E85 Manual Soft Top Need pics of latching system

T

tkvoice

Member
 Minnesota
I just bought a 2003 Z4 with manual soft top. It locks closed to the front window just fine but something is missing to lock it open when I put the top down.

Can someone post detailed pictures of how the manual top locks down? As I am afraid the wind is going to catch the top and rip it off.

I have a release latch mounted to the top rear of the console but there is no hardware for the top to catch this latch.I have a latch.jpg
Top is missing hardware to engage the latch.jpg
 
Someone has deffo removed the locking latch from the front of the roof

But it’s useless anyway so I wouldn’t worry too much
 
Gravity, wind flow, hydraulic resistance?

Not sure but bmw deemed that the lock was not necessary and was removed on facelift cars-
 
bigwinn said:
Gravity, wind flow, hydraulic resistance?

Not sure but bmw deemed that the lock was not necessary and was removed on facelift cars-
Click to expand...

He's got the non-hydraulic roof! I didn't ever realise that was a thing until relatively recently.

OP: RealOEM should have diagrams. In the UK all Z4s were electro-hydraulic.
 
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Yeah my top is manual and does not have any hydraulic pistons to hold it down. It moves really easy. I think manual tops are common in the US
 
Wow! I’ve never seen one in the flesh

Off to look at realoem to see how that is latched!
 
bigwinn said:
Wow! I’ve never seen one in the flesh

Off to look at realoem to see how that is latched!
Click to expand...
Pretty sure it utilises the latch system that was present on early UK cars as well. With a manual roof you actually do need to press that top button between the seats to unlock it from the down position.
 
Looks like yours is damaged beyond repair. I wonder if it got stuck down and that's what happened when someone jemmied it open?
 
As far as I can see you will need one of Item 23 and two of Item 28, and probably 4 of number 27:
1778772635394.png
 
That is it! Thank you

BMW p/n 54317043879 Convertible Soft Top Lock (Striker) and wow sticker shock time...... $160 for a new one from my dealer.

It doesn't look like the automatic soft top had this part .... it's going to be hard to hunt down.

Does anyone have a used one they want to sell me?
Sriker pn 54317043879.jpg
 
It seems the manual top is pretty rare in the USA as well.

Pn 54317043870 is the striker for automatic roof. pretty easy to find this part used

Pn 54317043879 is the striker for a manual roof. very tough to find this part used

I contacted the dealer and the only difference he saw was that the 870 had some sort of a cable attached to it.

Will the 870 work fine on a manual top? I wonder if the strength of materials are different (879 metal/870 plastic)? What does the cable do for the automatic roof and will that cable function prevent the manual roof from working correctly to latch/unlatch
 
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On my auto-roof 2006 I can release the roof manually with the button behind me. I presume that's what you use to release the manual roof? In which case either would do you and you can ignore the Bowden cable as that must pootle off to a motor somewhere that you don't have.
 
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