How to Remove and Replace your Soft Top Motor

[Shipkiller]

The primary cause for the motor to go bad is water intrusion into the motor housing.

If you are decently handy with tools you can do this yourself, saving a TON of money from the dealer.


Tools:
Screw drivers (Flathead and Phillips)
Metric Sockets and Wrench's.
Metric Allen Wrench's
Razor Blades or equivalent.
Flashlights or Drop lights

Parts Needed: (Refer to Drawing: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...13&hg=54&fg=10)
Use your VIN number to for the most up to date drawing and part numbers from RealOEM................

Some Tie-Wraps or tape.
Rags.
A new motor. No. ONE on the drawing.........There are different P/N's for different years.
A new Sound Isolation. No. Eight on the drawing.........This is the protective case/housing that the motor reside in. The existing case has sound isolation foam in it. The foam is waterlogged, very dirty/rusty and will take days to properly dry out.
Go ahead, spend the extra money and just replace it......Do you really want to do this AGAIN?


Extras:
A tube of RTV. This is used in case you want to SEAL the motor housing so you do not have to do this again......

Like I said in the Soft Top removal How-To, take pictures of the motor wiring and hydraulic lines for reassembly....

A picture of the motor that is SUPPOSED to be attached to the top. I had a busted mount. And later on, after my first drive, I discovered that was the cause of the squeak in my left ear while driving.... :thumbsup:


Remove the mount from the top frame and note (Take a picture) of the wiring and hydraulic line placement.


Remove the tape and tie-wraps from the cables and hoses.


Now remove the housing cover.


Housing cover removed. You can already see the corrosion.




As extra insurance, before I pulled the motor out, I labeled the hydraulic lines. 3,4,5,6. and then after the motor was out of the housing, labeled the old housing the same way. Just to be sure.

Pull out the motor. The damn thing is soaked....


The old housing. It shows my labels, and labels from BMW. 11,12,13,14 and W for the wire. Later on I found that the hydraulic lines are also labeled if you look . Can't be too careful......



When you look at the new motor, you will see a circuit board inside...
Remove the electrical connectors and clean them up. Use Q-Tips, Pipe Cleaners, what ever.. I removed the boots and cleaned them up also.
Note very carefully which way and what terminals they go on. If you put them on backward, the top will operate in reverse and you will have to remove the soft top and redo. :headbang:


The black assembly is the Bowden Cable. It is the manual top release. Remove the assembly, noting the position.


Looking at the motor, the brass button on the bottom is the actual hydraulic by-pass plunger or spool.


I now used a Dremel Tool to clean up the hydraulic fittings. This is not just a anal move. Hydraulics REQUIRE cleanliness...



If you are to do this properly, you should replace the copper sealing washers, but I just plain forgot to order them..
I think they come in the 'Hydraulic Repair Kit'. Number nine in the RealOEM drawing.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...13&hg=54&fg=10

Now I transfer the hydraulic lines a set at a time. The new pump is labeled with the BMW line numbers. 11,12,13,14. But transferring them as a set, you can't screw it up. Do this quickly to reduce the amount of oil loss from the line.
I put the dust screws from the new pump back into the old pump. I plan on draining the oil and saving it. It does not appear to be contaminated.


Replace the Bowden Cable assembly.


The new motor housing. Nice, clean and DRY.


Notice some oil will leak during the hydraulic line transfer.


Reattach the electrical leads, wipe up any oil on the motor and place in the new housing.


Doing a test fit.


Here's ware the RTV comes in, if you use it.


I placed RTV all along the housing seam and in and around the wire and piping penetrations, then put the cover on then put more RTV on the outside seam. Sealing it up.
Four hours after doing all this, I had a nagging feeling about the electrical wire positions so I took it all apart. It was not hard even with all that RTV..... The wiring was correct....
Sealed it back up..



Now using the pictures I took, and remounted the unit to the frame making sure all the cables and hydraulic lines were running properly, additionally putting tie-wraps where needed.

Now you are done....

[NHREDZ4]

I'm kind of surprised that I am the first to thank you for documenting this for us. Maybe BMW should just take note of the simple RTV application.

[widowmaker]

Just getting ready to do this myself and after searching I found this post. WOW what a HUGE help this will be!

Thanks for your post and quality photo's!

Wid

[mikeb4i8]

Just completed this work this past weekend. Thanks, Shipkiller, for a great post. I referred to it a lot, and it got me through. The motor looked just like the rusty one in your post, and I poured water out of the enclosure when I opened it. Certainly a poor design.

My investment ended up being about 6 hours of my time and $412 for the new motor. A lot better than what I would have shelled out at the dealer. Thanks again for a helpful post!

[Pivo]

Hi! Do I have to remove the top to change the roofmotor?
Exuse my English Im Swedish.
Pivo

[Shipkiller]

No excuse necessary.

Yes, you do have to remove the top to replace the motor.

