Z4 Soft Top Removal and Motor Replacement Procedures

Part with hyd pump was around 800(tax in) in Waterloo....I replaced the whole thing, not just the motor....was definatly not over 1000 bmw bits....I did not want to go in there again willingly!!

The motor and pump are one integral unit. You cannot just buy the motor or just the pump.

that was my understanding also, it was the whole unit, nothing to split. Just hook up the connections and hydraulic lines and reinstall...

C

That's what I understand (that it is a stand alone unit). Not sure if the person I spoke to thinks I should change the lines as well as the motor. Have you had to do any other fixes to the top since 2009 Shipkiller?

Originally Posted by Deros50

That's what I understand (that it is a stand alone unit). Not sure if the person I spoke to thinks I should change the lines as well as the motor. Have you had to do any other fixes to the top since 2009 Shipkiller?

Nope. Works rather well. I have pull about six tops out of various cars since then. All of those are going strong.

Good to know; thanks shipkiller.

Why would you worry? It's just a feaking car.

Originally Posted by craig01b

Part with hyd pump was around 800(tax in) in Waterloo....

Next time you might want to look into ordering from a US dealer like Tischer. Unfortunately they're back to shipping to US only (I wonder who might have lobbied BMW for that policy change?) but as the part is only 340 dollars from them, it's definitely worth having shipped to a US address for pickup - especially when you're that close to the border...

My local BMW dealer price is over 700 percent higher than the RealOEM price on some small electrical connectors. A couple of larger components I checked are priced at 130 to 150 percent more. Tischer, as with as other dealers doing internet sales, are typically around 15 percent LESS.

I got a new BMW orginal hydralic soft top unit the other day.
Yes even the BMW Hoerbiger orginal pump have changed labels for the hydralic lines.
Follow the new labelling when you reconnect the lines.
The new pump has according to BMW a look function in soft top in trunk position.
This function will not work if the labelling not are followed.The blue/black wire to the red dot.
If the motor rotate wrong you can change direction with NCS expert tool.

I've read the various posts regarding this problem, including Shipkiller's very, very thorough procedure (Thanks, Shipkiller from a fellow sailor, '60 to '64). The symptoms are these: press lower button, top unlatches from windshield, side glass lowers the correct distance, red indicator light is steady momentarily, then starts flashing, keeps flashing, top lowers no further. Checked fuses, o.k.; checked microswitch, little arm is there, pressed it down, had wife press lowerbutton; nada!

Car has 56 K miles; former owner had motor replaced under warranty in '09. Do I have a motor problem?

Thanks for any and all responses.

Forgot this in my earlier post. Someone, on this forum, I think had a picture of a replacement motor/hydraulic pump showing the reversed ports for the hydraulic lines on a replacement motor, and the correct order in which to attach the lines.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Sailor...these were my exact symptoms. I just switched out the motor this week (with the help of a friend) and presto, everything works again. You will be surprised how much water will come spewing out of the motor housing...it was disgusting. I will be cleaning my drains annually from here on out! The hardest part for us was getting the hoop disengaged. I RTV'ed the crap outta the motor housing to make sure this would not happen again. It was a $#*& to contort your body in the trunk to release the hoop.

Thanks again Shipkiller for the amazing write up!!!!

Hi, Techie;

I haven't got the top back on yet; it's just flat too hot here - high 90s - and I'm working in my carport. I got really lucky in getting out the infamous "hoop;" it lifted out of its clips when I pulled the weatherstripping off the bodywork! About a half pint of water came out of the motor housing, which had been sealed with some sort of guck in the seam between the two halves, and diuct tape!. Also, the sound insulation was thoroughly soaked. Overall, these items weren't in bad condition (the former owner had the motor replaced under warranty three years ago), and I'm going to clean up the housing, dry the insulation and in the event of another failuire, save myself $ 80. Weather's supposed to cool off beginning tomorrow, so I'll be puttting the top back in the next day or so.

I do have a couple of questions for you, though. I attached the hydraulic lines to the motor exactly as shown in Shipkiller's excellent procedure, i.e., the odd-numbered lines (11 & 13) to the even-numbered ports (12 & 14) on the motor, and vice versa. Also connected the electric leads green-striped wire to green terminal, and blue-striped wire to the red terminal. This is also how the motor which I replaced (identical to the one I've installed, and to the one shown in Shipkiller'si nstructions) was connected. Is that how you connected your motor?

Re the drains, the driver's side drain ran freely when I poured water into it, but the passenger side drain had no hole! There's about a 1" dia. indentation in the bottom of the drain, but no hole. Did you run into this? What do I do, just drill a hole?

Lakeeriesailor,
The motor I purchased for my Z4 had the numbers reversed from the numbers on the orignal motor (ie odds were where the evens were). Because hydraulics do not care what we how we number things, one must make an adaptation.

When comparing the two motors, if the numbers on the motor are reversed you must do one of two options:

#1 Connect the hydraulic lines by position rather than number. Odds to evens, evens to odds.

#2 Reverse the polarity of the motor. Reverse the two wires to the connections on the motor. This will ensure the motor powers in the correct direction.

