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Roof motor dead, then brought back to life.... *updated*

G

Georgio

Active member
Hockley, Essex
...familiar story (except the bring back to life bit) I spent just a few hours getting the roof off, prising the rusted, soggy motor out, then baking it in the oven for ten minutes on a low heat, slapping it back in and voila working roof, in fact a roof that is twice as fast as it was before, so result.

Ok, so add in the taking the roof off again as I'd switched the power leads, the grazed knuckles from trying to prise the power connections apart, the cricked neck from performing yoga in the boot much to the merriment of the neighbours, but ultimately for just a few hours mucking about in the sunshine I now have a roof operation that works properly and hopefully with the couple of mods I did to the motor's jacuzzi to aid drainage it won't happen again.

So before you bin that rusty hunk of metal that used to be a roof motor, consider salvaging it, baking it and spraying in half a can of WD40 before binning it so readily.... :driving:

few pics as requested:

Hmm, with all that algae and the 6" of water in the drain it doesn't look promising, let's hope BMW's finest really thought about this...
1zzop48.jpg


...Looks like BMW's finest were on holiday and the bean counters designed the water proofing after all.
2a6mi2t.jpg


Still, a quick 10 minute bake in foil after a WD40 shower will sort most motor ills
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Quick test on the very expensive roof test rig and we're almost ready for a refit
1zg8280.jpg


Just fit this over the motor side drain plug to keep any large debris at bay and hold the motor housing away from the hole allowing free flow of water.
scewax.jpg

In place sitting over the drain plug, the motor housing bears down on the ring holding in place:
9hsvvr.jpg


Image of one of the test rig legs, width of each 'foot' is approx 4ft, with the height of each leg being 2ft. Good use for surplus decking boards :D
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Quick video showing the roof testing before fitting back in the car:

[youtube]Cm01Jcws_o4[/youtube]
 
Sounds like a half-baked idea to me :P

Well done - I hope it proves to be a long lasting solution. You could consider changing the title of your thread so that it includes a reference to the fact that you fixed it without needing to buy a new motor. That way people will be able to search for it in the future when they have the same problem.
 
Did exactly the same a few years ago. These motors are very robust. It's just the electrical contacts that fail due to the water.
 
Z222M said:
Did exactly the same a few years ago. These motors are very robust. It's just the electrical contacts that fail due to the water.
Click to expand...

Yep I must admit I was worried about the electronic components inside the motor, but after a good rinse in hot running water while spinning the shaft followed by a good shot of WD40 and the bake in the oven for 10 minutes it was back to pulling like a train. Speed-wise it's easily twice as fast as it was before it failed raising or lowering in about 8 seconds with ease. Before it totally packed up it used to strain and grunt all the way up until finally flopping onto the windscreen frame, not good. :thumbsdown:
 
That's awesome!

Now, as an ex RC car racer, that motor looks remarkably...should I say, "standard" - a bit bigger than a 540-sized can...but surely a 'standard sized' motor from somewhere or other.

My question is - how easy is it to get the motor off the hydraulic assembly once you've got it all out of the car? I'm thinking that a) cleaning up the motor as illustrated here is an excellent way forward, but b) if it is a 'standard' motor, I'm sure a replacement could be had for a matter of pounds....

Cheers
Jess
 
groovy_hippy said:
That's awesome!

Now, as an ex RC car racer, that motor looks remarkably...should I say, "standard" - a bit bigger than a 540-sized can...but surely a 'standard sized' motor from somewhere or other.

My question is - how easy is it to get the motor off the hydraulic assembly once you've got it all out of the car? I'm thinking that a) cleaning up the motor as illustrated here is an excellent way forward, but b) if it is a 'standard' motor, I'm sure a replacement could be had for a matter of pounds....

Cheers
Jess
Click to expand...

Motor is held onto the hydraulic pump by two Allen bolts, so comes off in seconds, just make sure the unit is upright I.e motor to the top and reservoir bottom when you separate the two as hydraulic fluid will leak out of the rotor coupling.

Regarding the motor it's probably a tenners worth in anyone's money, but try finding one with the correct mounting plate, spindle etc, and you'll find that the BMW sticker is worth at least 200 quid... :roll:
 
Georgio said:
Motor is held onto the hydraulic pump by two Allen bolts, so comes off in seconds, just make sure the unit is upright I.e motor to the top and reservoir bottom when you separate the two as hydraulic fluid will leak out of the rotor coupling.

Regarding the motor it's probably a tenners worth in anyone's money, but try finding one with the correct mounting plate, spindle etc, and you'll find that the BMW sticker is worth at least 200 quid... :roll:
Click to expand...

Not all roof motors are constructed like this.
The facelift roof motor has the bottom part of the pump press fitted onto the motor, so you getting an aftermarket motor is impossible.
It looks like this:
motor1.jpg

You can see there are still 2 allenbolts, but there is no thin metal flange; the aluminium bottom housing sits direct onto the motor. Inside it is not bolted to the motor but press fitted.

For cleaning/refurbishing the motor, you can also run it in a bit of diesel oil. That will clean the inside very well:

[youtube]Dz2EYAfpDT0[/youtube]

I got this motor running again a few years back.
 
