E85 Z4 Roof Specialists in/around Essex?

[g3org3y]

Hi guys,

Z4 has been sitting with the roof down in the garage for 2 years.

Went to open it and it's dead (red flashing light), no noise from the motor. Can be raised manually and the electric latch mechanism works fine.

Oddly enough, can raise/lower regardless of the position of the hydraulic bypass ring (so assume bypass must be stuck open).

Any recommendations for roof specialists in/around Essex. Happy to travel a distance for quality service.

TIA.

[CBflatsix]

The roof motor is known for failing on these due to water ingress, as the motor sits in a well in front of the rear passenger wheel. A friend spent a lot of money getting his replaced by a specialist, however not wanting to spend a fortune I looked at a few YouTube videos and did the job myself, taking the roof off, soaking the motor in penetrating oil overnight and then breaking the rust bond on the armature with an adjustable spanner. Whilst in there I relocated the motor to inside the boot and covered it with a painted aluminium panel. All in, it cost me the price of a tin of dark grey car paint. Well worth doing and simple enough if you take your time.

[g3org3y]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Have you used them before?

CBflatsix said:

The roof motor is known for failing on these due to water ingress, as the motor sits in a well in front of the rear passenger wheel. A friend spent a lot of money getting his replaced by a specialist, however not wanting to spend a fortune I looked at a few YouTube videos and did the job myself, taking the roof off, soaking the motor in penetrating oil overnight and then breaking the rust bond on the armature with an adjustable spanner. Whilst in there I relocated the motor to inside the boot and covered it with a painted aluminium panel. All in, it cost me the price of a tin of dark grey car paint. Well worth doing and simple enough if you take your time.

Got access to it yesterday and gave it a few bashes with a breaker bar to see if it'd unstick (like I had to do with the starter motor) no success.

I've seen a couple of videos on YouTube about removing without having to take the roof off. Might be worth a consideration but not sure if I'm skilled (or careful!) enough

[rix]

Whilst we are here, I need a specialist for a poorly (non starting) E85 Z4, also Essex (Herts borders). Back to your question, I took the trip down to hants to get mine relocated - RBM.

[Sticks.]

Quite a bit about this on the Z4forum including people who'll fix/relocate the motor for not a lot of money.

[g3org3y]

Sticks. said:

Quite a bit about this on the Z4forum including people who'll fix/relocate the motor for not a lot of money.

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1937255...

rix said:

Whilst we are here, I need a specialist for a poorly (non starting) E85 Z4, also Essex (Herts borders). Back to your question, I took the trip down to hants to get mine relocated - RBM.

RBM was mentioned on the Z4 thread. Will check 'em out.

[Collectingbrass]

I appreciate this is the opposite to Essex but by all accounts on the Z4 forumRBM in Hook is the place to go for Z4 roofs. It may just be though that the mircro switches in the boot haven't engaged properly, so the roof brain thinks the boot is open and locks out the movement.

[g3org3y]

Collectingbrass said:

I appreciate this is the opposite to Essex but by all accounts on the Z4 forumRBM in Hook is the place to go for Z4 roofs. It may just be though that the mircro switches in the boot haven't engaged properly, so the roof brain thinks the boot is open and locks out the movement.

From my research, if it's a microswitch issue, the roof button will illuminate orange. I noticed that when I tested the roof with the parcel shelf out (and hence the microswitch not activated).

[CBflatsix]

There were a few YouTube videos suggesting that you could leave the roof in position, manipulate your arm around to grab the motor housing and remove it this way, which I spent more than a hour trying to do but gave up in the end. Once I got past the realisation that I would have to remove the roof, it was pretty straight forward to do. On removal of the roof it did highlight to me that I had wasted my time trying to remove the motor housing with the roof in place as it was tie wrapped to a bracket. Relocation of the motor was simple with just one notch required in the hard plastic top cover to access the boot as the wiring etc is long enough to reach to the boot.