Roof issue

Brankster

Member
Hi guys and I'm now to the forum so be gentle 😂
This is my 2nd z4 and recently bought this car.
I had one issue with the linkage flaps and bought two new ones. I asked my neighbour to help and he held the roof from dropping while I changed the flaps. Once they were replaced the alignment was off but I managed to close the roof but when I tried to open it would throw up movement impared. I opened and closed it a few times after that and it seemed totally fine with no issues. Now a few days later I opened it tonight and the roof closed but just before the locking it stopped. So was open about 1 inch with roof not locked message. The roof would not lock or close or go back up and after a few attempts it finally went into the up position so I was glad i was not stuck with the roof down as i live in Scotland so it could rain at any moment. I'm afraid to open it now as I don't want it to be stuck with roof down.
For the days after the initial problem the roof worked perfectly so I thought I was lucky but afraid not.
Im calling my local bmw specialist to tomorrow and will book it in. Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be. I really should have asked for the proper way to open the roof to work on it before changing the linkage flaps.
 
Curious, if you are talking about an E89.
Which flaps did you replace and why?

These ones?
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/en/showparts?id=LM51-EUR-05-2011-E89-BMW-Z4_30i&diagId=51_7215#54377220791
20220711_072930.jpg

Based on your description, I suspect a broken wire in the hydraulic wiring harness in the rear roof shell. Playing around with the roof is risky as it can end up left open. Going to BMW is risky as well and in most cases can be very expensive.

Have a look at the following maintenance summary:
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=130932
 
Hi Robbi. Yes it's an e89 and that's the parts replaced. When the roof went down the 2 flaps didn't go flat. Upon inspection the plastic clips were broken and had to be replaced. Luckily I got two from ebay.
Also if i press the button to open roof now I get no warning and it starts the process but I didn't want to open fully so just closed it. Car is booked into specialist next Tuesday. The guy is great with they cars apparently. Unfortunately he is on holiday till Monday.
 
Well, issues with these flaps mostly were sourced by rusty hall sensors below the right coupling fastener ram.
Should be checkd at first.

=> https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1927143#p1927143

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Thank you and really appreciate your help. After reading a few posts on here I was hoping you would reply 🙇‍♂️
I will check these out today. I hope its just something simple. My friend has carly. Would this show the codes? My reader shows nothing?
B
 
Brankster said:
Thank you and really appreciate your help. After reading a few posts on here I was hoping you would reply 🙇‍♂️
I will check these out today. I hope its just something simple. My friend has carly. Would this show the codes? My reader shows nothing?
B

No, absolutely no codes for any rusty component. :rofl:
The roof control module also checks the timing of each step of the moving process. If anything is delayd, it stops it's operation immediately, but doesn't document it as a fault. On the other hand, if a rusty hall sensor sends the wrong status, it may jump over to the next step without completing the current one.

Take the following link as a little step by step guid and don't forget to replace the zip tie. :thumbsup:
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1921079#p1921079
 
Robbie’s link was my issue, as you will see from the conversation I successfully remedied it thanks to his brilliant guidance, with help from a couple of mates (that’s Dave’s big thumb above 🤣).

The bills from these roof issues can apparently be colossal, a lot of the time due to the lack of knowledge of the garage or engineer.

By following RobbiZ4’s guidance I was able to remedy a potentially expensive fault for less than £29, using the sensors intended for the E88, remember you’ll need to be handy with a soldering iron if you go
that route… or know someone that can do that for you, which luckily I did.

Do go step by step and follow Robbies guidance precisely.

Might be a bit premature, but if you (or anyone else for that matter) end up needing replacement E88 version sensors the cheapest I found them was from LLL in Germany, link below. Took about a week to arrive.

https://www.lllparts.co.uk/product/bmw-hall-sensor-genuine-bmw-54347190735/id/461356
 
Thank you. To be honest I'm not sure if I need to go down that route. The top was working fine before we messed with it and half an hour after the errors it worked perfect for 3 days then yesterday it just didn't want to lock in. I really think it's just a sensor. I hope so. I spoke to the specialist and he said is brother is great with these roofs so I think ill let him look at it and see what he thinks first. If its gonna be a big bill I'll follow the instructions and hopefully Robbi can keep me right 😂
 
If it moves then stops, suspect broken wire.
If it stays broken when rear drops the system won't let it lock as it it's not sure the status of the roof.
Code reader is the go to, it will record a fault as all sensors seem to have monitoring resistor to detect open loop, even if no bongs.
Good idea really.
 
Hi Robbi, car was in today. Roof worked perfectly but it did throw up oil temp sensor. They are trying to find out where this is but the roof worked perfectly.

Any ideas??
 
This sensor(NTC) is mounted inside of the e-motor of the hydraulic pump. May be a connector issue of the two violett wires of the 4-pole pump connector or damaged by water ingress into the pump.
Can be measured with sth. between 7 and 50 kOhms on the violett wires depending of the temperature of the pumps housing.
 
Hi Robbi,
Do you think I should just buy this as it says its a 5 minute Job to replace the motor. I take it the oil temp sensor is inside this.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133525625437?hash=item1f16bf5a5d:g:vQ8AAOSwTtFi0BuB
 
Brankster said:
Hi Robbi,
Do you think I should just buy this as it says its a 5 minute Job to replace the motor. I take it the oil temp sensor is inside this.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133525625437?hash=item1f16bf5a5d:g:vQ8AAOSwTtFi0BuB
Should be ok with warranty.
Better than bridging the NTC. It has a reason, that it was mounted into the motor.

But...
Brankster said:
...but it did throw up oil temp sensor.

This is not the correct fault message of the CTM. When the motor gets overheated, the message is A6A3 "Hydraulic fluid temperature sensor".
 
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