Roof Latching - Red light / Pushing Down?

[Sigmaf]

Evening all,

Is there a quick go to/fix for roof latching?

I have to manually push the hood down into the final clasp - otherwise, red light remains on the dash.

Seems that sometimes, even when manually pushed down - pops back out again on occasion?

Is there a common issue/go to fix for this?

I've tried a little lube/grease to see if I can loosen a little and the hood itself doesn't seem to be too hard/stiff?

Any suggestions?

Thanks all,

Scott

 

[Usel]

One thing you can check is that the roof folds correctly. One side of my roof wants to always fold incorrectly.

I screen shot this image from the forums ages ago and can't give credit to the original owner but should help you. It needs to fold like the bottom image:

 

[Mojito]

Hi Scott,

If your Z is pre-facelift, you could remove the rear roof latch - BMW deleted this latch on the facelift model. Have a look at the following links or search for 'Remove roof latch" on the forum:

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=656715&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p656715

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1542918&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p1542918

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1467242&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p1467242

I had a similar problem when I first bought my E85 and removing the rear latch totally sorted the issue I had tried getting the hood fabric to fold correctly on both sides, but it never lasted for long. Also tried removing the two springs on the rear parcel shelf sides, so that hood might drop down further and latch fully - alas that didn't work for me either. In my case it occured more often in cold weather when hood was less flexible.

My understanding is that removing the rear latch is BMW's official fix for this issue and I'm pretty sure there are BMW workshop instructions on how to do it - hopefully one of these threads has a link. From memory only took a couple of hours going carefully to remove the rear storage unit between the seats and access the latch. There are also two "X Hooks" on front of roof that BMW suggest you remove. If there is no link in any of these threads to the BMW instructions I'm sure someone else here can point you in the right direction.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sigmaf]

Thanks for the info chaps, I'll take a look through the forums and see what I can find.

Think this car may be a keeper, currently tucked up in the garage!

Hi Scott,

If your Z is pre-facelift, you could remove the rear roof latch - BMW deleted this latch on the facelift model. Have a look at the following links or search for 'Remove roof latch" on the forum:

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=656715&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p656715

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1542918&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p1542918

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1467242&hilit=remove+roof+latch#p1467242

I had a similar problem when I first bought my E85 and removing the rear latch totally sorted the issue I had tried getting the hood fabric to fold correctly on both sides, but it never lasted for long. Also tried removing the two springs on the rear parcel shelf sides, so that hood might drop down further and latch fully - alas that didn't work for me either. In my case it occured more often in cold weather when hood was less flexible.

My understanding is that removing the rear latch is BMW's official fix for this issue and I'm pretty sure there are BMW workshop instructions on how to do it - hopefully one of these threads has a link. From memory only took a couple of hours going carefully to remove the rear storage unit between the seats and access the latch. There are also two "X Hooks" on front of roof that BMW suggest you remove. If there is no link in any of these threads to the BMW instructions I'm sure someone else here can point you in the right direction.

Hope this helps.

T