Roof motor extraction

Andrew Sheldon · Post by **Andrew Sheldon** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:53 am

Would you believe it my roof motor packed up, my 2006 E85 example is in remarkable condition having spent a large part of its life in a garage. So I thought maybe My car will dodge the bullet regarding roof motor problems... No such luck...
I looked up on YouTube alternative ways to extract the motor/hydraulic assembly without having to remove the roof.. I found this video very informative and helpful.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhwOO654JA
After an awful lot of struggling and one handed poking and prying I managed to extract the top of the plastic motor housing. I found removing the tape from around the top half of the housing to be the most challenging part. It is virtually impossible to get your fingers down around the housing to pick and pull off the tape, if at all possible try and pull off as large a piece as you can without it tearing/breaking..
I managed to remove about half to threequarters of the tape then using a longish screwdriver pry off the top. When mine eventually popped off I was a very happy chappy cos I knew I had cracked the hardest part.
You can now pull out the motor to a certain extent although there is a nasty cable tie right at the back of the housing stopping it from pulling out and down into the boot. I think I was lucky in that after a few yanks on the housing, NOT the motor assembly, I managed to snap the tie therefor enabling the motor along with its soggy sponge sound deadening material to be relocated into the boot..
You now have full access to do whatever you want with the motor and hydraulic assembly.. I was lucky in that after a cleaning drying and spray with WD40 my motor came back to life, I am yet to reassemble and refill with hydraulic fluid and just for now using the roof manually.
Btw, I reckon in most cases only the motor needs to be changed and not the whole hydraulic assembly cutting costs down.
My procedure cost me a badly scuffed elbow and £10 for fluid. Btw, putting a pillow down in the rear of the boot stopped the scuffed elbow problem. I am of course relocating the motor in the boot..
In summing up I would say BMW made a terrible mistake locating the motor in such a venerable area. I don't think clearing out drains to the rear scuttles completely solves this issue. Inherently the motor housing is located in a very moist area and over time the foam sound deadening material gets wet causing the motor failures we constantly here about....
Sorry I did not provide any photographs..

bigwinn · Post by **bigwinn** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:26 am

Good work- feels good to do something like this (apart from the bruising!)

I think a lot of e85 owners would like to meet the engineers who thought that (and putting the crossmember in the engine where the water pump is) was a great idea

Zulu4 · Post by **Zulu4** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 1:22 pm

Well done buddy

PeteyZ4 · Post by **PeteyZ4** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:48 pm

Awesome. I've been looking for a video exactly like that one so thanks for sharing.

That should be a sticky somewhere!

SCOTTY L · Post by **SCOTTY L** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:00 pm

Cheers Andrew,getting ready to have a go at mine.

Andrew Sheldon · Post by **Andrew Sheldon** » Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:40 am

Andrew Sheldon wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:53 am Would you believe it my roof motor packed up, my 2006 E85 example is in remarkable condition having spent a large part of its life in a garage. So I thought maybe My car will dodge the bullet regarding roof motor problems... No such luck...
I looked up on YouTube alternative ways to extract the motor/hydraulic assembly without having to remove the roof.. I found this video very informative and helpful.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhwOO654JA
After an awful lot of struggling and one handed poking and prying I managed to extract the top of the plastic motor housing. I found removing the tape from around the top half of the housing to be the most challenging part. It is virtually impossible to get your fingers down around the housing to pick and pull off the tape, if at all possible try and pull off as large a piece as you can without it tearing/breaking..
I managed to remove about half to threequarters of the tape then using a longish screwdriver pry off the top. When mine eventually popped off I was a very happy chappy cos I knew I had cracked the hardest part.
You can now pull out the motor to a certain extent although there is a nasty cable tie right at the back of the housing stopping it from pulling out and down into the boot. I think I was lucky in that after a few yanks on the housing, NOT the motor assembly, I managed to snap the tie therefor enabling the motor along with its soggy sponge sound deadening material to be relocated into the boot..
You now have full access to do whatever you want with the motor and hydraulic assembly.. I was lucky in that after a cleaning drying and spray with WD40 my motor came back to life, I am yet to reassemble and refill with hydraulic fluid and just for now using the roof manually.
Btw, I reckon in most cases only the motor needs to be changed and not the whole hydraulic assembly cutting costs down.
My procedure cost me a badly scuffed elbow and £10 for fluid. Btw, putting a pillow down in the rear of the boot stopped the scuffed elbow problem. I am of course relocating the motor in the boot..
In summing up I would say BMW made a terrible mistake locating the motor in such a venerable area. I don't think clearing out drains to the rear scuttles completely solves this issue. Inherently the motor housing is located in a very moist area and over time the foam sound deadening material gets wet causing the motor failures we constantly here about....
Sorry I did not provide any photographs..

Just a quick update. I reassembled the hydraulic motor making sure it all went back the same way I took it apart. Re filled with hydraulic fluid and the system works as good as new. You do have to prime the system and keep refilling with fluid until it is pretty much full again. Be careful in that when you are priming the system and opening and closing the roof with the motor it has a tendency to want to slam open or closed which may cause damage, Until the system is fully primed the air within the system does not support the roof weight causing it to slam. I had to support the roof by grabbing hold to stop any slamming. Once fully primed all was good.
Anyone out there got any photos of how they relocated the motor, that is still on my to do list...

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