ok.
2) On the right-hand side, the metal spring bits on the edge of the blind: the one near the front is bent but I think I can bend it back to straight (although I suppose it might break). The one near the back has one prong broken off, so is useless.
3) The plastic runners that attach to these springy bits: One was lying in the runner groove so I have recovered it; the other is missing.

I see a supplier on eBay that has a repair kit - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193932716...YAAOSw1S9WgTrI and see photo attached here.
As I already have the passenger side runners I don't need the whole kit, but I have written to the supplier asking if he can supply just the right-hand runners (outlined in yellow on my picture). I await his reply.
But what can I do about the metal springy bits that are bent/broken (as per my item 2 above)?
Does anyone know whether I can get these separately, and whether they unclip/would clip onto the edge of the blind? Or maybe I'll need a whole new blind (I hope not)

Advice welcomed.

[david75]

Originally Posted by david75

As I already have the passenger side runners I don't need the whole kit, but I have written to the supplier asking if he can supply just the right-hand runners (outlined in yellow on my picture). I await his reply.

Supplier of the repair kit says it only comes as a kit so they won't supply the individual bits. Any ideas anyone?

[3disco]

A seller on eBay does a kit for a bmw e46 which looks similar and possibly the same for £18-95 they are called LTS car parts.

[david75]

Originally Posted by 3disco

A seller on eBay does a kit for a bmw e46 which looks similar and possibly the same for £18-95 they are called LTS car parts.

Yes, someone else as told me the same, and I have ordered these: Link

[david75]

These arrived today, so I will be trying to fit them at the weekend

[david75]

I forgot to update this after last weekend.

It is all now fixed, but not without a few problems.

The procedure for getting the inner blind out involves taking the glass completely out of the sunroof by unscrewing the 6 (3 on each side) small torx screws that hold it in place. The problem was that on one side 2 of the screws would not budge and in the process of trying, I managed to strip the star-shaped socket in the screw-heads. They do not appear to be corroded, but on the ones that I did manage to extract I noticed that there is some sort of thread lock on the threads, so maybe that's the problem on the ones that won't budge.

Rather than go down the route of trying to drill them out (and risk damaging the headlining or the quite delicate-looking sunroof mechanism struts; and in any case I would also need to source some replacement screws), I managed to get the inner blind out by lifting up just one side of the glass and pulling it out from the side.

Anyway after installing the replacement runners on the inner blind, repairing the fabric covering, and cleaning and lubricating all the runners and channels that they run in, I managed to reinstall the inner blind, again feeding it in under the glass from the side where I could lift up the glass.

So everything is now back in place and all works.

At the moment I don't plan on tackling the non-budging/stripped-head screws, although I suppose I might if something else goes wrong with the sunroof in the future.

I measured one of the screws that did come out, so if I ever manage to get the damaged ones out the replacements I think I need are M5 screws with 10mm of thread and a Torx25 head (although a standard hex Allen key head might be easier). Can anyone confirm that?

[rab60bit]

Originally Posted by david75

These arrived today, so I will be trying to fit them at the weekend

The links to supplier shown in the thread appear to be broken.
My recent search results in a number of UK suppliers offering kits for the E46 (amongst other BMW models), have these been found suitable for our cars (and....are kits for the saloon and Tourer identical?).

[david75]

Originally Posted by rab60bit

The links to supplier shown in the thread appear to be broken.
My recent search results in a number of UK suppliers offering kits for the E46 (amongst other BMW models), have these been found suitable for our cars (and....are kits for the saloon and Tourer identical?).

Yes, the links in my original posts no longer work, but I guess that's what happens with specific ebay links - it was a couple of years ago, and they do tend to come and go.

But yes, I do recall that what I bought was a BMW E46 repair kit, and if you go on ebay and type "e46 sunroof repair kit" you'll see loads of options.