JUST FITTED NEW ROOF MOTOR

M

mozzy5

Member
hi everyone.

I have a 2003 Z4 and have had the unfortunate problem of water ingress that these damn cars suffer, not the cars fault I know but the guy who designed where the motor sits and the pathetic little drain holes needs shooting seriously!! He must have been sacked.

Anyway, it is one hell of a ballache! I know theres a few people on here that say it's pretty straight forward and yeah taking the roof off is dead easy. Putting it back on, ballache!

Nothing goes back the same way and the rubber strip that attaches the roof to the bodywork is just one hell of a pain in the arse. I can't stress enough for anyone who owns a z4 MAKE SURE YOU KEEP YOUR DRAIN HOLES CLEAR!! It will save you a fortune and one hell of a job getting things sorted if you dont.

I bought a refurbed motor from a guy on ebay and wish I didn't because its really really loud. Also, when I took my roof off, the resevoir that holds the motor was just completely full with water as other people have said, i cleared the drain hole and it all just cleared. What annoys me further is that I let the motor fry out over night and I thought Id connect it to test if it still works and it does, perfectly! I wish now I'd have fitted that one rather than the new one to be honest.

I tried the roof this morning and it still worked, but very very slowly. The more I do it the quicker it gets and eventually its fine at full power just very loud! its when the hydraulics kick in it seems to get really loud! No idea why. Theyre self bleeding so that's prob why it's slow at first but there shouldnt be any air in the system once its been bled surely?

Anyways If anyone has any questions about this job I'll try and give advice, from my experience the two hardest parts are, the roof rubber to the bodywork and the 7 bolts in the boot putting them back in. It's def a 2 man job too!

Changing the motor over itself is very easy so if you're going to do it yourself, don't worry about that! But save the hassle and keep the drains clear!!
 
Ive seen a few post on this now, and yesterday i took the plastic covers off and cleaned the drain holes out at the bottom, and both had crap in but not too bad really. And when i ran water down either side, both sides ran very well. Seems the rubber ends get clogged up too, so i opened them both out a bit more, so any larger bits can get washed through, instead of sitting inside the tube.

On the inside is there any places for the dirt to get caught? As ive read a few people have cleared the top out as well, but i cant see anything to clear out :roll:
 
I removed the rubber ends to the drain holes when I checked mine - what is the point of them...

in any case one of them had fallen out and both drains were clear :D
 
I was going to just remove them, but take it they are spider deterrents or so things cant crawl up there, but mine are pretty much open now anyway.
 
Yeah just keep them clear both sides, It's well well worth doing, I'm going to post a picture of what the resevouir looks like where the pump is housed full of water. quite a lot of crap can get in there but the motor housing is pretty good, it's not waterproof but so long as the drains are clear I don't think enough water will pass through to affect the motor. Mine was submerged for a few months and still works once dried out!!! theyre pretty good motors to be fair. It's a definate design fault though. I guarantee the new z4 doesn't have the motor placed in this way.
 
Bet they do :rofl: Think how much money they make from the motors, same as the rear springs, how many BMWs suffer from that, and are they still snapping :D
 
From forum member shipkiller http://www.shipkiller.com/How%20to%20UnClog%20your%20SoftTop%20Drains.pdf

PS get a hardtop for the winter months, will help prevent this problem
 
Selling yours ranski? :lol:

Must admit was not going to bother, well until i keep seeing your sig!!! :thumbsup:
 
thanks for the link. i might do this over the weekend, been meaning to do this for ages.
 
Ok, i've tried pouring water down both sides of the roof and I only get water coming out of the drain on the passenger side. So i'm guessing the drivers side must be blocked with crud :x Is the drainage on the passenger side enough for now? Or should I start to panic? I will try and follow the procedure for unblocking as soon as I can or maybe just take it in to my local stealer.
 
Its really easy, well as long as you have a socket set and a jack, then you will be fine. But its starting to rain, so make it a priority. Should not take more than 30 minutes to do each side. :)
 
I can borrow a socket set but I don't have any compressed air so not sure how to clear it out. Will the water all drain out of the good side? Bit worried damage has already been done.
 
Just get a bit of rubber tube to stick up the hole if its blocked, or something which wont mark it. Probably crap stuck in the bottom, and hoover the top out :wink:
 
IvanDobskey said:
I can borrow a socket set but I don't have any compressed air so not sure how to clear it out. Will the water all drain out of the good side? Bit worried damage has already been done.
Click to expand...

No the water won't all drain out of one side. It will seek the easiest route depending on angle of car, etc. so some will go down both sides. Of course once full with a blocked drain then of course it overflows or tries to seep across.
 
Just went and poured water down the sides of the roof, on the drivers side (petrol flap), it exited almost directly below the door handle beneath the sill.

The other side exited right along the sill to near the front wheel, appears the drains are clear.

Cheers
lance
 
Both drains are just under the petrol flap location, if you can imagine one the other side too. You can see the plastic access panels for them in the wheel arch liners :)
 
did you take out the switch for the floor panel when you did yours?

I have done mine, but the roof wont go down automatically. It does however go up automatically when I bring it down manually. The roof is smooth when going up, but manually bringing it down (by pulling and setting the manual release in the boot), the roof is pretty stiff.

I have been searching and one possibility are:

the wiring is incorrect - not really sure how as followed wiring of old motor which is what has been advised.
the hydraulic hoses are placed incorrectly - not really sure if this could be the problem as the roof comes up fine - am I simplifying it too much here?
The roof floor sensor switch has broken - From what I have read, if it is broken, then the roof would not work at all.
The hydraulics are gone - could it be that the rest of the hydraulics are broken and the motor was just the beginning - would I need a new roof to get this sorted?

I want to try diagnose myself, and if anyone has any info that can help it would be much appreciated. Otherwise I will have to take the car to an indy and see what they say. I hear there is a guy in Wallsall who does the job for a cheap price - you think it is worth getting him to re-do the job to see if there isn't anything I have missed? about an hour and half drive from me.
 
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