Roof motor dead, then brought back to life.... *updated*

Well, serves me right for being so smug! The roof motor has gone again! :x

Fitted a Gaptech earlier this week, everything was perfect for a few days. Then for no apparent reason the usual, windows down, roof detaches but no movement!

So, its gonna come out again :cry:

Think the main reason is the WD40 has dried out allowing the corrosion on the inner terminals to become non conductive again. So gonna do it all again, diesel bath etc. but this time i will spay some silicone grease up behind the terminals.

Hope this cures it!
 
No, the motor was fine! The problem was the power connector in the passenger side (there are 2, one black, one white) the black one had not been snapped together tight enough and had worked loose.

Had a great day with Sunnchipie who gave me a hand with it. Big thanks Tom :thumbsup:

I think his his problem could possibly be a failing battery as when engine running after the first open with help, it then powers open on its own continually.

Cheers all. :)
 
Update on my roof situation guys.

As you probably know from reading my previous post I couldn't get the old motor to work again. Bought a new motor and recently fitted and the roof is working again!

However after fitting roof I have one slight issue. When the roof opens it does so fine and locks in positions however the red light on the button for opening keeps flashing and doesn't go out and the windows do not go back up again, they remain open. Would I be correct in thinking that that once the roof opens and locks down the windows should come back up and the red light should stop flashing?

And ideas or suggestions?
 
Hi,

Maybe it's not locking in position, try pushing the roof down when fully open to latch it then the red light should extinguish, better still get someone else to push down while you're holding the button and see if the windows go up !
 
Nice to hear from you again r.a. As fixit man says, there is an obstruction preventing it resting properly. One reason might be the motor housing is not sitting properly in the well.

The well and housing are the same shape but the housing can still jam in at a different angle. And although it is still possible to screw the anchor bolts back in, the motor housing will protrude upwards preventing the roof from resting correctly.

When it works properly the light will not flash, it will go out and the windows will close.

Cheers, tug.
 
Quick update on my roof situation. Haven't been able to spend much time on it recently but had a look again today.

The roof doesn't lock into place when opened. The red light near the button remains flashing and the sequence of the windows going back up doesn't complete. The roof looks to be in the correct position and even with a push it doesn't lock.

I had a look at the latch (sorry don't know what its actually called) on the centre of the roof and it seems the spring loaded centre part is stuck?

Any suggestions?
 
Sounds like the roof operation sequence has gone out of sync somehow. Just a suggestion but if you raise the roof, does it latch up to the windscreen properly?
If so I would be trying to get the roof to latch shut normally against the windscreen, then I'd disconnect the battery for a few hours or even overnight, then hope on reconnecting that the sequence would be reset and the roof latch properly when fully open.
I know I did read somewhere that the open latch was a headache that kept going wrong which is why it was dropped later on.
 
I thought I'd 'resurrect' this thread rather than post in a new one.
I've seen mention of soaking/cleaning/running the top motor in a bath of diesel / diesel oil.
Which is it? I can't tell from the video as it's as black as oil, but could just be black from the gunk coming out of the motor. I'm tempted to give this a go as I replaced my top motor last year with a new one, but would like to see if I can get the old one working again as a spare. The outer 'shell' or case is in quite good condition, just looks like the motor's seized from water ingress.
So, diesel (fuel), or diesel oil?
Thanks.
 
Hi, ive not done this before but from other posts i understand that diesel fuel is very good for freeing off jammed mechanisms.
Regards
 
The roof motor on mine died a few days ago, I removed the roof today and sure enough the drains were full of water and the motor was encapsulated in soggy sound deadening. The motor is not as rusty as others I've seen but that is due to it being replaced by BMW two years ago.

I have dried it out in front of the stove and it isn't seized, moves freely now. I connected it to a charged battery and no life. I have now drenched it in WD40 and left it dry before I try it again but its not looking good I fear.







Any ideas on what to try next?

Also is it a sealed motor, can it be repaired? (no fuses blew when it stopped working)
 
Update: I soaked my motor in diesel (fuel) overnight, but it didn't seem to make any difference. It wouldn't move either way (and the diesel hadn't changed colour at all). I then gave it a good spray with CRC 5.56 and after about 5-10 mins it works just fine. I cleaned it up and left it for a day or so and it still works. I guess I have an emergency spare now... although I need the hydraulic fluid. Not sure whether to buy the BMW stuff made of unobtainium, or just some hydraulic fluid as used in other soft top motors (ATF maybe? Not sure but can look it up)
 
philipw said:
I have now drenched it in WD40 and left it dry before I try it again but its not looking good I fear.
Click to expand...
Try using compressed air blowing in the holes by the brushes to get dirt/loose rust particles out.
If your motor runs freely but doesnt run with 12v, it's 1 of 2 things:
1. a wire has corroded through (from the coil), no repair possible
2. one of the brushes doesnt make good contact with the commutator. (dirt/rust/seizing). That can maybe be freed up.

When your motor finally runs on 12v, it is adviceble to run it under diesel to get all dirt and debris out. When the motor runs under a fluid, it creates a like a wirlwind inside that flushes all dirt out. It's a very powerful and effective way to clean the inside.
After that, lubricate the bearings.
 
GuidoK said:
After that, lubricate the bearings.
Click to expand...
How do you lubricate the bearings if they're inaccessible?
Also, I didn't run the motor in the diesel as I was a bit concerned about causing a spark in a container of diesel fuel. I know diesel has a lower flashpoint than say petrol, but I don't know just how much lower, and was not sure about running the motor in it.
Or is there no chance of spark/ignition in the fuel?
Thanks.
 
Running the motor in a diesel bath is perfectly safe. As soon as you start the motor in the bath you will be amazed at the amount of crud that is dispersed.

However, in my experience the motor will then work fine for a while but will eventually fail again.

Cheers, tug :thumbsup:
 
enzed4 said:
How do you lubricate the bearings if they're inaccessible?
Click to expand...

The rear bearing is accessible.
And the front one may be a bit accesible if you remove the white inside wheel and drop some oil along the shaft.

It's not that important as diesel is a lubricant by itself (it's a thin mineral oil) and will work it's way into the sintered bushings.
It's better than running it in gasoline, that has absolutely no lubrication properties at all (but is a good cleaning solution though, but also very flammable).

Diesel needs some kind of wick to burn. It's like cooking oil. Not like gasoline which has vapours that can catch fire.
 
tug said:
However, in my experience the motor will then work fine for a while but will eventually fail again.

Cheers, tug :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

So overall once commited to anysort of motor relocation it's worth changing motor too.
 
That is not what pixelrichter advices and he is by far the most experienced roof motor specialist in the world (having done almost 1300! recolations).
If that was a real issue he'd have seen that. He only replaces pumps that won't run anymore from what I understand on his website.
In fact, he only had to replace the pump 40 times (so thats about 3% of all pumps)

Not that changing the motor is bad, it's just a lot of money (pixelrichter only charges £245,- for the relocation, so buying a pump for £300 or so is a big extra).
Also with the pump relocated, if it should fail, swapping out is an easy job, so it might be the gamble anyway.
 
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