When you slam the boot you can see the sunroof jump up because of the pressure build up. The windows dip and go up because frameless windows tend to bulge out at high speeds. This way the windows seal nice and tight against the weather stripping. There's certainly some strange stresses going on with these cars. Some windshields have cracked for no reason too.

 

My 2008 rear seat sunroof glass exloded today on the way home from work. Similar circumstances, freeway 65mph, about 85 degrees, ac on. I called the dealer from the car and he told me heat and probably a rock shattered the glass. I went through an entire Phoenix summer last year in much hotter temps without a problem. He told me to bring my insurance card to the appointment!

 

This is BS...I hope you know that!! Do NOT allow the Dealership (BTW...who is it??) to claim a Stupid Rock shattered your Sun Roof!!

Please keep us updated.

 

I've owned several cars with a sunroof and they have all had the roof jump up when you slam the door closed. That is not a design defect; it is physics.

 

Man that stinks! I would come as prepared as possible, any thread posts you can find here, other forum boards in the states and abroad as well as any other consumer sites that mention it.

While possible it broke due to a bb or something hitting it, it is FAR more likely to have been a defect in the glass or installation.

Best of luck and keep us all posted!

 

A couple of years ago I was driving to work in a brand new Mazda CX-7. Had owned it only a couple of months at the time. Sunny and 70 degrees on a two lane road in the country. Nothing around but a few cows in a nearby pasture when suddenly I heard an extremely loud pop. Sounded like a brick had bounced off the top of my car. I pulled over and found my sunroof completely shattered.

Just as the OP stated was the case with his sunroof, mine too looked as if it had been kicked out from the inside. Fortunately the shade was pulled at the time so no glass got inside the car. My insurance covered it and I never even thought that it may have been a warranty claim.

Best of luck. Please keep us posted.

 

Sorry for not updating the original thread but hopefully this will help you out. After three weeks of wrangling with the dealer (Crowfoot Mini in Calgary,AB)and BMW/Mini Canada they finally conceded that it was likely a defect in the glass and did cover it under warranty. What took so long was that whenever we talked to the "customer service center" (there's a misnomer if there ever was one) at BMW/Mini Canada they claimed that they were waiting for more info from the dealer and the dealer always claimed that they were waiting for more info from BMW/Mini.

Once that was finally decided, it took another three weeks to actually get it in the shop as the dealer claimed that they were booked that far ahead with winterizing customer's vehicles and winter tire changeovers. Eventually we got it replaced and all has been good ever since.

A rather stressful and agonizing 6 weeks for my wife and I but eventually a happy outcome. Hopefully you can get Mini USA to step up to the plate and cover yours under warranty.

BTW, we added full glass insurance coverage to the car. That way if it ever happens again and the dealer claims it was a rock, we can go through the insurance and probably be a whole lot less hassle!

 

The rear sunroof in my 2008 Clubman S shattered yesterday. No impact from a rock, it just shattered while driving. Didn't take any pictures, but it looks like the others that are posted.

Called the service center at Flow in Raleigh, NC, they said it wasn't a warranty item, and I'd have to pay for the sunroof before it was ordered. Wasn't happy and sent an email to the service manager and attached the postings of others with the same issue. I just asked him to reconsider. He checked with his regional rep and it will be covered. Thanks to everyone that posted, it helped to know that it wasn't an isolated incident.

 

This thread is terrifying. I wonder if tinting your sunroof is better or worse for it? I have heard tell of sunroofs exploding because of people tinting them (makes it darker, absorbes more heat...) but... I was always told that tinting makes glass safer because if it shatters there is a film holding it all together. Thoughts? Comments?

To the OP: I am sorry you had to experience that! I am happy you are safe!

 

We shouldn't HAVE to do this type of thing to get proper service at the dealer, but certainly good to have the ammo when needed.

Carlisle: I WOULD tint the glass for two reasons. It helps a bit with interior temps, vs. just the shades and second would give another protection to the glass if it breaks to help hold all of it together. So DO IT!

I can only imagine rolling down the freeway, having this explode, and the thousands of little tempered glass chunks flying around the interior. What if your kiddos were in the back seat!!!!

 

Looking into getting quality tint done - What a maze of products and installers. Thinking Huper Optik or FormulaOne.

