⌛E89: Retractable Hardtop (roof) Maintenance (and additional) tasks

[RobbiZ4]

My "Y3 Roof Diagnostic System" (for all BMW convertible & roadster)
viewtopic.php?t=129048

Regarding "open/close the roof with a running engine":
From my point of view, for the 20-second roof process (20s x 20A = 400As) no more power is drawn from the battery than with 1x starter to start the engine (2s x 400A = 800As).
If that already damages the battery, what happens when the automatic start/stop system is active?
I think the often read engine-must-run recommendation is nonsensical!
But no harm.



My FAQ and recommendation list in the German ZRoadster.com forum:
https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goo ... r_pto=wapp

Important:

There is some maintenance on the E89 retractable hardtop (roof) required.


1) Check the water level BELOW and the corrosion status of the bottom of the hydraulic pump once a year!
Or, if there is no garage for the car, after every heavy rain. There might be water in or below the pump's foam!

Place a plastic bag around the pump's foam to protect it from water. Not around the pump, but the foam! That should look like on the following picture:

E89_Foiled_Foam.jpg (123.83 KiB) Viewed 2134 times

2) Replace the 2 salmon relays (12631742690) next to the hydraulic pump with new ones twice a decade
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/en/part?id= ... 2631742690
HowTo: https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goo ... tr_hl=de[b]

Background & installation instruction: [/b]https://translate.google.com/translate? ... ue.133521/

Don't care: about the "Axx" numbers on the new relays. This is a production/manufacturer and not an amperage info. It may differ from the old relays.

Technical background regarding melted hydraulic pumps:
https://www.spoolstreet.com/threads/urg ... lays.3815/

3) Replace the 2 microswitch coupling lock (54377228585, 54377228586) with new ones every decade
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/en/part?id= ... 4377228585
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/en/part?id= ... 4377228586
HowTo: viewtopic.php?p=1828044#p1828044
and
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=129556
Important: Always replace both microswitches, on the right as well as on the left!

4) Think about a replacement of the hydraulic harness (54377311084) with a new one every decade
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/en/part?id= ... 4377311084
HowTo: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122363

5) Check and/or replace the coolant reservoir cap with a new one every decade

Have a look at the following thread:
viewtopic.php?p=1947122#p1947122

With these simple (sik) steps you can avoid almost any disturbance with the retractable hardtop of our E89.

6) Check your backlightclusters
Please have a look at the number of nuts on each backlight in the trunk. Replaced backlights have only 2 nuts instead of 3 of the initial ones. In that case, the 3rd hole in the body has to be sealed from the outside BEFORE mounting/replacing the backlight cluster! If not done, your trunk will transform to a swimming pool!

A round seal (07147162569 protection foil) for the 3rd drill hole is available from BMW.

And please mount the backlights in a correct manner: the gaskets have to be pulled very carefully on the rubber flaps into the body before/while you fasten the nuts.


7) Anoher don't, but important from my point of view:
Don't use any lubrication in the roof, it is not required.
To get a better understanding why not to lubricate, have a look at the bearing bushes:
viewtopic.php?p=1829498#p1829498



Before there are further regular inquiries:
There is no practical way of checking the condition of the electrical and hydraulic lines on the E89 without dismantling the roof. It cannot be visually checked from the outside.


A useful tool for worklng in the trunk:
To get the black pins of the internal trims removed the following tool (nail iron) is recommended instead of fighting with a screwdriver or a small pair of pliers!


Fault codes assigned to the 2 hall sensors on the right hydraulic ram in the trunk:

20201015_test3.jpg (61.32 KiB) Viewed 4232 times

Emergency procedure to open the trunk lid:
viewtopic.php?p=1852241#p1852241


And please, once again and again and again, don't use WD40 anywhere in the roof's construction!

To check CC codes use one of the following pages:
https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/blog/ ... ror-codes/
https://www.drive2.ru/l/4628359/
https://bimmerguide.de/check-control-me ... odelle-v1/


Update 03/2022:
There might happen a tricky fault on the boot lid: if the brake light gets activated, the trunk lid opens while driving.
Have a look at the following description:
[Deleted]viewtopic.php?p=1909115#p1909115
viewtopic.php?p=1725032#p1725032
This blue plug of the trunk lid harness can be found on the right next to the backlight cluster.

Update 05/2022:
The product I use to maintain the rubber seals of the roof. It's silicon free.

1559365490077.png (150.39 KiB) Viewed 3584 times

[enuff_zed]

Appreciate your time to pull together all your previous help into one place.
Thank you.

[Pbondar]

Great resource..probably will save n thousand posts per year (well maybe)..

[RobbiZ4]

Great resource..probably will save n thousand posts per year (well maybe)..

But then it gets boring in this forum and I might only come back by once a year for the annual BONGfest.

[Pondrew]

Appreciate your time to pull together all your previous help into one place.
Thank you.

Agreed.

[flybobbie]

Any fault obd saying it's a Hall switch, probably a break in the wiring or a connector loose.
That was the two roof faults my car has had.

[RobbiZ4]

Any fault obd saying it's a Hall switch, probably a break in the wiring or a connector loose.
That was the two roof faults my car has had.

Yes, but this is a bit tricky! The CTM partially notes down a wrong(!) hall sensor fault, if a timeout occurs. Nonsense, sourced by the microswitches coupling lock.

[flybobbie]

Any fault obd saying it's a Hall switch, probably a break in the wiring or a connector loose.
That was the two roof faults my car has had.

Yes, but this is a bit tricky! The CTM partially notes down a wrong(!) hall sensor fault, if a timeout occurs. Nonsense, sourced by the microswitches coupling lock.

Yes when i replaced salmon relay the obd readout said there were five faults on hall and microswitches (there were non).
All cleared after i replaced the relays.

[RobbiZ4]

Salmon relay (part no. 12631742690)

Relais Hardtop-Antrieb K18363a und K18364a(1).jpg (58.8 KiB) Viewed 5494 times

[Silverstar]

Helpful post. For ease of reference maybe it needs to made a sticky / pinned.

[enuff_zed]

Salmon relay (part no. 12631742690)
Relais Hardtop-Antrieb K18363a und K18364a(1).jpg

Robbi, brilliant change of avatar.

[flybobbie]

Something that never registered or noticed when i opened up relay, was the rectangular object molded on the case paralleling the coil.
Is this a suppression diode or a continuity check resistor?

[RobbiZ4]

Something that never registered or noticed when i opened up relay, was the rectangular object molded on the case paralleling the coil.
Is this a suppression diode or a continuity check resistor?

It's a small resistor with about 80 ohms.

[enuff_zed]

Something that never registered or noticed when i opened up relay, was the rectangular object molded on the case paralleling the coil.
Is this a suppression diode or a continuity check resistor?

It's a small resistor with about 80 ohms.

Does that act as a 'damper' to stop arcing?
Same as a condenser on an old points ignition system?

[flybobbie]

Well a diode would be used to prevent back emf destroying any transistors driving the coil, coil acts bit like ignition coil.
Fairly standard practice with relays on dc circuits.
Resistor might be used to check circuit continuity for monitoring purposes.
Could these resistors break down causing roof to stop.
My roof just stop on relay "failure".
My obd reader said relay failure, it's how i found out to replace the relays.

I tested relays on bench, they worked fine, hardly any resistance on contacts.
But does resistance of coil connections vary from faulty and new.