Carbon Fiber Roof Trim Issue!!!

[eocrm3]

About a week after getting my M3 I noticed that the carbon roof trim (shiny black seal that runs alongside carbon roof) starting popping up on driver's side towards the front of the car. I called BMW San Antonio as they are my nearest BMW Dealer and scheduled service for it as it's still under warranty. I make the 2 hour drive and once I'm there the SA tells me that they have to order the part because they do not have it in stock, but they do flush out brake fluid. SA tells me to return the following week to have roof trim installed.

The following week I drive up again to San Antonio, after they service the car the SA tells me that they didn't have to replace the entire trim, and only had the replace clip that the trim uses to attach to car. Kinda irritated that they couldn't have figured this out on previous service date, saving the 300 mile round trip, but I figure well at least it's fixed. I head back home and next morning I notice that now the rear portion of the driver's side trim is now popping up like the front end did. I call SA and he tells me just to take car in again and that they'll replace the entire trim to make sure I have no further issues.

So I take car in for the 3rd time, another 300 mile round trip. BMW San Antonio replaces the driver's side trim, and I head back home.
Next morning the rubber seal that is glued onto the trim has come undone...see pics below...







I've left a couple of messages for SA, but of course haven't been able to reach him

At this point I've put 1000 miles on car for the 3 trips to the dealer and am just looking for other alternatives to fixing the issue. I notice that there's a small adhesive square (from 2nd pic) that was holding the trim and weather seal together. Would removing it and cleaning both the seal and trim with goo gone and rubbing alcohol then replacing the adhesive with a piece of 3M double sided tape be a fix to the problem? Is the adhesive square used by dealer pretty much just like 3M tape? Any suggestion would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

[cpsquare8]

I would suggest you get the name and email of the BMW NA regional manager and contact them via phone and email with copies to the dealership service manager and owner. That trim needs to be fixed properly and based on your photos and story the dealer has some issue. Once you register a formal inquiry with BMW they should get it resolved. The only question I would ask is if the windshield was ever replaced? It should have a BMW Roundel along with Pilkington. None OEM and this stuff happens. No Roundel and its likely not OEM>

[eocrm3]

Windshield has never been replaced, BMW Emblem is on windshield...towards the bottom of the windshield on driver's side near inspection sticker.

[JJunkins]

Time to take matters into your own hands and glue that puppy down.

[cpsquare8]

Originally Posted by eocrm3

Windshield has never been replaced, BMW Emblem is on windshield...towards the bottom of the windshield on driver's side near inspection sticker.

That means you have an OEM window - and no issue with a warranty - given you are in TX and it gets hot this seems to be a failure of the trim which would be covered under warranty and if properly installed should not have the condition reflected in the photos. 3 times is not a good result and I would immediately get to BMW NA Call and Email - if the dealer will not resolve it -Customer Relations:
1-800-831-1117
customerrelations@bmwusa.com

It worked for me on a couple of issues - faulty display and a battery failure.

[T3X4S]

Where in Texas are you? It may be worth a drive to Austin's BMW dealership. The San Antonio dealership is not that great, and my sister ended up selling her X5 after having similar frustrating issues with that dealership.

[eocrm3]

I'm located in Laredo, Texas....Austin might be my next option as mentioned.
Out of curiosity, what issue(s) did your sister have with her X5 that BMW San Antonio couldn't resolve.....I ask because I just purchased a 2010 X5 4.8i for my wife which we'll be picking up next week.


I did finally get to speak to SA and he stated that he spoke to tech who worked on the car. The tech said that the reason the double sided tape didn't hold is because there was adhesive left over on weather strip from previous roof trim (which is visble from the 2nd pic above). I would think though that the tech should've known this potential issue beforehand and would've cleaned the weather strip before roof trim installation to avoid the issue. SA said he was going to speak to service manager to try and get approval to replace the weather strip because that would not be covered under warranty due to it being a cosmetic issue at this point......he did mention that he shouldn't have an issue getting the authorization, so we will see what he says.

[TexasSpartan]

I have the exact issue with my E92 however I don't see the BMW emblem on the windshield. It's on my list of warranty items. Hopefully they won't push back on fixing it.

[FVM3]

tell the dealer and see what they can work it out

[Jremmy]

Originally Posted by TexasSpartan

I have the exact issue with my E92 however I don't see the BMW emblem on the windshield. It's on my list of warranty items. Hopefully they won't push back on fixing it.

the EXACT same thing happened on my new '13 E92. First time the dealer fixed the trim and replaced the "clips." In doing so, they damaged the rubber seal (which was permanently raised and bent) and claimed it would "snap back" into shape eventually over time. Complete malarchy. They eventually replaced the seal and it is now completely flush. Two very important things to note:
1. Under any circumstances, do NOT let them tell you they need to replace the windshield to change that seal. It's not necessary.
2. Do not let them apply any adhesive or glue. That seal should sit flush without any glue or sealant in that space where it's currently raised.

Good luck and don't let them get away with not fixing that piece of rubber trim!

[alfx]

Try leaving the window a bit open that the car doesn't get too hot. Well I am in Toronto and it's safe in most area hope it works for you.

[dreamspeed]

Wow the closest dealership is two hours away?!

[i001947]

A friend of mine 2012 M3 starting doing that. He threaten law suit and his dealer replaced all of the seals and trims. Afterwards my friend discovered that the car washing service he was using was causing the problem using harsh window cleaner chemicals.

Go figure.

[OldenburgerM3]

exact same issue here. There must be an internal service bulletin about this problem because yours was fixed with double-sided tape too, as was mine a little while ago. That isn't the way it comes out of the factory obviously. I'm a bit frustrated about this as well, but besides telling them that it needs to be fixed I couldn't figure out how they'd go about doing it.
It's not a heat-issue, I noticed that it wasn't perfect when I picked it up in Munich and just recently got around to bugging them at the dealer to fix it along with some other minor issues.

[eocrm3]

I spoke to SA today and he stated that his manager approved the replacement of the rubber seal under warranty, so he ordered part.

So from reading other posts on this forum and talking to other forum members about the issue it seems that whenever the rubber seal is slightly moved or bent back it will no longer sit flush with the plastic trim when pushed back into place.

In my case, the rubber seal was moved back a bit when dealership replaced plastic trim due to consistent faulty clips. They then of course used the double sided tape to try and make the seal sit flush again like it previously did. I checked the passenger side of the car where the rubber seal and trim meet, and sure enough there is no double sided tape holding the two together, yet the seal sits snug on top of the seal....see below



My question is, does replacement of this rubber seal work out well? I'm just paranoid that removing the original rubber seal and having it replaced won't be as secure. I've had two prior vehicles which had front windshield replaced, and both of them had issues with the seal around the windshield coming loose after the new windshield was installed. It seems that it's tricky at times to get these seals to fit as securely as they did out of the factory.