Hi everyone,

I'm new here and am trying to identify a problem and see if anyone here has dealt with the same problem.

I have a 2005 S Cabrio and the top will not retract. When the button is pushed, the sunroof portion works perfectly fine. When the button is pressed again, both latches (left & right) release and I can hear the motor for a moment but it goes silent and nothing moves. As is normal during a malfunction, the light on the button does flash. According to a friend who is helping me, his scanner does not throw any codes. However, he told me that it shows that the "micro-switch" is not activating because the system thinks the rear portion is not ready. I have made sure that both latches in the rear are engaged as well as the little switch that is activated by the rear tray/dash. We also see that the cables are NOT broken. According to the local Mini dealer, if there were any broken cables, the sunroof will not retract. or it will pull only from one side, unevenly.

What can it be? Has anyone here dealt with this issue? I can clearly see that many of the parts are made of plastic and do not appear durable. I have 51K miles on mine and the dealer will NOT be able to help, even though they tried to get it done under warranty or get something from the factory in the form of goodwill, to no avail.

Can anyone please let me know if you have had any experience like this and how you solved it? I want to do it myself but I do not even know where to begin. By all accounts, the Cabrios are a pain when it comes to their top mechanism. My local dealer cannot even tell me how much they will charge me to diagnose the problem. They say it will depend on what's wrong with it and they may have to "get into it" to find out the problem. In other words, if it takes them 5 hours to figure it out, it will be 5 times their hourly rate. Unfortunately, they cannot even tell me how long it may take them to figure it out. This is the first time I've heard of an open ended diagnostic time with no preset limit. I do not want to pay them hundreds of dollars for them to tell me it will take another $3000.00 to fix it.

I thank you for your ideas and suggestions, ahead.

 

Your shelf in the boot...the top rests on...probably needs to be reset...two latches (one left and one right) opens to the shelf...lift shelf put it down...lock the latches...and try again.

If that doesn't work...Take it to your SA at the MINI Dealer and he/she should show you how to reset the top.

 

Thank you inimini2007.

I did try your suggestion on the shelf and that did not fix it. I will try to get it to the dealer to see if they can show me how to reset the top and let you know. I just thought it was unusual that they couldn't even tell me how much it will cost me to diagnose the problem and give me an estimate. They just said that at worst, you will have to replace the top at a cost of more than $3,000. But I somehow feel that it may be something easy since the sunroof portion works just fine.

Again, thank you inimini2007.

I wonder if anyone has had the same issue.

 

Top was reset and "timed" but did not help. They simply suggested replacing the entire mechanism with the redesigned "cassette" and everything at a cost of more than $3K while they do admit that it is not thowing ANY codes and the cables are NOT broken, especially given the fact that the sunroof portion works fine and now disengages both latches but stops when it should start retracting the entire top. They appeared as clueless as I am in terms of identifying what it could be.

I want to attempt it myself but understand that it is not an easy job. People here actually hated the experience. I tried an independent BMW shop that also has started working on Mini Coopers but they couldn't give me an estimate either because they cannot diagnose the cause. In fact, they said that they can get into it and may not even be able to put it back together with the sunroof portion working, etc. added to the fact that they will charge their regular hourly rate while doing so. In short, they would charge me about a thousand bucks for them to open it, look at it, and give it back to me in a functionally worse condition since they estimated at least 6 hours to open it and just as much to put it back together at more than $90/hr - with no guarantees that they will even be able to put it back together the way it was. That's why I'm willing to take a leap of faith into DIY....unless, someone in the Denver (CO) area has done it before and has the time to do it as a side gig?

Any ideas will be appreciated.