Nightmare! In car leak and now the roof!....

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Phil-E30

Active member
Whilst working at length to try and find and solve my water leak problem (which hopefully I have done, ordering a new door seal from BMW today) I went to put my roof down in order to make it easier to get the passenger seat out.

Long story short, the roof will not go down. The orange light on the switch is lighting up but there isn't a peep from the motor and the rood makes no attempt to move.

I fear the worst and after reading a lot of stuff on here I am guessing my roof motor is knackered? Is there any other possible explanation? All the fuses are fine.

If it is roof motor, I was quoted £860+vat for this part by BMW, surely there is somewhere to get it and the housing cheaper?!
 
Does the header rail unclip? If not check the roof compartment in the boot ......it may not be fully lowered ? Easy to knock it while putting something large in the boot
 
Does the front part of the roof unlock ? If not, it sounds like the boot shelf is not in the down position. Check that the boot shelf is down and the sensor for it is 'made'. There is a photo on here showing the location and the small metal loop that is connected to the microswitch.

If the roof unlocks and then doesn't move, it probably is the motor. You can get these from Sopers BMW Lincoln (ask for Jamie in parts). They can supply the motor for around £350.
 
Did both of those suggestions and the roof now goes down?

What difference does the battery being disconnected and reconnected make? The roof seems to go down fine and there is no extreme noise or anything from the motor.

Confused as hell :?

Cheers for the help guys
 
Phil-E30 said:
Did both of those suggestions and the roof now goes down?

What difference does the battery being disconnected and reconnected make? The roof seems to go down fine and there is no extreme noise or anything from the motor.

Confused as hell :?

Cheers for the help guys
Click to expand...

I've found with the orange light 9/10 times its the microswitch. Sometimes if i've had the parcel shelf bit raised then lowered it, i'll get the orange light. A quick poke on the metal contact of the switch and its ok again.

I dont think a new switch is all that expensive anyway and is pretty easy to fit.
 
Sounds like it was your parcel shelf/rear tray,as if thats up,your roof wont move..and as DaveRom said,sometimes helps to raise and then lwer the tray again,assuming it wasnt in the up position when u tried it before.
Ditto re the microswitch,they arent expensive i believe(from reading older posts on here),but personally never had any trouble with my 2 z's.

Maybe the shelf wasnt fully down?
Glad its sorted anyway :thumbsup:
 
Orange light is always the micro switch - usually the parcel shelf not being down, sometimes the switch itself as said above. Shouldn't be any need to disconnect the battery till you've checked it, for next time.

Flashing orange light is also clearly defined in the manual :poke: :P
 
Thanks for all that, even Bing, despite your sarcy comment about the flashing orange light :P :lol: In the grand scheme of my day I didn't have time to consult the manual.

Hoping it was just the parcel shelf/rear tray thing, drains are being cleared and hopefully my motor will be ok for a while and I can changed the microswitch relatively cheaply if need be!!

I need to focus on sorting my leak in the car, removed a gallon of water (easily) from the passenger side footwell area today and I am soaking newspapers through with ease.

Thanks again chaps! :thumbsup:
 
I considered 'RTFM' but figured that was a bit harsh :D

Glad you of it fixed :thumbsup:

Ben there done that with the roof motor and it's a horrible feeling...
 
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