Reinhold Engineering Roof Module, My Experience.

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:47 am

Good morning all,

OK something I don’t normally do but this is a heads-up for potential customers. And sorry but this is long-winded!
The background….
I was looking to purchase a roof module for my e89, I first saw the SmartTop (as most do) but decided that I simply could not justify the cost over practicality, then I stumbled upon a similar module sold by Reinhold Engineering in Germany. Now this unit was approximately half the price and did virtually exactly the same, OK it wasn’t exactly “plug-n-play” quite like the SmartTop but I’m not shy when it comes to car mods and it all seemed simple enough.
So I purchased one of these modules from them, it duly arrived in a few days and it took me about 30 minutes to fit it… Great!! All good so far. This was in April this year. So I’ve been enjoying the benefits of this module from that point on, especially with this great weather we’ve been having.
Now from time-to-time it would “glitch”, things like you’d park up, press the roof close button, the windows would go down, roof would close and the windows would stay down sometimes, so you’d press the roof close button again and the windows would go up as they should, but most of the time this would all work in one go as it should. A minor inconvenience and no great biggy!
Now at the beginning of July I went out to my Z, got in, put the key in and the red roof symbol came up along with a “bong”, I hadn’t touched the roof button at this point and the roof had closed properly the night before. I went to the boot to check the boot panel but when I pressed the boot release it didn’t seem quite right. Anyway check the panel (no problems there) and shut the boot but it didn’t shut, it didn’t draw itself down like it should. So now no roof operation and an open boot lid! Time for investigation.
Following help on this site and further investigation I decided to look at the roof module and it’s connections as the boot lid draw-in motors were not activating and this is linked to the OEM roof module, so a good place to look.
At this point I feel I need to point out that I am a 30 years served railway signalling engineer with installation, maintenance, fault finding and testing experience under my belt, so I know what I’m doing when it comes to tracing electrical faults!
OK so the boot lid was open, with the trim panel removed and the boot catches in the closed position but without the draw-in motors activated. So basically if the signal was received it would instantly activate the motors and draw in the catches. So a good place to start to investigate the module, with checking all of the connections and the fact that I was receiving 12volts. All connectors were disconnected and reconnected in turn and the joints (snap-locks) were “played” with (wiggled!). At no point did the boot lid motors make a single sound during any of this wire checking, tugging and playing with. So at this point I decided to remove the module and see what happens when I return it to OEM. I removed the module and the very second I plugged the OEM plug back into the OEM module the boot lid motors draw in the catches without hesitation. Fault found, an (in my opinion) faulty module. Boot lid was able to be shut and the roof worked as OEM.
At this point I contacted Reinhold Engineering (Andreas Reinhold) and inform him of what had happened and that I wished to return it and have my money back as I’d lost all faith in it.
He agreed for me to return it but said he’d check it out first, to which I had no problem with. He stated from the outset that he thought it would just be a “bad” connection of the power input (ie; 12 volt) to which I informed him that I’d checked all of this out and told him what I’d done (as above).
The module was packaged up and posted back on 5th July, he received it (well it was delivered on) 9th July and I then enquired as to what was happening on Thursday 12th. I received a reply back on Saturday 14th stating that he had returned my payment via PayPal (how I’d payed originally) and that the module was perfectly fine and it was a bad connection! Now I totally dispute this as to the amount of wiggling and playing with the connections while fault finding. OK, sorted and money being returned.
Tuesday 17th no notification from PayPal and on checking my account nothing noted of pending, so I sent another email asking what was happening and that there was no notification from PayPal. On Wednesday 18th I hadn’t received any reply back from him (more than 24 hours) so I contacted PayPal to ask if they had any information, and they informed me that there was no refund pending at all on my account, at this point I decided to open a case to get my money back.
I can now inform you that in just over four hours I received a notification from PayPal that Reinhold Engineering had refunded my money against the open case.
So to sum up.
I appreciate that things can go wrong, that’s life I get it, no problem.
I appreciate that they want to stand their ground and defend their product and not admit that there was a problem especially as they were to refund my money, I get that although it’s a little insulting to basically call me a liar.
But what I don’t appreciate is then having to chase my refund up and open a case with PayPal, this should have been paid back when he said he was going to do so and replied to my email. I feel very shoddily treated by him and insulted.
Now I’m sure there are quite a few members out there that have this module and love it and it works perfectly well, well I’m pleased for you that you aren’t having problems and I wish you many happy years of use out of it.
This is not me having a go at a manufacturer this is just me giving my personal experience on this matter. Everything I have stated here is completely 100% true and I have all of the correspondence to back it up.
At this point I’ll finish as this is long enough, peace and enjoy your Z’s.

Andyturbo2000 · Post by **Andyturbo2000** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:59 am

A liar? A bit strong, it's just his opinion and just by wiggling your can't really trace it to the module rather than say a broken wire or a connection needed cleaning. Considering the problems I have with idiots on eBay and PayPal, I would say that you got your refund pretty swiftly. He may have been very busy and couldn't get to a computer to refund on time. I would say you've got very little patience and are easily offended!!

