No need disconnect the battery re the airbag. The airbag can be completely left in situ and alone so no need to disconnect battery.

On the A pillar trim there's a little plastic cover with 'airbag' on it - prise that out, which reveals a screw (torx I think but can't recall). Unscrew that, and then prise the top away using fingers. Once the top's away, lift it up and out for the bottom clear the dash.

But - before you do that, have a proper look under the car with a torch to see if you can find the drain point exits - look for small rubber flaps in the floorpan just behind the front wheel arch. If you can find them, it's easier to clear drains from the bottom up than the top down.

 

Hey, big thanks for your swift reply, your help really is appreciated 🙏. Good to know about the rubber flaps! So, I've just lay down and checked both sides in that location and can't see any flaps anywhere! 😩. A bit of a big ask but what are the chances you'd be able to send me a pic of yours? I took a video of that area behind the drivers side arch but its too large to attach on here!

The photo is of the area I was looking at if you could indicate where abouts it/they should be?

 

No worries - will have a look in the morning. Health warning here: my E63 doesn't have a sunroof so I can't tell you with certainty where they are but I can take a picture of the X5 ones and their location which might give a clue as there is a fair amount of commonality in approach across the models.

 

Sorry for all the questions! Well, it's raining again so I'll be having another look later on to try to spot the point of ingress again. Hopefully it'll subside at some point so I can get under the car! I wonder if the drain tubes outlets are at the back of the car on mine. Or maybe they're hidden within the wings 🤔

 

No worries! Here's the off side drain on the old X5. It's just inside the sill, behind the jacking point. Looking at the car from the side, it's directly under the bottom of the A pillar.

 

It's quite possible your drain exit points might be behind the wheel arch liners on each side - unfortunately I just don't know (I did actually check realoem for the E63 but it's no help on this one). Anyway, I'm hoping the above might at least help check the easier option first as getting behind the wheel arch liner is a bit of a faff.

 

Yeah watching Timm's videos I might struggle with getting behind the liners, having no garage, ramps or axle stands!

 

Awesome, thanks so much! Will check this out and let you know how I get on. Much appreciated!

 

So...no joy 😫. I've not been able to locate any sunroof drain exit points beneath the car, either behind the front or rear arches so I took to checking behind the A pillar trims. Guess what, no drain tubes there!! All I could see was the airbag which ran the length of the pillar down to the base of the pillar but no pipes (here's a pic of what's in the pillar, identical on both sides).

I wonder if the drain tubes run rearwards somewhere and if the exit points are hidden within the arch liners. If I had hair I'd be tearing it out!

 

Hmm... what's behind the airbag?

 

Hi, seems like just metal. I gently pulled that material forward (assuming that is all airbag) and all I could see what the metal of the pillar!

 

Same on both sides..! So a metal tube seems to drop out from the white fabric section down to the pillar base into a thicker metal tube

 

Besides this fabric which I'm guessing contains the airbag there's nothing else there!

 

Weird!! Apologies in order for for the incorrect steer by the looks of it.

Only other thing I can think of it to open the roof and look to see where the drains are - I would expect one in each of the front two corners. You could try putting strimmer wire down them and see if you can get it to come out somewhere.

 

No apology required, I'm grateful for your advice regardless! Its nice to know this community exists. I've considered that prob but my sunroof is a tilt only so there's absolutely zero option of even seeing any drain holes. Not really sure where to go from here unfortunately. Needless to say its consuming all of my patience and spoiling the enjoyment my car which I've only had since July!

 

I think I might have to try check in the C pillar tomorrow