Roof not opening

[meadows]

Hi! I’ve a newbie in the Z4 world, purchased a 2008, and loving it until…. dreaded roof issues!

Something is wrong and I’m hitting a wall on how to fix it.. I’ve watched numerous videos on how to repair it and I’ve had no luck. I’ve followed this video specifically:

I wrestled my car for a few weeks trying to get the motor out and finally managed and replaced it with a new one. The motor works and rotates when I press the roof button but nothing happens with the roof itself. It unclips and releases from the catchment but then nothing. All I hear is the motor running but no movement of the roof itself. It then is able to clip itself back it to the windscreen edge when hitting the close button. I can manually still open and close the roof easy enough when it’s released.

When I was taking the old motor off, the hydraulic fluid reservoir section came apart, just due to me having it upside for what felt like seconds. So I’m deducing that maybe there’s something not right there. I’m wondering if I didn’t put it back together correctly but I can’t find videos/diagrams of how that is made up.

I can’t seem to upload a video but please let me know if you need any information from me as I’d like to avoid having to pay a garage to fix it.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Z4ZeeGermans]

Sounds like the pump is not building pressure. Make sure the emergency release thing is pressed in and not pulled out. It's the red circle pin hidden at the top side of your boot on the passenger side. When you pull and twist it 90 degrees it depresses and opens a pressure relief valve on the pump.

Sometimes that valve on the pump also gets stuck due to corrosion. You can try to loosen it with wd40 or a rust remover of your choice.

You mention the reservoir coming apart, I'd make sure that you've assembled it 100% and there are no leaks, losing the pressure.

I'm also working on the exact same thing today. There was some sort of a dripping noise at the end of each roof cycle, and eventually it stopped working despite the pump doing its thing. Looks like it has lost a bit of fluid, although I haven't been able to locate the actual leak yet.

I assume it's E85, btw. I don't know much about the e89 roof system.

 

[Zedist]

A bloke on fb recently had the same trouble. He hadn't refitted the drive pin that fell out from the plastic wheel after it fell apart.

 

[meadows]

Hi hi,
Thank you both so much for replying. It means a lot to have support from other people out there.

I am so pleased to tell you that I managed to get the roof working! A few things I tried today:
1. WD40 on the switch where the emergency release is located and opened and closed the red pulley a few times. Made sure the valve was in the right location.
2. Topped up the hydraulic fluid to the brim.
3. Manually pushed the roof open when pressing the button. (I’ll come on to this a bit further down).
4. Made sure the motor was vertical.

Something about the above made it finally work. I was in tears. I’ve been at this fix for months so to finally see it open and close brought me an immense amount of joy.

I have left it and tested it again this evening and it didn’t engage the first time so pushed it back manually again and then it goes again. So will look at it again tomorrow and hope it’a just the hydraulic fluid that maybe needs topped up again. But when I first tested it, it didn’t fully engage and needed the first manual push to get it going. Once it’s been opened, it closes and opens fine again. Just not after being left for a little bit. But wow, to see it open and close again was brilliant.

What have you done in the past for mounting and the new location for the motor? I’ve seen a few examples but not sure what is best. Can the new position of the motor be horizontal or does it need to remain vertical? I’ve seen some that are slightly at an angle.

Hope you had some success with your car today, Z4ZeeGermans!

 

[Z4ZeeGermans]

Glad if I helped!

It may work slowly or stop halfway before finishing the cycle if there's air in the hydraulic lines. The pump will take care of any air in the system eventually after a few cycles as long as its properly sealed. Make sure you top it up if the fluid level is low and it is not upside down. I believe it picks up the fluid from the bottom of that reservoir so keeping it horizontal may not be ideal either. I've also read somewhere that running the pump for extended periods like 4 minutes or so continuously while trying to bleed the air out would overheat it. Best avoid that too.

As for my Z4, the fluid level seems low but I haven't been able to locate any leaks anywhere. I also managed to remove the bloody plastic casing (or bathtub for the roof motor) with it being filled up with rusty water about halfway. The motor has stopped working altogether meanwhile, but the fuses seem to be fine. Ended up ordering a new motor on ebay for about 35 quids. It's probably salvageable but I'm not going to bother and I'll just replace it. Turns out they've changed the polarity on these motors or switched the power cables or something at some point of the Z4 lifecycle (probably after 2006 LCI) so I may end up with this newer motor design. That'll be fun to figure out

Worryingly I might have bent the roof frame ever so slightly on passenger side. Noticed a wee gap at the front seal joint with the top corner of the A pillar after putting the roof hinge back together. I needed to do that because I had to manually operate it so I can remove the roof hinge and the outer roof perimeter seal to get to the bloody motor casing. Found out someone's been there before (a random warranty sticker from a hydraulics shop stuck on the casing) and they kept the entire assembly in its original place but also added more zip ties. That made the work even more complicated for me but I got there in the end.

 

[meadows]

You definitely did help, I won't ever really know what triggered it to work but maybe it was the combination of all of the above that got it going again. I'm so chuffed. I've learnt so much from this.

I've done a really basic fix for the motor as I wanted it to still be vertical, accessible, disguised but not spend too much time fabricating anything detailed. I ended up going to Halfords and buying a little pouch bag and velcroing it to the boot side. Feels clean, hidden but also movable.



Sorry to hear about yours. I officially hate cable ties after trying to get this out from the little nook it was previously in. The plastic casing was a mission to get out. No wonder no one wanted to touch it without a lot of money! I think you and I must have ordered the same motor from Ebay. Good value and works!

Yikes, hopefully the bend isn't too bad! Hope yours goes ok, I doubt I'd be any help as my knowledge is so limited but here for moral support!!

 

[Z4ZeeGermans]

Yeah possible that we ordered the same item on ebay haha. Although I managed to make the original rusty motor run again by copious amounts of WD40 contact cleaner and a few love taps around the thing


The bend, it turns out, wasn't horrible; a bit of push in the other direction and it seats like it used to again. I'll definitely be more careful with it next time.


I should also look for that velcro pouch thingy! Looks like a decent solution. Mine currently just hangs there with a few loose cable ties.