I'm about 250 miles from home visiting friends in Maryland when I pressed the sunroof (yeah, I know, it's the end of Februrary, go figure).

Anyway, the sunroof opened but wouldn't close all the way. It's now stuck open about one inch at the front.

The relay makes the usual clicking sounds when I press the button in either direction, so I assume that the relay is working. My guess is the sunroof motor is bad. The roof had been running slowly at times

What I'd like to do is at least temporarily close the sunroof so that I can drive home and deal with this problem later when the weather is better. I remember reading somewhere that it's possible to manually crank the sunroof with a screw driver or hex wrench, but does that apply to this model?

I opened the little panel right next to the sunroof buttons and can see the sunroof motor, but that panel is so small that you don't really have much access to anything from it. It loooks too small to me to remove the motor.

I do have a Bentley manual with me but it doesn't say anything about manually cranking the sunroof. In fact, it doesn't seem to have any information about replacing the motor.

you should have a wrench in your trunk lid . . if it's an E36 . . . the wrench is a Z shape kind of . . . crank close your sunroof.
http://server3.uploadit.org/files/skycityBMW-sunroofmotor.jpg

Thanks for the reply!

In my hurry to write that message, I didn't even mention what type of vehicle it is: It's an 1990 325i (E30).

On the model there isn't a whole panel that you can remove and have full access to the sunroof as your pic shows. There's just a small panel that you can open that gives access to the motor. Seems to be too small of a whole to remove the motor, but maybe that panel is specifically meant for this type of problem.

I do have one of those Z shaped wrenches in the toolkit. I'm gonna go try your suggestion.

look in the trunk that tool should be there if not
its garbage bag or tarp time good luck with the dilema
shit happens but never seems to happen in the right spot
good luck again

Serves me right for opening the sunroof in middle of winter, I suppose.

Well I travelled 230 miles with my sunroof open about one inch. Cold air was pouring in, so I and shoved a cloth in there to take up the gap.

When I got back I read your replie(s) to my message. I went out and tried that tool and it worked perfectly. Sunroof now closed 100%! That sure solved the problem in a flash.

I never knew what that tool was meant for. Since I don't have an owner's manual I hadn't read about it before.

Thanks again, that certainly saved the day!

Oh and one or two more questions:

1) Is there any harm in using that tool to open and close the sunroof? Can I use that as a manual crank in the interim?

2) Can anybody point me to instructions on replacing the sunroof motor on an E30 ('90 325)?

1.) I don't think it will hurt it . . . as log as you try not to force it open with anything else.

As for your 2nd question . . . I'm trying to find you an answer.

Glad you got it closed ! !