I picked up my lovely Z4 three weeks ago. The car had the telltail signs of having lived under a tree in a previous life. I have a few hours free on Saturday morning to clean these drain holes and hopefully prevent the roof motor failing as described by many members of this forum. Could anyone please point me in the right direction to access some instructions or pictures that would help me with the task? Thanks very much in anticipation. Andy G
Drain hole challenge.
- Thread starter AndyG
- Start date
Congrats on the purchase
This should help ...
http://68.230.199.37:8080/How to UnClog your SoftTop Drains.pdf
shipkiller's site is pretty awesome ....
http://www.shipkiller.com/
This should help ...
http://68.230.199.37:8080/How to UnClog your SoftTop Drains.pdf
shipkiller's site is pretty awesome ....
http://www.shipkiller.com/
koolchris99
Active member
As im a nice guy ill repost what i said a week ago...
Jack up wheel (you can take off the wheel if you dont have monkey hands)
take off the front arch cover, there are 3/4 screws i think, some under the car. (you DO NOT need to take off the whole lot, just the 4 screws, if its a rivet dont touch it)
Put you hand in and unscrew the plug, its black and squidgey.. you can see it with the plug removed here. that hole.
Shove an 8mm plastic tube up the hole, squirt water and suck etc, attach hoover etc..
You can also reach the drains by putting the hood up, and sitting in the seat looking over your outside shoulder, you can see the top of the drain there.
Jack up wheel (you can take off the wheel if you dont have monkey hands)
take off the front arch cover, there are 3/4 screws i think, some under the car. (you DO NOT need to take off the whole lot, just the 4 screws, if its a rivet dont touch it)
Put you hand in and unscrew the plug, its black and squidgey.. you can see it with the plug removed here. that hole.
Shove an 8mm plastic tube up the hole, squirt water and suck etc, attach hoover etc..
You can also reach the drains by putting the hood up, and sitting in the seat looking over your outside shoulder, you can see the top of the drain there.
lacroupade
Lifer
Damn - another job for the sunshine I suppose.... 
IvanDobskey
Member
I did mine the other day, finally 
was pretty straight forward and easy. I used a can of compressed air with one of those long plastic pipe things attached to the nozzle. I just shoved it up the drain and gave it a good blast. Poured some water in at the top to make sure it drained through and jobs a good un.
was pretty straight forward and easy. I used a can of compressed air with one of those long plastic pipe things attached to the nozzle. I just shoved it up the drain and gave it a good blast. Poured some water in at the top to make sure it drained through and jobs a good un.
andysat said:Hi can anyone put a pic up pinpointing where to pour the water down the top part?-sorry for being a thicky
Just put your roof up and pour water over the roof without it going onto the body work, it will naturally flow to the drain points either side of the car behind the seats.
Oh mercy! It's friday evening and I thought I would nip to the nearest off license for a bottle of chenin blanc. It's a lovely evening so the roof comes down as that is what we all paid so much money for. I had a look down the holes as described and illustrated by the numerous responses to my requests for info. What i found frightened me. The drivers side, uk RHD spec, was and still is a small lake. I attempted to syphon out some of the pool of water but it still appears to be an ignored garden pond capable of accommodating at least 3 koi carp!!! I will rectify this tomorrow and video the results. After posting the short but horrible outcome I will post a link to wherever I post the video. I intend writing a "Why oh why" letter to BMW as they are meant to respond to customer feedback in an effort to demonstrate continual improvement or some such Bull****! On a serious note, if an obvious design flaw results in catastrophic failure of such an integral component of a convertible car, the roof motor, for which many people would of paid in excess of £30,000 for, surely they have an obligation to recall and rectify, by whatever appropriate means, thereby supplying a product which is fit for purpose? Anyway, By saturday evening the results of my probing the drains will by available for all to see. Watch this thread!!! Andy G
Just attempted this myself. On the drivers side aside from one piece of leaf the drain is completely unblocked, i poured some water on the hoon and it shot straight straight out of the bottom.
On the passenger side i removed the plug and couldnt see any blockage, so again i poured some water down the hole (approx 300ml or so) and nothing came out of the botom at all. Que massive heart attack as thats the side where the motor is at.
I tried poking up a wire coat hanger which didnt do anything and it wouldnt go any further in than 25cm or so. I think poked in a length of 10mm wide tube up the hole which again stopped at about 25cm. After attaching a vaccum cleaner to the other end and writhing around for some time i have managed to get the water to drip out very slowly but its nothing like as good as the other side.
Whats my next move? I dont fancy squirting water up the hole because i dont want to soak the motor and make it worse. I dont have an air compressor but i suppose i could hire/borrow/buy one if people feel like it makes a big difference.
Obviously this is a major concern as roof motors cost a fortune and all of the water was staying inside the car somewhere when i first tested it
On the passenger side i removed the plug and couldnt see any blockage, so again i poured some water down the hole (approx 300ml or so) and nothing came out of the botom at all. Que massive heart attack as thats the side where the motor is at.
I tried poking up a wire coat hanger which didnt do anything and it wouldnt go any further in than 25cm or so. I think poked in a length of 10mm wide tube up the hole which again stopped at about 25cm. After attaching a vaccum cleaner to the other end and writhing around for some time i have managed to get the water to drip out very slowly but its nothing like as good as the other side.
Whats my next move? I dont fancy squirting water up the hole because i dont want to soak the motor and make it worse. I dont have an air compressor but i suppose i could hire/borrow/buy one if people feel like it makes a big difference.
Obviously this is a major concern as roof motors cost a fortune and all of the water was staying inside the car somewhere when i first tested it
I used a compressor attached to a piece of plastic tube about 8mm diameter. I shoved it up from beneath the car as the previous pics show and squirted in the air. The gunge that flew out covered the inside of my lovely car so I suggest a cloth or towel should be placed over the area at the top of the car. The water pour test then proved the blockage was cleared as the clean water poured out the bottom as quick as I could tip it in. I took a bit of a gamble by not replacing the rubber end cap things beneath the car. As they fit inside the drain tube, and not outside, they naturally restrict the flow so I will see how it goes. I shall repeat the pour test every couple of months to monitor the situation. Bottom line, borrow a compressor as nothing else seemed budge the gunge.
Andy G
Andy G
Hello All,
First post on the forum. I've just bought myself an 06 Z4 Roadster. 35k on the clock and absolutely loving it! I've read up on the various issues and seems that checking these drains is a key one. Just wanted to check that this is still an issue on the 06 model as I'm sure I'd read somewhere that it was only earlier models affected by this - but can't find it again so think I might have imagined it!
Or is it worth doing anyway no matter what year?
First post on the forum. I've just bought myself an 06 Z4 Roadster. 35k on the clock and absolutely loving it! I've read up on the various issues and seems that checking these drains is a key one. Just wanted to check that this is still an issue on the 06 model as I'm sure I'd read somewhere that it was only earlier models affected by this - but can't find it again so think I might have imagined it!
Or is it worth doing anyway no matter what year?
