Hi all

I picked up a late 2004 R52S in January for the grand total of £50 - an absolute bargain from a family member. I've been working to get it back looking good again over the last couple of weeks and one of the final issues to sort is the roof.

I've searched the forums extensively and it appears to be a broken part of the passenger side assembly.

Here are the steps that happen until the roof mechanism stops responding. - video to illustrate
1) Press 'roof down' and the sunroof slides back to its fully open position.
2) Lift finger and press 'roof down' again: The driver and passenger windows drop halfway and the rear smaller windows do down fully.
3) Once the windows are all down the sunroof then slides back a couple more inches and then stops.
4) The red light on the sunroof up button starts flashing and 9/10 I have to power cycle the car to be able to close the sunroof again.

Why do I think it's the passenger side mechanism?
1) I can lift the drivers side hook out of its socket by hand. The passenger side hook is still latched in. Loosely, but still closed enough that it can't be lifted out.
2) There is a piece of plastic hanging out from the mechanism trim which looks like a piece on the photos I've seen on this forum.

I'm hoping it's not the cables as I know that's the most expensive part. I was under the impression that if the cable was broken then the sunroof wouldn't retract. Am I wrong there?

Thank you for your time!


The broken plastic in question

The broken plastic in question

 

@ECSTuning I see your name pop up in a lot of the convertible issues threads on here. I don’t suppose this might be something you know the answer to?

 

That looks like the end of the little arm that latches/unlatches the hook that hooks into the top of the A-pillar. Looks like it's broken apart somehow, which means it can't unlatch the hook on that side (which is why you can't get the roof to disconnect from the A-pillar on that side.

 

It is one of these. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...r/54347174763/

Very common failure mode on verts. I just replaced both in my R52 before I sold it. I have a spare LH side one for sale in the parts section.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...iver-side.html

 

+1 ^^. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...r/54347174763/ is the part and replaced in pairs as that part.

Here is all the info in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ble-top-2.html
Early R52 MINI dont have that little notch on the end.

 

Thanks. Glad to hear it's not the cables.

Thank you for the confirmation and the offer. Unfortunately I'm not in the US so it wouldn't worthwhile for me (cost wise).

Thanks. I thought it may be that piece but I wasn't sure (hence the post). I managed to find an exact match on eBay for £50 so I've ordered that. It's a late 2004 so it had the hook without any notch. I've since learned there are three different versions - mine has the first one. Hopefully that gets the roof working again!

I'll report back on how it goes. Thanks again all.

 

Progress has been made!

So I took apart the locking hook mechanism which opened up the hook itself, allowing the roof to completely unlatch. I tried to get the roof to go down with the button but it still wouldn't work. I eventually realised that the sunroof on the affected side wasn't level with the working drivers side. I remembered reading a post on here where the user said they tried pushing the mis-aligned side while using the sunroof open button. I tried it and it worked!

The sunroof now goes up and down everytime :D

The remaining issue is that the last bolt holding in the old locking hook is stuck and I can't get it out. The bolt/screw spins freely when I untighten it and it will also let me tighten it back up so it's secure. I just can't pull it out...

I thought it was me being dumb, so I tried the one on the opposite side of the car and it came out without issue. I've attached a pic below of the bolt/screw for clarity. Any suggestions on how I can get this out?!

 

Try unscrewwing with a little pliers on it to pull out at the same time. hardware is in this section, here is what they look like.

Hardware section R52 MINI Convertible: https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2005-...y/Convertible/

 

Thanks @ECSTuning. I borrowed some mole grips, a steel pin and a hammer from a neighbour and got it out. Process complete!

Though I managed to lose the screw that keeps the linkage cover in place on both sides of the car. I'm not sure how I've managed that but here we are... I can't even remember what the damned things look like. Picture: https://i.imgur.com/wkCVlmm.jpg

I've noticed a new problem though (annoyingly). The rear window gasket sits lower than the rest of the frame. It seems to be built into the roof mechanism and not easy to adjust. I noticed that when the roof is down and stowed, it sits slightly higher on that side of the car so I can see the locking hook.We're talking like 1 inch - MAYBE 2. This is all hidden on the other side of the car so it looks like something needs adjusting. Here's a pic for reference:




Thanks again for the help.

 

Welcome, their is some fine adjustment on a screw under the fabric. You might find some shims under their also as i had a dealer adjustment for gap and they put them there, 2 screws back there. Let me know if you find them. Missing screws: Those screws are in that kit above in the pic. .

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=54_0342

On being off that much it loosk like the roof top needs cycled and not siting in place all the way, try that first. as those adjustment on the back side of those stripes are not for 1-2" , its for mm size.

 

Unfortunately I didn't get that far today. I put the roof down while I worked on replacing the cassette player and broken glove box. When I finished and put the roof back up, I heard a snap/cracking sound above my head just as the roof latches were closing.

Now the sunroof is seemingly stuck. It will move back about half an inch when you press the sunroof open button, but then it stops dead and then I can only close it back up again. At least it's broken in a closed position I guess.

My god this car is frustrating!

 

any updates? I'm working through issues with my roof and this thread has a lot of good info!

 

Any updates? I'm working through issues with my roof and this thread has a lot of good information. I'd like to hear how you got it worked out.

 

Unfortunately not. After it broken again after being fixed, I’ve not had the motivation to work on it again.

I will update if I figure it out in the future. To be honest, I might just source a new roof and replace the lot.

 

I appreciate the reply. Thanks, Captain.

 

I'm going to try and attempt to get this working again.

@ECSTuning, I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Does it sound like one of the cables has broken? I'll be clearing out the garage in a few weeks time so I'll have somewhere to properly work on the car and strip it all back.

 

Yep, sound like they snapped or something else broke. I would take apart the top cassette and see whats going one. Remove the inside side trims and see if you can see what's going on in there.

 

I am working on a video that shows almost all the bits. I am fixing my roof and have it peeled back to the crossbar. I think I found my issue but I haven't tested my theory yet. Anyway, not a great video but it will give you a different view of all the mechanicals.

 

Ok,thanks

 

I never updated this, so here's a quick one for anyone stumbling across this thread looking for help.

So when I fixed the roof (see my earlier posts in the thread), the reason it broke again was because there was broken glass in the tracks. This is what caused the misalignment and led to the cables snapping not long after I'd fixed it.

The broken glass was there because some scumbag broke the passenger window to steal the change out of the cupholders. While the window had been replaced and the interior cleaned up, glass has a funny frustrating way of shattering into so many pieces that you never really get all of it.

This happened prior to my ownership. While I knew about the incident, I didn't see any correlation with the roof issues until I took the car to The Mini Guy here in the UK to get the roof fixed again. He had a whole dustpan full of broken glass that he'd cleaned out of the sunroof mechanism.

So it was incredibly frustrating that this was the only reason that the roof broke again after I'd fixed it.