Nictrix · Post by **Nictrix** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 11:12 am

I think what most people can take from this is if you are having problems and have an aftermarket gizmo fitted, remove it to see if the problems disappear.

Andyturbo2000 · Post by **Andyturbo2000** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:10 pm

Very true and I'd love to see OP's reaction to something serious....

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:27 pm

At the end of the day you can take from this whatever you will, and you're perfectly entitled to your opinion of me, this is just a heads-up - your choice!
Andyturbo2000, please feel free and enlighten us with you professional fault finding qualifications! This was written in lay-mans terms, but all fault finding was done correctly, oh and "wiggling" can find a "dodgy" intermittent connection, but you'd know that if you knew what you were talking about!

Andyturbo2000 · Post by **Andyturbo2000** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:36 pm

Wiggling can also not find one! Sounds like you know what you are doing mate, you win.

Sgreen · Post by **Sgreen** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:03 pm

Now I understand why trains never run on time! They always blame the signals, just wiggle it, it'll be fine!

Ian

ihadablackdog · Post by **ihadablackdog** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:51 pm

Haha, i love it. The op comes on to offer his advice and gets grief for it.

I for one appreciated the write up.

Andyturbo2000 · Post by **Andyturbo2000** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:14 pm

It's more a case of the OP getting all offended and angry over literally nothing! Love the bit about calling him a liar when all he did was question the wiring, that OP had done, because the unit worked. And to top it off the lack of any sort of patience regarding refund (think OP waited nine days in total after the company received it back) makes me chuckle, especially in the grand scheme of things. Made me laugh that OPs views were a little strong considering he'd installed it, he'd diagnosed it (supposedly), he'd sent it back after using for a while for a full refund...to then receive it a little later than immediate and then call out the company like that is a see you next Tuesday trick if you ask me. Nightmare customer!!

mr.tourette · Post by **mr.tourette** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:27 pm

Andyturbo2000 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:14 pm It's more a case of the OP getting all offended and angry over literally nothing! Love the bit about calling him a liar when all he did was question the wiring, that OP had done, because the unit worked. And to top it off the lack of any sort of patience regarding refund (think OP waited nine days in total after the company received it back) makes me chuckle, especially in the grand scheme of things. Made me laugh that OPs views were a little strong considering he'd installed it, he'd diagnosed it (supposedly), he'd sent it back after using for a while for a full refund...to then receive it a little later than immediate and then call out the company like that is a see you next Tuesday trick if you ask me. Nightmare customer!!

With respect that is a matter of opinion, no matter what each others opinion of whether the unit was faulty or not the seller agreed a refund and kept the op waiting until he filed a dispute. Id be pissed off too if i was made to wait that long for a refund, thats a bit too long imho to be accused of a lack of patience and in your words "a little less than immediate" 9 days is a pisstake anyone can get on paypal and process a refund in seconds on their mobile.. there's no need for it and sounds like the seller was deliberately withholding payment.

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:55 pm

I appreciated that when I wrote this down I wouldn't receive 100% support because that's just how people are.
To respond to a point regarding the refund....
The exact reply I received was...
"we just refunded the payment per paypal." which was last Saturday 14th, now to me that says that they HAVE ALREADY made the return payment, but by Wednesday 18th PayPal knew nothing of it, so what does that say to you.
Nightmare customer, yeah right!! It's all about customer satisfaction, I appreciate an intermittent fault can be a pain to find and with all fairness to him he didn't argue and agreed to refund me, but then didn't bother until PayPal got involved.
"all offended and angry over literally nothing!" Jesus I wouldn't want to be buying anything from you!

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:56 pm

Sgreen wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:03 pm Now I understand why trains never run on time! They always blame the signals, just wiggle it, it'll be fine!
Ian

Then it's repaired with chewing gum and sticky tape and a bit of luck!!

Sgreen · Post by **Sgreen** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:33 pm

AnubisZed wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:56 pm
Sgreen wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:03 pm Now I understand why trains never run on time! They always blame the signals, just wiggle it, it'll be fine!
Ian
Then it's repaired with chewing gum and sticky tape and a bit of luck!!

They let you have chewing gum AND tape wow.
In the airforce we just had duct tape!
Ian

bladeowner · Post by **bladeowner** » Thu Jul 19, 2018 11:43 pm

I prefer not to use snap lock connectors as they are too dependant on the cable gauge, no. of strands , and overall quality of the cables being connected. They are quick and easy but soldering and sleeving would be first choice.

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:30 am

bladeowner wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 11:43 pm I prefer not to use snap lock connectors as they are too dependant on the cable gauge, no. of strands , and overall quality of the cables being connected. They are quick and easy but soldering and sleeving would be first choice.

Yes indeed, I was quite surprised when I first saw them, soldering is the better option.

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