GuidoK said:
Georgio said:
Motor is held onto the hydraulic pump by two Allen bolts, so comes off in seconds, just make sure the unit is upright I.e motor to the top and reservoir bottom when you separate the two as hydraulic fluid will leak out of the rotor coupling.

Regarding the motor it's probably a tenners worth in anyone's money, but try finding one with the correct mounting plate, spindle etc, and you'll find that the BMW sticker is worth at least 200 quid... :roll:
Click to expand...

Not all roof motors are constructed like this.
The facelift roof motor has the bottom part of the pump press fitted onto the motor, so you getting an aftermarket motor is impossible.
It looks like this:
motor1.jpg

You can see there are still 2 allenbolts, but there is no thin metal flange; the aluminium bottom housing sits direct onto the motor. Inside it is not bolted to the motor but press fitted.

For cleaning/refurbishing the motor, you can also run it in a bit of diesel oil. That will clean the inside very well:

[youtube]Dz2EYAfpDT0[/youtube]

I got this motor running again a few years back.
Click to expand...

Now that is interesting as my car is an '06 so is post face-lift but I have a pre face-lift motor it would seem. So are you saying that even when the two Allen bolts are removed on the post FL assembly you can't get the two sections apart?
 
You can get the sections apart, but the first section (the oval/diamond shaped bit) stays on the motor.
The bottom half contains a white plastic wheel, you can get that off too, but the rest stays on.
If you remove the plastic wheel, there are no screws or so that hold the aluminium housing to the motor. It is press fitted on the protruding front bearingcase of the motor I think. I also couldn't get a screwdriver or so between it (I didn't want to use a lot of force, I wanted to save the motor, as I may need it one day myself..... :? )

motor3.jpg


The white wheel has holes, where a peg from the pump falls into to drive the pump:

motor2.jpg

(eccentric valve pump)

But I know there are 2 different versions of the motor, I've seen yours before too (from a pre facelift) so I thought that was the pre facelifted pump.
But this is a later facelift (I think '07). The Hydro unit was changed in may 06 according to ETK/realoem.

But this is proof that later cars can also suffer from this problem when the drains clog up. Some people seem to think that the facelifted pump is from an improved design and that it doesn't happen anymore. Improved design I don't know, but I do know that it can still happen, this is the proof.

Of course all this is not proof that all roofmotors can be brought back to life. I mean corrosion works on all levels and one motor can be more damaged than the other. This one was seized up, but not burnt out.
Also I think this is only a good way when you remove the roof yourself. If you pay a garage a lot of money for the fix (labour) you want a 100% good pump to go in.
Except maybe when it is relocated to the trunk. Then you can reach it more easily, but getting the lines off etc might still spill some oil etc.

Too bad you cant get the rear opened neatly (it is cluncked) so you can inspect the brushes and clean/sand the collector contacts. Getting it open isn't the problem, but getting it closed again neatly is..
 
What I don't understand about the roof motor location is why they decided to place the housing in such a retarded place, why after deciding on said retarded place they didn't improve the drainage to both the roof drain and motor housing, I.e.a self bailer so water can come out but not go in.
It would have more sense to have relocated the pump to the left side of the boot and take up the recess area there.
Not unless of course it was placed in the drain to fail after a few years, so that the stealers can make some aftermarket business, or is that me just being cynical? :roll:
 
That location is probably a cheaper way to install the roof.
With the roof motor attached to the complete roof, it's just 1 unit.
If you install the motor in the boot, you have to install the roof with the motor dangling on the lines and then fasten the motor in the boot.
That's more labour.

The real culprit is obviously that the drains get clogged, but drains getting clogged is a universal problem on convertables, is it is a problem that a car manufacturer can expect if they use their experience.
Most cars are out of warranty when this problem occurs (general warranty in europe is 2 years), so having sold the car, the cash is already in the pocket :wink:
 
GuidoK said:
The real culprit is obviously that the drains get clogged, but drains getting clogged is a universal problem on convertables, is it is a problem that a car manufacturer can expect if they use their experience.
Most cars are out of warranty when this problem occurs (general warranty in europe is 2 years), so having sold the car, the cash is already in the pocket :wink:
Click to expand...

...and if you pay the extra for an extended warranty, they don't want to know anyway! I was accused of not maintaining the car properly (even though it was only out of main dealer approved used warranty by a few months, but within the extended warranty I'd shelled out for....) not sure how such corrosion can occur in circa 15 months.... ;-)

Oh well, it'll be a summer hobby I suppose ;-)
 
When the pocket floods and the motor gets wet, the rust probably sets in in a few weeks. (the motor then is wet all the time, it doesn't dry anymore)
That rust is not a matter of years imho.
Especially because it's standing water, it gets more saturated with ions, and that probably speeds up the corrosion (as the water becomes more conductive). Just as salt water is way more corrosive.
 
I'm so tempted to re-do my roof and this time properly film it and stick on YouTube as a guide. Really irritates me that stealers are charging people such stupid prices for roof motor replacements when more often than not it's not needed.
 
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