The closest Huper Optik installer appears to be 60 miles away and will NOT do the sunroof:

 

When I had my clubbie windows tinted, they didn't want to do the sunroof. They've had a few shatter. They suspect thermal shock. The glass is hot from sitting in the sun and it starts to rain suddenly.....something like that.

When I went to pick the car up, I talked with them and agreed to take responsibility for the sunroof. They tinted it for $40 and I signed a waiver about it shattering due to heat buildup. It's been a year so far and no problems.

 

I contacted a half dozen other installers in my quest for the perfect installer and perfect window film - None had a problem doing the sunroofs.

 

Correct. The cabin is vented. Old Bugs were not. If you slammed the door, it would actually bounce back at you! Bugs were so airtight, they floated.

I doubt it is pressure difference. Tempered glass is very strong. What gets tempered glass is stress applied to a very small point, like on an edge.

 

there is a weak spot in the sunroof that with the vibration of the car, the sunroof breaks. Take it to your closest MINI dealer, they'll fix it under warranty most likely. This isnt the only one i've seen.

 

I've heard of other minis having this problem with the sunroof breaking mysteriously.

I have nothing to add about the sunroof issue but I would like to comment about tinting windows.

Just last week I had two cars come into the shop that had been t-boned in the driver's door.

One of the cars had tinted windows and the door glass was smashed into a thousand pieces but stayed together in one piece for the most part.

The second car didn't have windows tinted and when I tell you there was glass EVERYWHERE, I mean it was EVERYWHERE....

We had to pull the dash, the seats and center console just to get all the broken glass out.

So, am I an advocate for tinted glass? Hell ya....


Mark

 

IMHO, the last thing you want is for the broken glass to be held together. It is the fact that it quickly breaks up into all those small "pebbles" is what helps to make it safe.

 

I feel just the opposite. Recently we were in my wife's 2004 Pontiac Vibe (totaled) and got T-boned in the driver's side. the glass was everywhere. We both had tons of small cuts all over just trying to get out of the car. My wife even had a chronic pain i one foot and it was the stinking flip flops she was wearing that night that got embedded and would periodically poke her foot but not enough to realized it was coming from below and into 1" of foam. Her front windows were not tinted. I am a huge advocate of tint just for the asthetics and temperature properties, the glass is just iceing on the cake for us.

 

I remember that commercial!!

 

I've gotta agree with Yetti96. I've been in an accident in which I found myself surrounded by thousands of little glass "pebbles" that were more like thousands of razor sharp hornets and I found little shards of glass stuck all over me! Sorry, that's not safe... The last accident I was in (no, I haven't always been the driver or the "primary" vehicle), the windows were tinted and they shattered on impact. The tint held the glass together and I only had to push it out to exit the vehicle through the side window. A few minor cuts but that was it.

That said, I do have my sunroof tinted and I'm in the process of designing a custom vinyl piece to completely cover the outside so the tint will be redundant. It's been tinted for over a year and this year, we saw temps of 105+ and I didn't have any problems with the exploding sunroof phenomenon.

 

I was heading home from dropping my son off at school this morning, theres was a slight drizzle and all of a sudden I hear a startling boom sound inside my car. I look up and my sun roof is shattered. I rushed home trying not to go over any bumps so as to keep the window from giving way. I had the shield closed but some glass shards were on my arm and on the passenger seat where my son had been sitting. The weather is in the upper 60's but don't feel this had anything to do with anything.

I am glad I found this forum as I thought I was the only one that had this problem. I called Mini(the same dealer I bought my car from) and they gave me an appointment to take my car in tomorrow at 8:30am.

I'm hoping for a favorable outcome.

 

Glad this is not a common problem, first I have heard of that happening.

 

Tempered glass has residual stresses inside. Its strength comes from the distribution of these stresses (compression on the external layers, tension in the internal).

If the distribution is not as it is supposed to be, then the glass will shutter with much more ease than even normal glass due to the residual stresses.

By that I mean, if there are impurities or the tempering was not correctly done then the glass will be fragile.

So yes, given the conditions people have mentioned above it is a manufacturing problem that should be covered by warranty.

 

 

Any of you happen to notice if your sunroof glass panes weren't completely flat before they shattered? Both of my panes have a line where it dips down across the back a couple inches from the back edge. I hadn't noticed it 'til Chad from DT pointed it out. Made me start to wonder if that's a contributing factor... It would definitely be a point of uneven stress distribution...