It has snowed, rained, froze in the past couple of weeks here in British Columbia Canada and today the sun came up and had a 2° temperature. Why not crank open the sunroof for some fresh air? That is the worst decision I did EVER! The sunroof opened without any drama drove around town running errands came back after stuffing my tummy with BigMac then I decided to close the sunroof and when it reached the tilt position KRAAANNNNKKKK EEENNNNGGKKK CRUUNCHHH KRAAANKKK! There goes my sunroof left side is hanging up and right side is on the closed position. Never I sweared so loud in my life. Pull out the allen key from the trunkish tried closing it and I felt the mini smiling and showing a middle finger on me. I am sooo screwed right now that I have a partially closed sunroof in the middle of winter. Panic sets in as the mini does not have a roof over it's head so went to the dealer and never said anything on whats wrong with my car and the service advisor just looked at me and said you might need a new cassette for your sunroof. The master tech looked at it and it so so jammed that they cannot move the glass and only way to get it to close is to disassemble the unit. I was also told that the motor has seized as well as it is now not moving at all. So I got a quote for the repair and it is damn expensive $3600 + tax.

There goes my mexico trip....

 

Well.....I'm in Chicago.....and I have an entire sunroof and motor from a 2011 that I would sell.
But shipping might be nuts.
I removed it myself from a car and I can see why it costs a lot.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ide-stuck.html

 

Done all of that in the manual but no dice. JDMM's picture is exactly what I have but a little worse at the front as the entire right side is down.

 

Welcome to the club! I feel your pain!
Mine set me back $2,650 a couple of years ago, it needed both the cassette and motor. I had an awesome motoring adviser who saved me quite a bit. Every other dealer within 3 hours wanted $4,000 for the same.

I have owned over 10 cars with a sunroof, and never did I have a problem with one. I hate the way European cars are built.
I have decided I will not own another Mini, unless Toyota builds it.

I would shop around if I were you.

 

Went to 2 dealers all priced the same. One told me to not change it anymore and just permanently fix it in place but I still need to pay close to $900 to do it as they need to disassemble everything. Then one mini shop wants $2600 to refurbish it and find used parts in the junk yard and swap parts for it so no that wont work. Since the brand new cassette will have 2 years warranty I rather just do that and knowing I have a fully functioning sunroof. Do I need to service the sunroof every year to get it lubed properly so that at least it last another 10 years?

 

When I had my R56 i cleaned the rails and lubed it once a year. You can still just the frame cassette 54107355248 . Then you would need the motor.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/54107355248/

Might be able to find one as a whole unit and then make sure you clean and lube it. Gunk collects on those rails over time and can jam up the sliders on the rail and then bind.

 

I suppose your $3600 quote is in Canadian Dollars. Is that right?