I purchased my mini about a month and a half ago. I've only tried opening the sunroof once. I tried it again today while sitting in my parked car and it wouldn't open. It shifted up a little and then just stopped all together. I called the dealership and they gve me some bogus answer like "We've never had that happen on an '07 mini before."

So has any one else experienced this?

So, your post is in the 1st Generation MINIs section, but you mention a 2007. Is your MINI a new 2007? I have an '02 with the sunroof and could perhaps help with that, but I don't even know what the switch looks like in an '07. In the earlier models, pressing the center of the button tilts the sunroof up. Pushing the switch forward or backward slides the sunroof the way you're sliding the button. Confused yet?

Take it to the dealership. Show them what its doing and they will fix it. They might even have snacks while you wait :p If your MINI is two months old, then there is no reason you should need to fix anything yourself (or have us help you fix it).

Thanks for the help guys

same issue here

R53 here.

all of a sudden, the roof is now stuck half open. and resets itself to strange positions.

you cannot crank it shut. at some point it seems like its seezed, but you can crank it open just fine.

so...no one has any ideas on how to close it???????????

ok, so i tried to take the sunrooff off, but the last bolt is stripped even before i got to it. so i had to put it all back together, which took like 30 minutes due to the extrwamly small space i ahve to stick a screwdriver in and both hands to get proper alignment.
what does it costto fix it? the dealers gonna have to replace the whole damn thing, im not payuign for that..
is there a way i can just cut those chains in there and close it permenantly?
anyone wanna help if they have bright ideas, im abtou at the end of wits end and gonna kill the next kid at school who mouths off to me.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Patience. Otherwise you will break something.

Wouldn't it be worth an hour's charge to have a dealer at least look at it? Classic looked at mine just to tighten it and it didn't cost much more than 1/2 hour charge.

There is a TSB on the sunroof cassette binding. You might want to take it to the dealer and ask them about it - and mention the TSB.... odds are they will fix it if you press that issue.

what is TSB?

Technical Service Bulletin

possibly.... however, just having the motor off i can tell you its NOT the motor. its runs fine. the roof slides in neutral just fine till that place. im fearing the chains are binding up.

This happened to mine this week. I fixed it by lubing with TriFlo (like WD40) and putting grease on the track. It started (symptom) with a slow close and then it would stop and reverse to full open.... eventually not coming forward at all. It made a severe rubbing sound before and is now back to perfect.

how many times did you move it back and forth before it freed itself up? i used that grafite grease (powder) and it didnt help at all...

Using the thin straw on the lubricant, I sprayed it into the cracks/slots to the rear of the window all the way back, up and down on each side. i couldn't actually see what I was hitting but assumed it was part of the track and problem. That in addition to the grease on the track fixed it for me.

My sunroof had a strange rattle for sometime and i figured it was normal until i asked the dealer about it. They said they would check it out and just for a small rattling noise they replaced the entire sunroof... You should definitely check with the dealership especially if you still have the warranty

I just returned from my 2nd Inspection at Classic. Asked for the sunroof to be checked out. The tech did a nice job, all rattles appear to be gone.