Best tool to clean roof drains

[Rob_benton]

Hi

I'm fed up with my cabrioshield scratching my paintwork.
So I'm going naked !!

Without the protection I need to start cleaning my drains.

Has anyone made up or found the ideal tool/brush to put up the drains to clean them ?
I presume you need to find something to clean the hole in the bowl the motor sits in.

Any advice or photos would be appreciated.

Cheers

Rob

 

[paulgs1000]

Look up trumpet snake cleaner (no, honestly :lol: ) on ebay.

It's a flexible wire with a brush on each end that can be used to push up the drain and through the top to make certain they're clear (only on the drivers side as the motor gets in the way on the passenger side.

Cherrym has one and we used it to clean our drains - came from the MX5 forum - same issues.

 

[jampudding]

On the non-motor side if you just stir with a long thin piece of wire you will notice the water drain away, you could do that once a week. The problem is on the motor side which is much harder to sort. I have bought a long thin plastic tube from B&Q, the type you see in fish tanks. I will try and use this to blow from the bottom end up just to stir up whatever causes the blockage.
Although currently my roof is not retracting but does come back up - so I assume I may be getting a full drain clean shortly.

 

[z4pilot]

Net curtain wire. Cheap, plastic covered, flexible and robust enough to be pushed through any accumulated gunk

 

[GaryT]

Lower roof, Put funnel in opening and pour a few litres of water in there, if it doesnt drain straight out you have to clear the hole , if it does come out fast then it will wash out all the little bit of s**t

 

[GaryT]

I should mention i have removed the drain valves which are the main culprit for blocking

 

[Jgy6000]

has anyone got a link to a guide whith photos? When i do a search i find some old posts but the photos no longer show?

Thanks

 

[Swiftly]

has anyone got a link to a guide whith photos? When i do a search i find some old posts but the photos no longer show?

Thanks

Paulgs1000 did a good guide last week which should point you in the right direction. http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=76949&p=1131605#p1131605

 

[Georgio]

has anyone got a link to a guide whith photos? When i do a search i find some old posts but the photos no longer show?

Thanks

One of the main problems with the motor side drain hole is that the motor housing sits right over it and it's only about 10mm in diameter, so any gunk, even a single small leaf can block the top hole.
My solution while I had the roof off recently was to roll up some mesh that effectively holds the housing away from the hole and makes the draining area larger and less prone to block.
The only problem is that you need to remove the roof to gain proper access to the top drain-plug.
I did put up a couple of pics showing the solution in my 'roof motor dead' thread on here.

What is really needed is a length of very thin plastic tubing which has a series of cleaning 'balls' fixed along it's length. The pipe and first ball sit underneath the lower drain hole, with excess tubing at the top that you can reach. The piping is fixed at both ends with say a foot of slack.

All that's needed is once a week to reach in at the top, pull the 2-3 balls through the channel to the top, then back through to the bottom to completely clean out any potential crud.
Think of it like 'flossing' the drain channel.

 

[Rob_benton]

I started this this as an idea too.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77135&p=1134600#p1134600

 

[Bumpy]

Hey ...Watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5LwrafOLt4

When I changed over to summer tires I followed this video for the most part with one improvement.

When I pulled off the drain plugs I discovered they were actually in 2 parts.
The lower 'valve' is soft / rubbery and the base is harder plastic.
They easily come apart.
I attached the harder plastic base to my wet vacuum nozzle and used that to suck the system clean.

Easy peasy

Bumpy

 

[skelters]

Look up trumpet snake cleaner (no, honestly :lol: ) on ebay.

It's a flexible wire with a brush on each end that can be used to push up the drain and through the top to make certain they're clear (only on the drivers side as the motor gets in the way on the passenger side.

Cherrym has one and we used it to clean our drains - came from the MX5 forum - same issues.

Here's a Trumpet Snake for the trumpets...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3602...3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

If this works we should probably start calling the whole drainage system Trumpet or something!

 

[Georgio]

Look up trumpet snake cleaner (no, honestly :lol: ) on ebay.

