On my way to AMVIV last Thursday morning my rear sunroof exploded. At first I thought something must have hit me but after looking at the car... not a scratch on her and the glass was pushed up, not down.

I've been searching and found similar situations on many types of cars.... but very few MINI's. I want to know if any other R56's have had this problem.

 

That's really strange. I have read other reports but none on the R56. Maybe the Mythbusters need to be called in.

 

holy carp.

 

OMGoodness...that must have scared the heck out of you!

 

It did! Then I immediately went into shock and denial.

 

Did you have the glass tinted? I read that can cause a heat trap in the layers of glass and cause the explosion.

poyzin

 

Thats the first sign of addiction

 

Nope.

 

Loud music, head banging in the back seat?

 

The hideous results of a brain-fart...

 

As recommended by insurance guru CR&PW&JB, I'm glad I just changed my comp deductible to $50 in case mini blames something like that on my flatulence problem. I'm guessing it falls under "windstorm". Only adds $50 a year.

 

The 1st gens had occurrances of this as well. The same result. Shattered glass that pushes up. Does not need to have been tinted or altered in any way, and not even a case of extreme hot or cold temps or differentials. It just, well, happens.

Being that the glass pushes up would lead me to think that the frame around the glass is too tight, or does not let the glass naturally expand and contract. The slightest stress riser in the glass will cause it to burst.

 

It would be great to know what factors cause this, I've seen this happen on various BMW forums for different models over the years and I'm darn curious what specifically makes this happen. We need a sunroof CSI investigation

 

A night at the Roxbury.


See 2:15


Covered under warranty??

 

The jury is still out on that one. The Service Manager is waiting to hear back from someone to see if they'll cover it. Meanwhile the car is fixed and sitting at the Dealership... if I pick it up, they'll make me pay. So I wait... at least I have a loaner car.

 

Jeez, that's scary. I think I'd have jumped lanes and pranged my ride.

 

Although your MINI suffered, I'm sooooooooo glad that nothing happened to you other than some minor blood loss from the broken glass, lol. I hope this gets resolved soon!

 

geezus.... and you were in the car?!? crazy. thats like hella crazy. but now you can tell your friends a dead body thrown out of the nakatomi building courtesy of john mcclane fell onto your car to mess with em.

 

keep us posted on this.... i hope everything gets taken care of under warranty.

 

That was probably caused by a manufacturing defect,(internal stress on glass) they should replace it under warrenty since you did not have it tinted or decaled.

 

I promise to keep you posted. Thanks for the support!

 

How hot was the outside air temp? Glass expands with heat. If it was a tight fit, that would be the root cause .... thermal expansion > explosion!!

 

It wasn't hot outside... around 48-52 degrees outside. I had the windows and sunroof closed and the heater on.

 

I wonder if glass coverage would cover a glass sunroof?

 

Well I just got a call from the Dealer and they said that the "Manufacturer" is not going to cover the sunroof under the warranty. They said that there have been no other reports of exploding R56 sunroofs. They concluded that a rock must have hit me. What aim!

I am not happy.