[Pivo]

ok Thanks

[bimmerMT]

Can anyone tell me where to find shipkiller's top tutorial with the pictures still included? Thanks...

[widowmaker]

Can anyone tell me where to find shipkiller's top tutorial with the pictures still included? Thanks...

Try PM'ing Shipkiller. If he's around still, I'm sure he'll get back to you.

[grg600]

What happened to the pictures?

The primary cause for the motor to go bad is water intrusion into the motor housing.

If you are decently handy with tools you can do this yourself, saving a TON of money from the dealer.


Tools:
Screw drivers (Flathead and Phillips)
Metric Sockets and Wrench's.
Metric Allen Wrench's
Razor Blades or equivalent.
Flashlights or Drop lights

Parts Needed: (Refer to Drawing: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...13&hg=54&fg=10)
Use your VIN number to for the most up to date drawing and part numbers from RealOEM................

Some Tie-Wraps or tape.
Rags.
A new motor. No. ONE on the drawing.........There are different P/N's for different years.
A new Sound Isolation. No. Eight on the drawing.........This is the protective case/housing that the motor reside in. The existing case has sound isolation foam in it. The foam is waterlogged, very dirty/rusty and will take days to properly dry out.
Go ahead, spend the extra money and just replace it......Do you really want to do this AGAIN?


Extras:
A tube of RTV. This is used in case you want to SEAL the motor housing so you do not have to do this again......

Like I said in the Soft Top removal How-To, take pictures of the motor wiring and hydraulic lines for reassembly....

A picture of the motor that is SUPPOSED to be attached to the top. I had a busted mount. And later on, after my first drive, I discovered that was the cause of the squeak in my left ear while driving.... :thumbsup:


Remove the mount from the top frame and note (Take a picture) of the wiring and hydraulic line placement.


Remove the tape and tie-wraps from the cables and hoses.


Now remove the housing cover.


Housing cover removed. You can already see the corrosion.




As extra insurance, before I pulled the motor out, I labeled the hydraulic lines. 3,4,5,6. and then after the motor was out of the housing, labeled the old housing the same way. Just to be sure.

Pull out the motor. The damn thing is soaked....


The old housing. It shows my labels, and labels from BMW. 11,12,13,14 and W for the wire. Later on I found that the hydraulic lines are also labeled if you look . Can't be too careful......



When you look at the new motor, you will see a circuit board inside...
Remove the electrical connectors and clean them up. Use Q-Tips, Pipe Cleaners, what ever.. I removed the boots and cleaned them up also.
Note very carefully which way and what terminals they go on. If you put them on backward, the top will operate in reverse and you will have to remove the soft top and redo. :headbang:


The black assembly is the Bowden Cable. It is the manual top release. Remove the assembly, noting the position.


Looking at the motor, the brass button on the bottom is the actual hydraulic by-pass plunger or spool.


I now used a Dremel Tool to clean up the hydraulic fittings. This is not just a anal move. Hydraulics REQUIRE cleanliness...



If you are to do this properly, you should replace the copper sealing washers, but I just plain forgot to order them..
I think they come in the 'Hydraulic Repair Kit'. Number nine in the RealOEM drawing.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...13&hg=54&fg=10

Now I transfer the hydraulic lines a set at a time. The new pump is labeled with the BMW line numbers. 11,12,13,14. But transferring them as a set, you can't screw it up. Do this quickly to reduce the amount of oil loss from the line.
I put the dust screws from the new pump back into the old pump. I plan on draining the oil and saving it. It does not appear to be contaminated.


Replace the Bowden Cable assembly.


The new motor housing. Nice, clean and DRY.


Notice some oil will leak during the hydraulic line transfer.


Reattach the electrical leads, wipe up any oil on the motor and place in the new housing.


Doing a test fit.


Here's ware the RTV comes in, if you use it.


I placed RTV all along the housing seam and in and around the wire and piping penetrations, then put the cover on then put more RTV on the outside seam. Sealing it up.
Four hours after doing all this, I had a nagging feeling about the electrical wire positions so I took it all apart. It was not hard even with all that RTV..... The wiring was correct....
Sealed it back up..



Now using the pictures I took, and remounted the unit to the frame making sure all the cables and hydraulic lines were running properly, additionally putting tie-wraps where needed.

Now you are done....

- - - Updated - - -

What happened to tyhe pictures?

[Shipkiller]

I took them down because I needed the bandwidth...........

[rbarnesky]

Did you remove all of the pictures of replacing the convertible top motor for a 2008 Z4? When I look at your post, it shows that all the pictures have been removed?

- - - Updated - - -

How about sending all of the pictures and your instructions to my email address??

[m3rims]

Pm'd you about this, really could use some pictures. Any advice is welcomed!

[BoxTheBlock]

I'm joining the club of those lost in the rusted-out-motor. Bah. I would rather do this work than have a shop do it for $1300 and not protect against future water. Is anyone in the D.C. area and willing to spend a day helping? PM me if so.