E89 Roof Life

C

CliveN

Active member
This isn’t a request for help! Just advice, probably from Robbi in Germany. As a member I have already read everything on here as well (with trepidation!)

So, I have a 2011, 30000 miles E89. I bought it in 2017 with 14000 miles on it. It has not really got wet since then. It is garaged. In fact it spends most if its life in a dry climate (Spain). In my time with it (8 years) I might have lowered the roof only 30 times. I don’t actually like driving convertibles in hot countries. As the car was a London car beforehand I can’t imagine the roof was regularly lowered in its earlier life.

The question therefore is how likely is my roof to die on me? Is the wiring harness stressed in the closed position? If not, that is probably good for me. If it’s the continual up/down that stresses them then also good for me. Is the harness stressed when open?

Ditto with the relays etc - what causes them to fail? Wear of the contacts or corrosion or just merely intangible electrical “life”?

I understand of course that things will all fail at some point but I am seeking a view on what accelerates or minimises wear and failure.

Thanks.
 
The eternal question…

So maybe break it down to the easy not difficult to fix…

The relays are very easy to change ..and they’re cheap…so just do it every day 5 years come what may..

Some faults appear usually as transient ..the micro switches and hall sensors are examples ..fix them as soon as they start to exhibit faults..

The cables and hoses are a function of bad routing / previous bad interventions / amount of use

Imho difficult to predict / plan for..

I would think that operating the roof when it’s very cold maybe is ‘harder’ on the plastics in the cables and pipes …

I carry a lightweight windscreen / roof cover in case of a bad day…
 
⌛ E89: Collection of the 9 typical age-related defects in the roof environment

and

⌛E89: Boot Soft Close Failure Repair...

and

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

Failures of individual components are statistically distributed according to the Gaussian bell curve.

Of course, it depends on the intensity of use, the climatic conditions, but also on individual parameters already during the production of the components.

Relays should be renewed immediately, but in the following not before the next 1.000 roof operations.

The rest can fail tomorrow due to it's age, or even not.
 
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Thanks guys. In essence it’s usage, poor environmental conditions, poor repair, and old age (everything plastic gives up sooner or later but good environmental conditions help perpetuate life). I think I have a few more years on harness but will replace the relays this year. Fingers crossed
 
My roof is down most days summer over 13 years I've owned it. So could be on a few thousands cycles now.
Yes all 3 pairs of wires in the roof have broken and been replaced. Salmon relays once.
 
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