I found these solutions out the hard way. They both work.

If you do not do one of the above "solutions", your console buttons will attempt to operate in the opoosite direction. Unfortunately the lock release mechanism doesn't know this and the top will not go down.

Hope this helps,
kroddy1414

Lakeeriesailor,

The hole is there! Probably so clogged it is difficult to find. Stuff that sits on top of the car gets forced in there when lowering the top. It is very important that you find and clean the hole. Or else, you will be doing this all again one day.

Kroddy

Kroddy -

In attaching the various connections, I did your first option, i.e., odd-numbered lines to even-numbered ports, and vice versa; connected the electrical leads as they had been.
The ports on the motor that I replaced were identical to those on the new motor; also, this is what Shipkiller showed in his instructions.

About the hole in the passenger-side drain well: I pressed down on the indentation that I describe pretty hard with a screwdriver. There was some debris in the well but not much. I'll keep on trying.

Thanks for your response.

Sailor....

The drain is tiny (4 or 6mm, IIRC). Mine was so 'silted over' that I didn't think I had a passenger drain either! To find the stupid thing, I got my hand in there and literally scooped out the debris (or use compressed air). It's on the outermost side of the 'box' and if I recall correctly, situated at about the midline. Once the box is cleaned out, the hole will be visible.

For cleaning out the drain, I found that a metal hanger, with the ends snipped off (for a smooth line) worked wonders. If you use the hanger, just go gently so as not to puncture everything. Then, do the same from the bottom side. (God help BMW for this stupid design)

Bonne chance!

For reference:

http://www.shipkiller.com/SoftTopDrains.html

Eureka! Shipkiller & Techie, I found the famous drain hole on the passenger side of the car; actually about 1/2" or 12 mm in dia. Some kind of plug in hole, slapped the crevice nozzle of the vacuum cleaner against it, sucked it out. Poured water in hole, lo and behold, came pouring out the bottom like a minor waterfall.

Thanks again, guys; without your advice I might have given up, or at least done extensive head-scratching.

Got question (no surprise): Getting ready to put the top back on, I noticed some kind of guck (weatherstrip adhesive?) on the sealer strip; is this necessary?

Thanks again.

I left the 'gunk' on and just put the weatherstripping back on. That was three years ago. No issues.

Good info, as usual.

I'm having a hell of a time trying to fit the operating rods onto the bottom hold-down bolts (the ones that go into the bodywork from the inside). Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Hello, all

With help from, particularly, Shipkiller, but certainly from Donnette/John, Techie Techie, Kroddy, and last but not least, BettyBMW03, I've successfully completed replacing the motor/hydraulic pump. It's not something I'd like to do again soon, but with help from all of you, it was straightforward, if difficult. Thanks to all of you!

I'd like to offer some suggestions to those contemplating this job (some may have been posted before, so please bear with me).
To amplify Shipkiller's suggestion re pictures: Take pictures of everything!
On the motor, odd hydraulic lines to even pump ports; even hydraulic lines to odd ports; green-striped electric lead to green terminal on motor; blue-striped wire to red terminal on motor.

• If you choose to connect even hydraulic lines to even pump ports, and odd lines to odd ports, you must reverse the electrical connections to the motor, i.e., green-striped wire to red terminal; blue-striped wires to green terminal (thank you, Betty!)

• Taping hydraulic lines & electrical leads to the motor housing, I used Gorilla-brand tape; super strong, super sticky, and it gets stickier the warmer it gets

• Two-sided tape I tried to use to seal the boots at the top of the convertible top linkages, 3 M "molding tape" tape (red) is for s**t! I've got some supposedly "super" 3 M stuff coming; hope that it works. If any of you have a better idea, please let me know

• To get into the trunk to unfasten/fasten the screws holding the top to the body, get your body at as small an angle to the back lip of the trunk, and slide in. Ditto getting out. I did this, and while it wasn't easy, it got my 73-year old, 5'10", 225 body in and out

Finally, a question: Can anyone tell me how to get the little clips that hold the hinges for trunk "floor" in place back in? I've looked at Shipkiller's photo of same over and over and nothing I do seems to work.

Again, thanks to all of you.

O.k., so I replaced the motor, etc.; everything works fine. However, I've not been able to get the little plastic clips that secure the "floor", or shelf, at the top of the trunk back in place. Any suggestions on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks, Shipkiller, for both how-to posts. I'm in the middle of changing out my top motor and have a few suggestions. First, a better discussion and a few pictures of how exactly the convertible top wiring harness connectors come apart would be great. If I had known (and seen a picture) that two of the three connections were adjacent to the top controller (white box) and the third was actually attached to the controller I might have saved some time. Disconnecting those backwards connectors was a real pain!. Also, Any tips for reattaching the weatherstripping along the rear deck. You mention using silicone grease, but no real discussion of how to go about reassembling that channel (unless I missed it). Again, thanks for helping us save a lot of money with this DIY post!

Lakeeriesailor, did you figure out those clips? I had to come at the attachment area from the top sides under each spring-loaded edge, squeezing my hand between the top storage compartment shelf and the car body. All had to be finished before reattaching the fabric "back"nto the storage shelf.