That title must seem bizarre but I tried to keep it short. I've got a 2007 (BK, Gen1) GS hatch.

On a warm day this summer, I had my sunroof open. When I went to close it, I noticed the motor seemed to be labouring for some reason. I used my hand to help it along at the risk of burning out the motor and it eventually slid into its closed position. When I got out of the car, I was pretty mortified, because this is what I saw (link).

I live an hour and a half away from the nearest dealer (Palladino Mazda) which is closed on weekends, so I have just been living with the eyesore. However, we got a lot of rain last week and for the first time, it started seeping water inside (it's always been rain-tight despite its condition until that point). I did have my local independent mechanic look at it, who contacted his glass guy associate and said he could cut it away to at least make it look good, but the sunroof would probably be inoperable. Now that it's started leaking, that's definitely not a road I want to go down.

Has anyone seen anything like this before and know if there's a way of getting the sunroof open and removing this sticky black sheet? The glass guy said he was pretty sure it was the sound deadening roof liner that stuck itself to the sunroof. My inclination is to go to an OEM dealer but if there's any solid independents who might be able to take a look, I'm also willing to consider that.

I'm up in Northern Ontario but make occasional trips down to visit family in Mississauga (401/407 area). I've read some good things about TM3 affiliate Achilles in Milton, which is about as close as any other dealer. If any people from that dealership are on here, do you have any clue if you could work on anything like this?

At this point I don't care about replacing the sound insulation or even being able to open the sunroof, worst case scenario; I just need to stop the leak as my first priority. Thanks for reading my essay!