Roof motor relocation different techniques

J

Joez4

Member
 West Midlands
So my roof motor has packed up, always kept my roof drains unblocked but I guess at some point water has made it into the housing, anyway i have had a quick go at doing it the way of prising the top off from inside the boot and my initial thoughts are is this even possible without damaging the car or myself.

Then i found this video where it's done like this, looks straightforward, got me thinking tho is there a risk the roof never lines up again doing it this way?

 
Wow, haven't needed to do this yet, hope I never will but his method seems very difficult and intensive in removal of parts compared to others I have watched. I get his point of the other methods being "blind" but should I ever need to do this, I think I'll work blind!
 
Well I've just followed his video and after getting the motor out all I can say is fair play to people doing it the blind method, my motor also had a screw holding it and and 3 ties that are also wrapped around hydraulic lines, seems to me that forcing it out carries to much risk and probably takes people who have never done this before way longer than just part removing the roof which took me about an hour

And for the people who have used a camera attached to scissors maybe you should consider a career change to a surgeon as that is what that method felt like.

I also thought I'd never have to do this as I always make sure my drains are clear and although they were bone dry, at some point in the cars life they weren't as my motor housing had an inch of water in it that could have been there years slowly killing the motor.

Having had a good look at the design of the housing I can safely say that unless your car is garaged and you never allow the car to get wet and dirty then this failure will happen to every z4 at some point
 

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So less than a month on and it looks like my motor is failing again, tbh it sounds like it was struggling to open the roof a couple of days after I put it all back together, but yesterday when I went close the roof the motor did nothing until I tapped it with a hammer,

Is it worth running it in a diesel bath, to see if it cleans it better than the wd40 I soaked it in first time or just buy another motor
 
Wd40 dries it out- it’s a water/moisture remover

Get it properly lubricated with a light oil or silicon grease
 
Didn't realise it needed oiling too just thought it needed the rust out if it, will give it a go
 
I have taken the motor out again and submerged it in fresh oil and hooked it upto a battery for a few minutes, turned the oil dirty quite quickly, motor now back in the car and roof appears to not be struggling anymore time will tell if this is a permanent fix or not,
 
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