Vanne roof, bit of a less fun post..
- Thread starter Vanne
- Start date
Roofs off, that wasn’t too hard.. esp when you realize that bolt 3 is actually a bolt inside a bolt. I also read that those bolts are single use, which ill abide by and grab 6 new ones from the Screw outlet down the road.
and make sure to take lots of pics and note down as to how many spacers are on the front 2 bolts. At the bottom of the last pic you can see the top of the microswitch with its wire base completely sheared off. Nice...
and make sure to take lots of pics and note down as to how many spacers are on the front 2 bolts. At the bottom of the last pic you can see the top of the microswitch with its wire base completely sheared off. Nice...
Last edited:
Scottish Borders
I spend days pontificating about the time / difficulty to swap an ARB out...respect..I am not worthy!-
Thanks @Chippie , Appreciated mate, that other thread you listed helped out nicely too thanksHere’s a thread on replacing the hydraulic lines which may be useful, I’m sure there’s a detailed thread on replacing the loom as well somewhere on here.
Nah, you just do it right the first time, so good on you. Ive seen you help many peeps on the forums, with excellent advise, so again Pete, its appreciated.I spend days pontificating about the time / difficulty to swap an ARB out...respect..I am not worthy!-
This isnt my first rodeo with Bimmer stuff, but i have to say, the fact that they are using resistive circuit was surprising. I bet that's thrown a lot of people. And we are still a long way from home.. I have some time now, waiting for the OEM microswitches to come, (i have also ordered some ...different ones... from ali express, which ill mod for resistance open or closed), as ill use those to mod/fix the loom and test.
There are 3 parts to the roof moduale, this is only the first.. we may go way south yet.. lol... but iam kinda hoping those other switches are okay as they would have thrown a code hopefully.. but you never know... you can only do what you can do.
Looking closer at what the previous blokes have done, there was a small wire connecting the microswitch wires on the right hand side, so i guess they didn't figure out the resistance bit either. Ill check them for continuity and then see what's what.. Ill also strip what they did to the wires and loom there in the bends are have a good look/inspection and fix what needs fixing. I can already see some of the hydraulic lines are not in their respective clips, so while the roof is off, we shall fix that.
Any hints or heads up as to what wire and shielding to buy for this project, seeing as most likely the issues are in the bends, which will take a few 1000's bends or more...
The awesome thing is about these forums, is that there are soo many friendly people on here who have soo much knowledge about pretty much everything. And really, is not me who's fixing this (or any of the other issues people have), its all of us.. which is really awesome, and we hopefully learn something along the way while we have some fun to go with it. (i surely have in the last few weeks, and don't call me Surely)
I really cant wait to start plugging all this stuff back together and start on the stereo/screen stuff.
Last edited:
You need the super flexible silicone sheafed stuff…most wires are data only so thinnest / bendiest you can get..’litze’ wire springs to mind …I’ll check…it’s the bends and your routing that’s the killer..if not done properly either the wire gets cut through / and / or / crushes / cuts through the hoses etc..Nah, you just do it right the first time, so good on you. This isnt my first rodeo with Bimmer stuff, but i have to say, the fact that they are using resistive circuit was surprising. I bet that's thrown a lot of people. And we are still a long way from home.. I have some time now, waiting for the OEM microswitches to come, (i have also ordered some ...different ones... from ali express, which ill mod for resistance open or closed), as ill use those to mod/fix the loom and test.
There are 3 parts to the roof moduale, this is only the first.. we may go way south yet.. lol... but iam kinda hoping those other switches are okay as they would have thrown a code hopefully.. but you never know... you can only do what you can do.
Looking closer at what the previous blokes have done, there was a small wire connecting the microswitch wires on the right hand side, so i guess they didn't figure out the resistance bit either. Ill check them for continuity and then see what's what.. Ill also strip what they did to the wires and loom there in the bends are have a good look/inspection and fix what needs fixing. I can already see some of the hydraulic lines are not in their respective clips, so while the roof is off, we shall fix that.
Any hints or heads up as to what wire and shielding to buy for this project, seeing as most likely the issues are in the bends, which will take a few 1000's bends or more...
The awesome thing is about these forums, is that there are soo many friendly people on here who have soo much knowledge about pretty much everything. And really, is not me who's fixing this (or any of the other issues people have), its all of us.. which is really awesome, and we hopefully learn something along the way while we have some fun to go with it. (i surely have in the last few weeks, and don't call me Surely)
I really cant wait to start plugging all this stuff back together and start on the stereo/screen stuff.
• SiF — single-core silicone, VDE 0250-1 (Lapp sell it as ÖLFLEX HEAT 180 SiF)
• SiF/GL — same with a glass-fibre overbraid for abrasion/heat
• SiHF — multicore silicone-sheathed flexible
• Insulation compound class EI2 under BS EN 50363-1
• The RC/hobby market just calls it “silicone wire” and specs it by AWG + strand count
One caution worth logging: silicone’s flex life is superb but its abrasion resistance is poor, and silicone migration can contaminate low-current contacts. In a loom that rubs, either sleeve it (PET braid/convolute) or use ETFE (Tefzel) or a high-flex TPE instead.
Roof data circuits — minimum CSA
For the E89 roof loom I’d hold 0.35 mm² (≈22 AWG) as the floor on any signal or bus conductor. That’s the standard signal cross-section in BMW harnesses of that era. Thin-wall 0.13/0.14 mm² does appear in fixed harness sections, but it has no business crossing a flex point — the fatigue margin isn’t there, and crimp reliability at repair splices falls off badly.
If any of the circuits you’re repairing are CAN, maintain the twist: keep the untwisted length at the splice as short as you can manage and stagger the two splices so they don’t sit side by side.
I’d treat the 0.35 mm² figure as a sound working rule rather than a verified BMW spec for that specific loom — worth pulling the E89 roof wiring diagram from TIS to confirm the factory CSA on the exact circuits before you cut anything.
• SiF/GL — same with a glass-fibre overbraid for abrasion/heat
• SiHF — multicore silicone-sheathed flexible
• Insulation compound class EI2 under BS EN 50363-1
• The RC/hobby market just calls it “silicone wire” and specs it by AWG + strand count
One caution worth logging: silicone’s flex life is superb but its abrasion resistance is poor, and silicone migration can contaminate low-current contacts. In a loom that rubs, either sleeve it (PET braid/convolute) or use ETFE (Tefzel) or a high-flex TPE instead.
Roof data circuits — minimum CSA
For the E89 roof loom I’d hold 0.35 mm² (≈22 AWG) as the floor on any signal or bus conductor. That’s the standard signal cross-section in BMW harnesses of that era. Thin-wall 0.13/0.14 mm² does appear in fixed harness sections, but it has no business crossing a flex point — the fatigue margin isn’t there, and crimp reliability at repair splices falls off badly.
If any of the circuits you’re repairing are CAN, maintain the twist: keep the untwisted length at the splice as short as you can manage and stagger the two splices so they don’t sit side by side.
I’d treat the 0.35 mm² figure as a sound working rule rather than a verified BMW spec for that specific loom — worth pulling the E89 roof wiring diagram from TIS to confirm the factory CSA on the exact circuits before you cut anything.