E89 roof relay change

[kinger]

What's the age of your car?

There are two potential causes:

• broken wires in the roof

• micro switches "Koppelverschluss" in the compartment

For the latter I have to check the English name.

That is another of my 6 recommendations in the German ZRoadster forum:
replace both micro switches every 10 years.

There is a small spring on each micro switch, that is streched permanently. It gets weak over the years and leads to random states of these switches, often while driving over small bumpers or other road issues. Sometimes the switch may even "hang" and from the CTMs view, the lid is not locked.

PartNo:
54377228585 Microswitch kinematics box left Z4 (54377228585)
54377228586 Microswitch kinematics box right Z4 (54377228586)

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e89-z4-sdrive30i-roa/repair-manuals/54-slide-tilt-sunroof-soft-top/54-37-folding-roof/1VnY72z6aT

Takes about one hour to replace both - once you have seen how to.

Great stuff Robbi..thanks for the advice....
Mike

I bet you wished you’d never asked now! :roll:
Rob

I thought we could have a joint session at your place and sort em both out at the same time Rob

I almost dropped round last Sunday after being turned away from the Haynes Breakfast meeting...

Mike

 

[step_change]

Robbi, you could get yourself a nice little business going by coming over for a week with a solid set of bookings and update everyone's roof with all these "consumable" parts for a set fee?

 

[RobbiZ4]

 

[Anonymous]

Robbi, you could get yourself a nice little business going by coming over for a week with a solid set of bookings and update everyone's roof with all these "consumable" parts for a set fee?

If the circle of prices owners were willing to pay vs reasonable remuneration for RobbiZ4 could be squared I’d be in..

 

[scootr]

Micro switches ordered ~ Thank you for the information.

 

[RobbiZ4]

 

[scootr]

I see. Time to hang out your shingle then and let them come to you. OR open an internet store selling parts with unique instructions and tech support. That can be very lucrative and you can do it from home in your bunny slippers

 

[kinger]

I know of a guy who makes a good living remapping a specific vehicle computer. He books a tour of the SW or NE. People are ready and waiting when he gets enough bookings to head out on the road. Something like this might work for you.

Yeah, but its a bit more complicated:
E89 are rare in UK, a warm and dry xxl-garage with power supply is required to replace/repair critical or broken components. Driving around is not the main problem.

Munich - Edinburgh is about 1.800 km
Munich - Smartbear-City is about 1.400 km
Combined about 2.100 km one way.

But - my daily E61 is driving with LPG, that'll reduce driving costs.

Im only 12 miles from Rob /Smartbear...count me in

 

[kinger]

couldn't replacing the micro switches wait till they start producing the symptom?

Well, that depends.
Each symptom will pop up in the most worse situation you can ever think about. Murphy will be your passenger.

The CTM will cry for help, no roof movement anymore, the windows can't be closed, it will end in a nightmare far away from home. Special here near the alps, it will hit you in the mountains when the rain is coming up.

That is the same with all the other maintenance tasks: battery, micro switches, looms, relais, ...

Robbi, was spot on with this diagnosis of my car, he really is extremely knowledeable and very helpful.
My roof went from giving very random warnings of 'Roof Movement Impaired' to even more infrequent 'Roof not Latched' ones
this then turned to very frequent to almost constant bongs / warnings and red lights on the switch
Eventually i couldnt move my roof at all ...
On Tuesday i took the car to Cayman Auto in Redhill and they were superb, they diagnosed a failed switch on the nearside, replaced it,had me on the road back home in 3 hours.
The cost of al this is circa £500 including parts & labour and is garanteed for a 1 year.
Luckily when they were inspecting the car they informed me the drivers side had already been changed, so fingers crossed no microswitch problems for me for 8 or 9 years.
My advice would be to change those switches while you can still put your roof into a suitable position to do so.
The parts are about £20-£25 per side...

Huge thanks to Robbi for all his help and advice, thanks to Smartbear for coffee and help and a Massive thank you to Cayman for fixing my car.

Cheers
Mike

 

[tintoverano]

did the change, here're the shots of the two replaced relays

I guess these contact pins don't look that bad, but not clear neither

the car is 8 years old - probably the previous owner didn't open the roof that much

 

[Deepseaskateboard]

Could the contacts be cleaned and the relays reused? Or do they need to be destroyed in order to access the contacts?

 

[tintoverano]

there's open, easy access to the contacts, I didn't have to break anything to unlock the moving part to shoot the photos and could lock it back, so theoretically they could be cleaned

 

[Deepseaskateboard]

there's open, easy access to the contacts, I didn't have to break anything to unlock the moving part to shoot the photos and could lock it back, so theoretically they could be cleaned

Interesting, thanks!

 

[flybobbie]

I wouldn't bother would have thought any coating and shape has burnt away, just renew.

 

[Smartbear]

I wouldn't bother would have thought any coating and shape has burnt away, just renew.

Agree, it’s not just carbon on those contacts to clean, they’re going to be pitted as well
Rob

 

[scootr]

If BMW had been kind they would have incorporated a magnetic breakout. In which case we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[Nick_in_Suffolk]

A helpful early warning for this possible problem. Not expensive to fix and offer peace of mind.

 

[AnubisZed]

….. i thought I’d change the 2 salmon relays that operate the roof.
…...
Rob

Great write-up Rob,

I've been aware of this for some time and really should have got around to changing mine before, but hey-ho

Ok so I've just ordered a pair of these following a search on eBay for "BMW 1742690" (the part number for the pink relay!), now due to the importance of this relay I chose "New" only and then placed it in Lowest first, and a strange thing happened, the cheapest relay was a genuine one from a BMW dealer!!!!! So two relays have just cost me £27.98 with free delivery, and the most expensive ones were a whopping £30.81 each!! So always check your prices, now I may have been able to pay even less if I could be bothered to shop around even more but I thought £13.99 each was a pretty decent price to pay considering.

So again thanks Rob 8)

 

[enzed4]

….. i thought I’d change the 2 salmon relays that operate the roof.
…...
Rob

Great write-up Rob,

I've been aware of this for some time and really should have got around to changing mine before, but hey-ho

Ok so I've just ordered a pair of these following a search on eBay for "BMW 1742690" (the part number for the pink relay!), now due to the importance of this relay I chose "New" only and then placed it in Lowest first, and a strange thing happened, the cheapest relay was a genuine one from a BMW dealer!!!!! So two relays have just cost me £27.98 with free delivery, and the most expensive ones were a whopping £30.81 each!! So always check your prices, now I may have been able to pay even less if I could be bothered to shop around even more but I thought £13.99 each was a pretty decent price to pay considering.

So again thanks Rob 8)

Good deal on your relays. The are £21.38 EACH here :x

 

[Smartbear]

….. i thought I’d change the 2 salmon relays that operate the roof.
…...
Rob

Great write-up Rob,

I've been aware of this for some time and really should have got around to changing mine before, but hey-ho

Ok so I've just ordered a pair of these following a search on eBay for "BMW 1742690" (the part number for the pink relay!), now due to the importance of this relay I chose "New" only and then placed it in Lowest first, and a strange thing happened, the cheapest relay was a genuine one from a BMW dealer!!!!! So two relays have just cost me £27.98 with free delivery, and the most expensive ones were a whopping £30.81 each!! So always check your prices, now I may have been able to pay even less if I could be bothered to shop around even more but I thought £13.99 each was a pretty decent price to pay considering.

So again thanks Rob 8)

Good deal on your relays. The are £21.38 EACH here :x

Have you enquired about a discount? I got offered 10% when i asked :?
Rob