Relocation of Z4 Roof motor to the boot

t-tony

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Has anyone who has had their roof motor fail noticed an acrid electrical smell in the car as or before it failed. Just wondering ..........................

Tony.
 

gookah

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t-tony

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nope, and I've had two go on me, on two separate Z4's

For anyone looking at this work, why not do it yourself. I did
Guide is here:
https://zroadster.org/threads/z4-roof-motor-relocation-to-boot.19256/
Hi Pete, @gookah the reason I asked about an electrical smell 're roof motor was that when we got back to the pub on the 10th. I put my roof up and noticed a nasty electrical smell.
Well today I found the culprit, a failed led bulbs in my passenger foot well light.
20170920_161420.jpg


You can see the one on the left had started to melt. These were not cheap bulbs either.

Tony.

ps. Just glad it wasn't the roof motor.
 
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Ducklakeview

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Has anyone who has had their roof motor fail noticed an acrid electrical smell in the car as or before it failed. Just wondering ..........................

Tony.
I did this one last week, that had actually caught fire, scorching the cables and foam.... The smell was horrendous...

20170917_150741.jpg
20170917_151026.jpg
20170917_151029.jpg
20170917_151047.jpg
20170917_151719.jpg
20170917_152356.jpg


Mike
 

t-tony

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Wow. You would think it must've been noisy ?
I found the culprit on mine Mike, it was a foot well light led melting.

Tony.
 
D

Ducklakeview

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Wow. You would think it must've been noisy ?
I found the culprit on mine Mike, it was a foot well light led melting.

Tony.
Saw that lol, just wanted to show that they do catch fire. This one has eventually seized solid and was beyond repair, the first one out of 250+ I've not been able to salvage. Good used motor from stock fitted though, and he was on his way, roof down and happy.

Mike
 

Middleman

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1st post from a new Z4 owner. I'll add a hello post in new members when I stop drving my Zed and get some pictures of it to add.

Is anyone on here aware of anyone in Ireland North or South who does this roof motor relocation. Mine is working but I'd like to stop the inevitable happening.

Thanks

John
 

Crapsurfers

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Hi, newbie z 4 owner, 2007 model, roof has just stopped working. Having read this thread, hopefully someone will suggest someone near to S Wales that can do this for less than a small fortune? Any advice is appreciated
 

Nodzed

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Hi @billz A total newbie here but one that was about to fork out a whole wad of cash for the second time in two years to get my roof done again. The missus is endlessly nagging me to sell my Z4 now that we've created a small human but I'm still hanging on. Another £600+ for the roof is going to make my life EVEN harder though. Any chance you could let me know the details of this Dave chap in Tow Law so I can save myself a packet and prevent the evil wife from flogging my pride and joy behind my back? Thanks massively! Jake
Sell the wife and enjoy the Zed ;);)
 

GazHyde

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I just message Ross @bowser134 and invited him to join the forum. Based in Hampshire, recommended him before to others and got good feedback from them.
 

FlashAir

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HI all..... @bowser134 .... where are you located? I figure I should relocate my motor to the boot, whilst it still works? I'm in West Berks....wheres the nearest top bloke for this, in respect to me?
 

FlashAir

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Nice one....I will PM you re pricing and "When"?! :)
 

Malcolm hatch

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Just a quick bit of info for you Z4 owners who are waiting on baited breath for your roof to stop working!! (applies to cars up to 2009) I think but I don't think you rich guys who own a modern one have to worry :)

I was always concerned that my roof motor would finally give up the ghost - from the day I bought my car. Sure enough it went just in time for summer!! Luckily I'd been anticipating this and trying to figure out what I would do.

To cut a long story short I found a guy in Harrogate (Yorkshire), called Mervyn, who has a small one man operation business called Autoelectron. I called Merv, as he likes to be called, and he gave me a lot of useful information with regard to failing roof motors. The good news is its not just Z4 motors that go bang. Apparently Mercedes have a bad rep too!!

Anyway what Merv does is relocate the roof motor to the boot however he always uses a brand new motor and if I had pictures of my old one you'd see why!! As many of you will know the roof motor in a Z4 is situated in a small tray behind the passenger seat and the conventional way to replace it involves removing the roof. There are drain plugs in this tray but they are renowned for getting blocked and this causes the roof motor to become corroded with rust eventually killing it.

Merv, quite a big guy, climbs into your boot and with dexterity and some clever tools will remove the old, knackered, motor without removing the roof. There are advantages to this. Firstly the cost. It will cost well over £1000.00 to have the roof removed and get a replacement motor fitted into its original position. Secondly, as Merv explained to me, its not a good idea to remove the roof on numerous occasions. Merv used to replace motors the conventional way. However when a customer returned, with the same problem, two years after having his roof motor replaced he decided to explore different options. Removing the roof is a tricky job and doing it more than once can lead to or enhance the chance of ripping tired fabric or simply not getting it realigned properly. Merv came up with putting it in the boot in a neat little casing that doesn't take away boot space. It takes him between 4 and 6 hours to do the job and it will cost you , including the cost of a brand new motor, around £670.00. He will guarantee your new motor for two years but he assured me that it will now last the life of the vehicle as it is highly unlikely to suffer water ingress in its new position. Besides if anything does go wrong it is now easily accessible.

There are other people out there that can do the same job - well i found two others. One in Surrey and one up in Durham so Yorkshire it was for me.

Anyway Merv's a really good guy and Harrogate is a lovely place to go for a spin. Look him up.

I will be happy to take pictures if any one is interested and if you want Mervs contact details give me a shout!!

Cheers and happy motoring guys

Rob
Hi Rob you have mentioned that there is a company in the south that can complete this work could you give me his details.
Many thanks Malcolm
 
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