It's a flexible wire with a brush on each end that can be used to push up the drain and through the top to make certain they're clear (only on the drivers side as the motor gets in the way on the passenger side.

Cherrym has one and we used it to clean our drains - came from the MX5 forum - same issues.

Here's a Trumpet Snake for the trumpets...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3602...3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

If this works we should probably start calling the whole drainage system Trumpet or something!

That looks pretty much a perfect tool for the drain...

 

[Paulj100]

How much of a gap is there under the roof motor to the drain hole on the passenger side?


Mr2 roadster had a similar problem with leaves etc blocking the entrance to so using the the wife's Dyson :? it came with an attachment which I duck stored a short length of garden hose to then when the attachment was clipped into the dyson I could reach down with hose and suck out any crud, worked really well also great for cleaning down the side of seats!

Wounded if there was enough gap between motor and drain I could push the hose down and around that area also worth mentioning the hose was soft enough to flatten if the area was a tight fit.



Paul

 

[Rob_benton]

Hey ...Watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5LwrafOLt4

When I changed over to summer tires I followed this video for the most part with one improvement.

When I pulled off the drain plugs I discovered they were actually in 2 parts.
The lower 'valve' is soft / rubbery and the base is harder plastic.
They easily come apart.
I attached the harder plastic base to my wet vacuum nozzle and used that to suck the system clean.

Easy peasy

Bumpy

Great video. Thanks

If your only relying on the vacuum, what about any leaves or debris that is sitting in the roof motor bowl which is stopping water from running down the drain ?

 

[K3P0]

Is there no way to enclose the roof motor in a waterproof housing? Why didn't the BMW boffins place the roof motor in the boot and use a worm gear flexible drive cable to the actuate roof mechanism? Is this a problem with all soft top cars?

 

[tug]

Recently i followed Giorgios post about hood removal. So me and a mate decided to have a go at removing my roof and clear drains and check motor (which had previously come back to life to die again shortly afterwards)

Upon finally removing my roof i checked both drain chambers. They both had identical pieces of what looked like a plastic bag about 3" square just resting in the bottom of both well's And they both had German print on them! There was no-way that they could have got in there by accident!!

But both drains were dry and clear :? The pouch that the roof motor sits in was in good condition and well sealed with no evidence of water ingress. However, after opening the pouch and pulling the motor out we were astonished to find the whole bottom half was completely soaked, the paddings that holds the motor in place were literally dripping! Of course the motor was in a bad state, rusty, and wet through.

Seems very, very conspicuous to me how this could happen with no evidence of water/debris on the outer of the pouch which was well sealed!!

 

[Georgio]

Recently i followed Giorgios post about hood removal. So me and a mate decided to have a go at removing my roof and clear drains and check motor (which had previously come back to life to die again shortly afterwards)

Upon finally removing my roof i checked both drain chambers. They both had identical pieces of what looked like a plastic bag about 3" square just resting in the bottom of both well's And they both had German print on them! There was no-way that they could have got in there by accident!!

But both drains were dry and clear :? The pouch that the roof motor sits in was in good condition and well sealed with no evidence of water ingress. However, after opening the pouch and pulling the motor out we were astonished to find the whole bottom half was completely soaked, the paddings that holds the motor in place were literally dripping! Of course the motor was in a bad state, rusty, and wet through.

Seems very, very conspicuous to me how this could happen with no evidence of water/debris on the outer of the pouch which was well sealed!!

When you say that the motor housing was well sealed, did it just have the black cloth type sealing tape?
If so then the water can get in by running along the hydraulic pipes and through the areas that aren't sealed where the two halves fit together. Before you put the motor back in the car make sure you seal up the housing with flexible sealant and do the job that BMW should have done in the first place.

 

[tug]

Hi Georgio, sorry mate misspelled your name in my post. Well the lines were sealed in with a kind of sealant, still plyable and kind of sticky, and yes the fabric tape was there but also dry. Its a mystery how water got in there. There must have been a way that it got in though, somehow.