Seized hood release sign of failed roof motor?

[bcworkz]

I'm trying to correlate the symptom of seizing of the hood release (red finger pull in boot) as a harbinger of a roof motor failure. Both are caused by corrosion in the same area. If there is indeed a correlation, it would be an important pre-purchase check. For those of you that have had a failed roof motor, did you find the release difficult or impossible to operate? Or did it work slick as snot? Or maybe it worked OK but was resistant?

Please relate your experience. Am I on to something? Or does one have absolutely nothing to do with the other?

 

[Finisterre]

the bypass worked fine on our 06 after the motor failed
a (guesstimated) 1/2 kilo pull shifted it

 

[tabbie]

When my roof motor failed I could'nt move the red release handle as it had seized solid with my roof stuck down. Great fun when its slowly going pitch black and freezing cold.

 

[Andy]

The lever doesn't really do what you expect though, even when it's right.. it feels like you should disengage it by pulling it like a dipstick, but it doesn't need much of a pull, then isn't rotating it so it doesn't go slot back in the important bit?

 

[spr_bimmer]

mine doesn't work at all and my roof works 1/10 times...

manually putting the roof up with no release is really hard, takes a good 6 minutes