Roof motor ?? Can't believe the timing - now sorted

J

jnwright71

Member
So, I drove to work this morning, stopped on the driveway of the office to take some nice pics for the advert to sell my Z4. Went to close the roof for the last pic and nothing. Tried again and the roof fully closed, although slowly. Immediately opened it, all fine, so tried to close it and it wouldn't budge :headbang: :headbang: Bl**dy awful timing ...

I am sure this is probably the roof motor, but any other ideas ? (cant be shelf position (although tried it) or fuses). The car has been garaged for the last 14 months during my ownership and the drains are clear and were clear when I bought the car (again 14 months ago). I did wash the car last night, but didn't use a pressure washer or anything similar.

The 'slow movement then died' sequence seems to be the common way these things go, but given there were no symptoms before and this appears to have gone within 3 minutes makes me question if it could be something else.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Also, any advice on where to get a motor replaced in the Cambridgeshire / Lincolnshire area (although willing to travel to get this sorted cost effectively.

Cheers ....
 
Sorry to hear that mate.

My roof motor died after having car for two years in the garage... Once the water gets in, it can stay there forever corroding the motor.

It's actually quite easy to diy. Much, much cheaper.
 
Cheers Szatras,

I would ordinarily give it a go, but I don't get much spare time. Do you have a 'how to' guide that I could follow ? This will give me some idea of how long it would take.

thx.
 
jnwright71 said:
Cheers Szatras,

I would ordinarily give it a go, but I don't get much spare time. Do you have a 'how to' guide that I could follow ? This will give me some idea of how long it would take.

thx.
Click to expand...

The guide you need is Shipkiller's roof removal guide. His original links are long gone, but if you hunt around you'll find someone still hosting it.
Book yourself a full Saturday for this, not that hard, but you will need two people to lift the roof out and take the time to protect the boot paintwork.
 
There is a guy( think he may be a BMW trained ) in Basingstoke who has replaced several for Forum members IIRC charges c £500
You will need to search forum if that is of interest
 
Cheers All and to Swiftly for the link.

Alas, I don't feel I have the time / skills to tackle this without messing it up. Thus, looking for someone / somewhere to do it for me.

Any thoughts ?

Also, just thought, my bowden cable has never really instilled much confidence. There appears to be lots of slack in the cable, but when locked in position you can manually move the roof. However, when you release the cable, it doesn't really do anything. You can push the red handle backwards, but there is still some slack in the cable. When the cable is pulled out to bypass the hydraulics, should you still be able to hear the motor running if you push the console buttons ? If YES, then my motor is definitely goosed, if not then any ideas on how to get the bowden cable to properly re-connect ?

Thanks again ...
 
I know you say bad timing, but on the other hand if you had sold it the buyer would be turning up on your doorstep ranting a couple of weeks down the line, at least you can sort it out.
 
agreed - don't want an irate new owner on my doorstep,

I have had a cracking quote from Bowser 134 who sounds great and is highly recommended, but can anyone recommend someone closer to Peterborough as I will struggle to get down to Surrey for a full day (at least for a month). If not, then Bowser 134 is the man and I will be getting him to do an Insp II as well.

Cheers.
 
Just back from 2 weeks away and travelled down to Yateley to visit Bowser134 for a new roof motor and insp II.

As you can see the old motor was totally goosed !!



It took Ross just 3 hours to complete the roof motor and a further 1.5 hours for the insp II. Very pleased with the standard of work and the price. Ross is very professional, BMW trained and a nicer guy you would struggle to meet - highly recommended.

Cheers, James
 
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