Roof issue..

[Tube Screamer]

Hi all.. I’ve owned my E85 Z4 for around 10 years now, and ever since I’ve owned it, it has made this jolting sound as the hood opens.. it happens at around the 2/3 opening point.

All this time, I just thought that it was the rear screen folding past the adjacent section, but after giving the interior a clean and removing the wind deflector.. I have noticed that the jolting is actually due to a section of the roof flipping past the metal catch located between the two roll bars. The catch is where the front section of the roof locates when fully open.

Has anyone else ever experienced this, and is there anything I can do or adjust to prevent this happening?

Thankfully it has caused no damage or wear so far, but obviously it has the potential to do so if the fault isn’t addressed.

I’ve attached a series of pictures which are still shots from a video.. I’m not sure if they will be displayed in the correct order, but they should give you an idea of what is happening.

Thank you for taking a look

 

[Tube Screamer]

I’ve just checked.. the pictures have actually been added in the reverse order.. so viewing them in reverse will make more sense

 

[bigwinn]

@enuff-zedd Martin didn’t you have issues with this clip?

 

[Tube Screamer]

Hi guys.. still no solution to this one yet.. can’t be very common

I happened to come across this thread via a google search, and was wondering if it would be worth a try removing these springs as this guy did..

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=65885

Any ideas how he’d have gotten to them to work on?
Access is almost none existent with the roof up.. and with it down, they can’t be seen at all

Any help would be very much appreciated

 

[enuff_zed]

@enuff-zedd Martin didn’t you have issues with this clip?

I did yes.
[ref]Tube Screamer[/ref], do you have a photo of the whole roof when it is folded down?
Yesterday I picked up yet another E85 and noticed that it's roof folds down perfectly flat and clicks into place easily.
On my wife's, even after some fiddling with the catches, we still have to give the roof a little push down to engage that catch.
The back edge of wifey's sits about an inch high, but the new car it sits perfectly flush.
Once this monsoon passes by I'm going to do some checking, but I am now wondering if the fabric isn't folding quite right, bunching up and stopping the roof going down that last little bit.
If you have a similar issue it may be making the fabric pass too close to the latch?

During my research though I did discover a few other people had experienced similar issues which will eventually result in wear.

I kind of fixed ours, which was rattling loudly, by removing the two metal locating hooks either side of the centre catch on the leading edge of the roof. They only seem to be there as guides.
However, the easiest option, which I avoided due to lack of knowledge at the time, is to dismantle the trim behind the seats and completely remove the latch assembly which your roof is catching on. The facelift models did without this anyway as BMW decided the hydraulic system kept the roof in place on its own.

 

[Tube Screamer]

Thank you for your quick reply.. yes it is the fabric brushing past that central catch that is the problem.. I was just taking a look at it (between rain showers), and noticed that just before the fabric brushes past that catch.. there is a bar of some kind within the roof (just above the rear window) which seems to hit something.. I think some plastic trim just below that catch.. bunches the roof up so that the fabric is now too big to pass the metal, and so causes it to collide. Eventually the fore mentioned bar flips past the plastic ledge it sits on for a second or two, and the whole assembly slides past. I’m wondering whether it’s this bar catching on that trim which could actually be the cause of the fabric bunching up? It’s only an early theory at the moment, but might be worth looking into.

As soon as I can (when the rain stops, I will post a picture of the roof fully down so that you can see if it’s anything like your wife’s car.

Thanks again for your help.. it’s very much appreciated. Could really do with sorting this before it’s starts to cause wear on the roof fabric

 

[enuff_zed]

Thank you for your quick reply.. yes it is the fabric brushing past that central catch that is the problem.. I was just taking a look at it (between rain showers), and noticed that just before the fabric brushes past that catch.. there is a bar of some kind within the roof (just above the rear window) which seems to hit something.. I think some plastic trim just below that catch.. bunches the roof up so that the fabric is now too big to pass the metal, and so causes it to collide. Eventually the fore mentioned bar flips past the plastic ledge it sits on for a second or two, and the whole assembly slides past. I’m wondering whether it’s this bar catching on that trim which could actually be the cause of the fabric bunching up? It’s only an early theory at the moment, but might be worth looking into.

As soon as I can (when the rain stops, I will post a picture of the roof fully down so that you can see if it’s anything like your wife’s car.

Thanks again for your help.. it’s very much appreciated. Could really do with sorting this before it’s starts to cause wear on the roof fabric

I suspect the final answer will be to get the rear trim apart and remove that catch.

 

[Tube Screamer]

Thank you for your quick reply.. yes it is the fabric brushing past that central catch that is the problem.. I was just taking a look at it (between rain showers), and noticed that just before the fabric brushes past that catch.. there is a bar of some kind within the roof (just above the rear window) which seems to hit something.. I think some plastic trim just below that catch.. bunches the roof up so that the fabric is now too big to pass the metal, and so causes it to collide. Eventually the fore mentioned bar flips past the plastic ledge it sits on for a second or two, and the whole assembly slides past. I’m wondering whether it’s this bar catching on that trim which could actually be the cause of the fabric bunching up? It’s only an early theory at the moment, but might be worth looking into.

As soon as I can (when the rain stops, I will post a picture of the roof fully down so that you can see if it’s anything like your wife’s car.

Thanks again for your help.. it’s very much appreciated. Could really do with sorting this before it’s starts to cause wear on the roof fabric

I suspect the final answer will be to get the rear trim apart and remove that catch.

Finally managed to get some pictures of the roof down between showers.. I took a few pictures from different angles but wasn’t sure exactly where you needed to see.
Does mine look anything like your wife’s car with the roof fault?

 

[enuff_zed]

Does the roof latch down ok? It looks as though it sits down better than ours.
I don't think your issue relates to the one we have and I honestly don't know how to resolve yours, other than to simply take the latch bar assembly out of the car, as per the facelifts.
Has the roof been treated with something painted on? I have heard that this can make the fabric stiffer, possibly restricting its folding?

As an addendum to this, we think we've found the issue with ours.
The fabric has reinforcing plastic strips sewn in either side. On ours, the drivers' side one has broken and as a result the fabric folds inwards instead of outwards. The bunching this causes prevents the roof latching down properly. If we pull the fabric out as it lowers then it goes down properly and latches down.

 

[Zulu4]

As an addendum to this, we think we've found the issue with ours.
The fabric has reinforcing plastic strips sewn in either side. On ours, the drivers' side one has broken and as a result the fabric folds inwards instead of outwards. The bunching this causes prevents the roof latching down properly. If we pull the fabric out as it lowers then it goes down properly and latches down.

I seem to remember BMW putting out a bulletin back in about 2004 mentioning that the roof could have a tendancy to do that.

 

[Zulu4]

I think the bulletin was this one : SIB 54 11 06 - Soft Top will not latch in stowed position
I can't find it online anymore, but I'm sure it said to do what enuff_zed described and ensure that the roof folds outwards at that point (not inwards).