Hydraulic roof liquid leak. Roof not working.

B

BigDaddy

Member
Hello chaps. I’ve had a fairly frustrating day. The roof has worked ok on the Z until this last weekend. I tried to get the roof down and there was a grindy noise from the motor and not much else. After a lot of buggering about I have taken the roof motor and housing out and topped up the hydraulic fluid.

Before finishing off locating it in the boot I tested the motor. It worked fine, up until there was a loud hissing from behind my right ear as I closed the roof plus a puff of vapour which floated into the cab. I checked the reservoir and it was empty. Topped it up and the same thing happened. There is a leak in the hydraulic line where it attaches to the roof, the opposite side of the car to the motor.

I couldn’t see how the hell to access this line to tighten/replace it. Can anyone help?
 
BigDaddy said:
Hello chaps. I’ve had a fairly frustrating day. The roof has worked ok on the Z until this last weekend. I tried to get the roof down and there was a grindy noise from the motor and not much else. After a lot of buggering about I have taken the roof motor and housing out and topped up the hydraulic fluid.

Before finishing off locating it in the boot I tested the motor. It worked fine, up until there was a loud hissing from behind my right ear as I closed the roof plus a puff of vapour which floated into the cab. I checked the reservoir and it was empty. Topped it up and the same thing happened. There is a leak in the hydraulic line where it attaches to the roof, the opposite side of the car to the motor.

I couldn’t see how the hell to access this line to tighten/replace it. Can anyone help?
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That'll be pipe 14 at a guess. Lower one on the drivers side. The metal 90 degree turn at the end corrodes and develops a pin-hole.
If the motor is already in the boot it's fairly straightforward.
Where are you?
[ref]Number5[/ref] is Bristol, but away for a week.
[ref]Bigwinn[/ref] is Lincoln.
I'm near Norwich.

Anyone of us can assist if needed.
 
I’m in Nottingham. Lincoln is closest but I was wondering what the process is as if it isn’t too crazy I’ll have a go at it myself. Does the roof have to come off?
 
BigDaddy said:
I’m in Nottingham. Lincoln is closest but I was wondering what the process is as if it isn’t too crazy I’ll have a go at it myself. Does the roof have to come off?
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No. As your motor is in the boot it is pretty straightforward to unclip the pipe all the way around the rear frame of the roof and feed the new one through.
Then you need to unbolt the righthand half of the frame, unbolt the ram and lift the whole of that side high enough to access the pipe where it goes into the ram. Just be aware that the retaining screw is a Torx 10 and the head is made of cheese, so make sure you have a perfect fit or it will round off.
Only issue is getting inside the boot if you are indeed Big Daddy in proportions. :rofl:
 
Big Daddy is just what my kids call me! In real life I’m normal man size and yeah I was in the boot for ages today getting the motor and housing out so I do fit. Alright then thanks for the advice, I’ll give it another look tomorrow. Not much point having a soft top in summer which doesn’t open.
 
Just been in the boot for a while staring at the ram etc. I can’t see how to unbolt the frame to be honest. It’s one of those things that’s probably easy when you know how but it is so tight in there I just can’t really see what I need to undo and how to lift it. Any more advice?
 
With the roof up , you need to unbolt 4x 10mm bolts from the roof hoop & remove the rubber seal on the driver side.

Then get the roof half open, remove the plastic covers behind the driver seat, loosen the bottom pin bolt, remove the upper pin bolt completely and pop that side of the roof out. Then you’ll see what you need to replace
 
Thanks for your response. I have been working on my van so haven’t had time to look properly at the car yet but I did take a quick look today and had the wife put the roof down and up with me in the boot. When it goes up wherever is leaking is far down in the right hand side well. It’s a bad leak as it completely drains the reservoir in one go which then drips out of the newly cleared drain hole. Might be the ram or could be the hose. Let’s hope it’s just the hose, I don’t want to buy more hoses than I need, is the lower one 14?

I don’t want to start taking it apart then order one and wait for several days with it in pieces and car not useable, although that’s more sensible, I’d like to just chance it and order a hose then take the side of the roof off and replace the hose in one go.
 
Almost certainly that hose. It will fail long before the ram corroded through.
I think I have a good number 14 in the garage if you want secondhand
 
Yes I’d be interested in buying it off you if you have one. How much would you want for it? Maybe better to discuss details in PM.
 
BigDaddy said:
Yes I’d be interested in buying it off you if you have one. How much would you want for it? Maybe better to discuss details in PM.
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Yup. Maybe check the price of a new one, then PM me if you want mine 👍🏻
 
Just as an update to the thread I have sorted it now. I bought a new line off eBay for £20 and took the roof off with my chum yesterday. Took me a while to get round to it with work. It has been a bit rubbish having a convertible with a non working roof now the sun has finally come out but life gets in the way sometimes.

Anyway it took a bit of fiddling about but the new line is now in and the roof is back on the car. The motor is now in the boot too.

It was line 14, the bottom connector was wet through and rusty where it had sat in its water bath for god knows how long. Hopefully now it will stay dry and together as I’ve cleared out all the sludge from the drain holes and will keep a good eye on them in future too.

We managed to do it without too many issues, the most fiddly part was getting the metal hoop part back into the clips when we put it back on but a pair of bent long nose pliers and me in the boot and I managed to get the clip and metal to make friends once more.

Thanks for advice and the offer of the line by enuffzed. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong with the zed for a bit now!
 
MeinMotorradsZ4 said:
Does anyone have the part number for pipe 14 please? My roof has spat the dummy.
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54347119640

This part number will get you pipe 13 & 14
 
MeinMotorradsZ4 said:
Hmm, that's quite a jump in price fro £20 new last year to £300 ish today!
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Generally £20 won't get you much from BMW. You'll have to go aftermarket or second hand.
 
MeinMotorradsZ4 said:
Hmm, that's quite a jump in price fro £20 new last year to £300 ish today!
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Where are you based? UK? One of us roof fixers could have the pipe you need.
 
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