Broken Roof Motor

S

Siftah

Active member
I made it back from Europe and aside from a windscreen wiper which came loose in the German rain around the Nurburgring, the car only developed one fault;

The roofs broke :(

It seems like the mechanism which actuates the catches (both in the up and down position) is working fine. The button works once you manually pull the roof into the open or closed position.

The roof motor doesn't move the roof though, doesn't even try - absolute silence when the button is pressed and there's no assistance if you're manually pulling the roof up/down and pushing the button (in both up and down directions).

I've checked the three fuses as per the fuse box, all appear fine.

No warning before it went, dry day and hadn't seen rain for about a week (been parked mostly in full sun, 25 degrees+). Motor hasn't been especially noisy since I got the car 12 months ago either, so it doesn't seem like this is the motor wearing out.

It seemed to break when bringing the roof down one day, I got to about half way then it stopped dead and wouldn't continue. Eventually had to push it down manually and have been lifting it up ever since. You can feel hydraulic resistance when you do but it's reasonably easily overcome if you're persistant - is this OK to do? I won't be damaging the roof further I hope?

Having read other roof-related threads, it's possible the roof motor has got wet and maybe needs the drain holes checking, I'll give this a go first.

Then I suspect I'm looking at a weekend of tinkering with it and/or an expensive trip to the stealers, ouch!

Any suggestions as to anything else I should check first? :)
 
Wondermike said:
Wow what a bad time for it to go. Hope it didn't spoil the trip too much :thumbsup:
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Luckily, by the time it went we were in Italy and the roof was down pretty much 24/7!

Car stayed on-site most of the day too, so it wasn't a big problem :)

Its going to be annoying on Sunday at the Wales meet though if we get the traditional Welsh weather!
 
I'm guessing as are you it's to do with the drainage or lack of. First off see if there is any water in the drain holes, if there is it's the likely cause, if there isn't fill them up with water and see how fast they drain.

If you can have a go yourself as it will save a fortune and should only cost around £300 IIRC

Good luck :thumbsup:
 
srhutch said:
I'm guessing as are you it's to do with the drainage or lack of. First off see if there is any water in the drain holes, if there is it's the likely cause, if there isn't fill them up with water and see how fast they drain.
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Sounds like a plan!

I've also noticed that the catch at the back (ie: the sensor when you flick the boot lid up/down) isn't very smooth on the left. I suspect maybe forcing stuff into the boot has caused it to become bent/broken in some way. It's possible this is also contributing as the red light does seem to be coming on when you try to open the roof from fully closed. I'll probably not get a chance to look properly until later in the week now, but I'm hopefully maybe this is part of the problem (and a simpler fix).

srhutch said:
If you can have a go yourself as it will save a fortune and should only cost around £300 IIRC
Good luck :thumbsup:
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I think I will, I'm only a Haynes 2 spanner kind of guy, but I think I'll give it a go :)
 
You can see the switch in the middle of the rear bulkead through the window (roof up) it should be way clear of the moveable tray.
 
I've just come back from a friends and it was working when I was going there, but coming back i tried to put the roof down and I have the same symptoms as you Siftah. latch bit works, but motor doesn't do anything. :thumbsdown: :(

Anyone know how many hours it will roughly take to replace?
 
I had a similar problem and it was the drains which were clogged..stupid design :roll:

Anyways I had my roof motor replaced at n/c outside of warranty and drains cleared..
 
John, as I was saying yesterday - give Darren Woods a ring if you need work doing: 07767394316
He's based in Bredbury (same junction on the M60 as stockport tesco) - sk6 2qb

:thumbsup:
 
Tweed said:
John, as I was saying yesterday - give Darren Woods a ring if you need work doing: 07767394316
He's based in Bredbury (same junction on the M60 as stockport tesco) - sk6 2qb

:thumbsup:
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Awesome, ta.

I'll have a poke about the drains myself first and see if I can sort that out. Hopefully I'll be able to coax the motor back into life once it's dried out, even if I have to strip and recondition it shouldn't be too hard - it's only wires and magnets afterall :)

Hopefully save myself a 500+quid repair bill in the process :\
 
Siftah said:
it shouldn't be too hard - it's only wires and magnets afterall :)
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Large-Hadron-Collider.jpg
 
sifta, if you need a helping hand i will volunteer, can't help with any brains but i've always done my own car repairs in the past
 
He is the last one who should help you as his roof doesn't move either :D
 
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