I got my 09 Clubman JCS with the knowledge that it will have several issues I'll need to address "eventually". The Turbo was coming apart & streaming hot gas onto the valve cover, melting part of it. There were other oil leaks to address. "Eventually" has become "Now" & I should be back on the road sometime Monday.

I didn't pay any attention to the sunroof, but was able to open it up without issue ... closing it was another matter. The dealer said they could have their best service guy look at it. He toggled the switch and proclaimed the tracks 'dirty'. It also may be a bad motor, or bad switch, or something else, but he proclaimed that they could run a diagnostic, and fix it. I nearly tipped over from thinking about the weight loss that was about to happen as they vacuumed out all that money from my wallet.

The owner's manual said that, after electrical interruption (battery change) and (as I discovered later) also the tire pressure monitor reset, it will need a system initialization & to .... go ... see ... a ... dealer.

I found that, when you simply wait for 30 minutes, the sunroof will reset enough to be able to close it, BUT when you open it again, it dies again & needs another 30 minutes to reset.

I also found out that if you fully open the sunroof from a fully closed position and then: ** Hold the switch on ** for 10 seconds after it's fully opened, it will reset (initialize) on it's own. Recent experience that this will need to be done after disconnecting the battery, and also after you tamper with the reset setting on the tire pressure monitor.

Summary: When your sunroof is stuck open, grab your keys and walk away for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, you will be able to fully close the sunroof. Next step is to fully open it, then keep your finger on the switch for another 10 seconds after it's already fully open.

Later, when speaking to a sales guy at the dealer, he admitted that this same procedure works on the windows, too.

Now that I know my Mini Dealer isn't any more forthcoming about stuff than Ford or Nissan, I'm better prepared to keep the unscrupulous Service Managers from reaching as deeply into my pockets.

 

Waiting 30 minutes didn’t work for me, any other suggestions?

 

Since my initial post in 2016, the sunroof continued to intermittently get stuck. The 'walkaway for 30' eventually didn't work anymore, but the 'push & hold the button until closed, then keep holding for another 20 seconds' did ... for a while.
Last year (2019) the sunroof motor quit altogether. My local mechanic (also owns a Mini) said that the sunroof was driven by a motor equipped with a plastic gear. Eventually the plastic breaks, the motor seizes up & the hole thing needs replacement. So, now I have a new motor - it works great & no further sticking or need to walkaway or reset.
My guess is that the motor would overheat & freeze up, needing 30 minutes to cool down. IMO, your sunroof motor is amidst dying completely like mine did & will sooner or later need to be replaced.
Save up your pennies now & look for a Non-Dealer mechanic to fix it.

 

That’s alarming news to me. This car has 6900 miles on it and this happened this morning early, before it was even hot.

 

What year is your car? Is it under warranty? If you have a warranty, let the pirates at the dealership fix it on their dime.

 

It’s a 2019 with 6500 miles on it.

 

My 2009 mini sunroof also would not close all the way. The 30 minute wait and the 10 second hold of the switch after opening the sunroof did not reset the system. Luckily resetting the tire pressure monitor seemed to work! I have not retested the system yet by reopening the sunroof!!

 

my sunroof is stuck open. The driver-side arm doesn’t move forward and will not collapse to a closed position. Anyone know jow to remove the arm ?

 

Problem Solved

Preface: I own an Autoglass business and had to troubleshoot a mini R-series last week, I was searching around the internet for more info (including this thread here) but had no luck. I spent 4 hours troubleshooting an finally figured it out. (Part of trouble shooting was cleaning out the tracks of all the debris and re- lubricating) to do this, it’s easy there are 6 torques 27 screws holding each piece of glass on. If you drop one in the track it’s handy to have a magnet.

When to recalibrate:
Whether you have wind noise coming from the sunroof, it won’t open, it won’t close, or it closes, but then it bounces back open to the vent position, calibration will usually fix these issues.


How to recalibrated panoramic mini sunroof. press the sunroof button to the close position all the way down and hold for close to 2 minutes. If the sunroof is closed, the closed sunroof will begin to open automatically (keep holding the button) the sunroof will then begin to close automatically (keep holding the button). Once the sunroof is completely closed, you can let go of the button and it is now recalibrated. your issue should be solved at this point.

Things to look out for:
I let go of the button half way through my first calibration attempt and the sunroof would not move after that, it was stuck open. I was a little nervous about this, but I tried again, holding the button it down for 2 minutes. The sunroof went to the closed position and didn’t move again. (So if your sunroof is stuck open you may have to do this process twice to calibrate, because I believe it has to be closed to recalibrate) I tried for a third time from the closed position and kept holding the button this time, it opened all the way and closed all the way. I then tested it and it worked perfectly.

(My original problem was when I tried to close it, it would close then open into the vent position every time, however, one could gently tap the button till it closes all the way and override the automatic feature, but it was for a customer who wanted it to work perfectly, so I had to figure it out.

 

My sunroof just failed unexpectedly open, so could not secure it.
just 4 year olds.
For a supposedly premium brand vehicle you'd expect pushing a switch to last a little longer.
No different from operating the doors or tailgate! (they get more use) - you push a button and it operates - doors are unlocked by the handle.
Not been told which component failed, maybe the so called technicians have no clue as they don't troubleshoot. Plus has to pay £100 the privilege to be told it had failed.
Was quote £1,050 for the repair.
In the UK we do have the Consumer Act as you'd expect certain items to last a little longer.
We felt it was substandard components on a premium brand vehicle as originally over £40k new.
Like many parts some components are cheaply sourced and big brands try to fob folk off.
So really not impressed when cheap ****ty components fail therefore it is a manufactures defect/fault and they need to acknowledge this and step up.
Our issues was flick the toggle and something was jamming it and then plastic fell out, so the motor mechanism failed too as if there is resistance then it should stop, ie like trapped fingers etc. It stops but the motor tried to close the roof and something was catching nearside.

Car been in dealership for a week - will struggle to recommend BMW mini as don't need silly highly inflated bills every 4 years.
BMW did come to the party a little and the local dealership helped as we made our concerns crystal clear.