I had the convertible top latch fail on my 2006 mini cooper S. I originally used the motor to retract the sunroof prior to starting the repair process. After repairing the latch, I am not able to move the two cassettes past the top rail as I cannot get the top rail to lock into the lower rail while closing the top. Upon further inspection, I can see that the small hook which locks the top rail into the bottom rail is not on my mini. In the photos below you can see there is no hook present in my car (first picture) but the hook is present in the second picture (I went to a junkyard for a part and noticed the hook). I find it hard to believe that both hooks failed simultaneously and am hoping that I overlooked something. Any and all help is appreciated. I originally followed the guide from this how to, but still can't figure out what I need to do to close the sunroof.

My mini (no hook)

Junkyard mini (hook)

 

Hi,

I am wondering if you ever got this fixed or if you figured out if the missing rail latch was an issue?

We are mid fix on my top, we had to replace the right front arm and cable assembly. We sourced the replacement used off of eBay. My car originally has the non-nubbed front latch. The replacement latch has the nub. So we knew there were some differences. After getting the new part in place, we realized that we are missing the back rail latch on the replacement part. The sunroof works but full convertible doesnt. I can tell we have some sort of alignment issue due to the top now rubbing the roll bars when we manually retract it. We are wondering how big of a deal it is that we have this rail latch issue (Left side has it, Right side does not). We could take the right side apart and use the rail latch from the broken assembly, but we are wondering of its necessary. A big part of why I ask is that to get the latch into the assembly a rivet must be broken and then replaced. So, to get it out we figured the same must have occurred but the rivet doesnt look freshly replaced (like the seller took the latch out before selling). We then looked at other auctions of the same part and *none* had this latch (all had the front latch with the nub so it was the newer assembly...we think). What are the odds that every seller removed this rail latch, we figure its low as we cant seem to find them for sale at a premium and that would seemingly be the only motivation to remove them. So we then are thinking this latch isnt that big of a deal. Can anyone weigh in if we are on the right track?