Greetings. I'm a new and very excited about my newly acquired '92 325i convertible. Being a New Englander I'm especially psyched about a rust-free classic from Florida. I inherited a faulty electric powered top. Upon looking into it, I discovered the main operating arm was badly bent against the side of the top compartment. I gave removing, heating and straightening to my best guess of its original shape a try:. It retracted the top and I thought I was golden. When I went to raising it, yes, it did bend back. I don't know if the pivot points/bushings are creating too much resistance or what. The top looks great up, nice and tight. I'm following up on previous posts recommending converting to a manual top when experiencing electric top problems. Thats exactly what I want to do. Can someone talk me through the steps?? Thanks in advance.
Welcome! . All-right - another E36 rag top! Congrats on the car! What color, equipment? My Morea Gruen/ Black/ Beige 1.8L E36 is a manual top. Sorry I don't have the info you need - hopefully someone else here does. But I did want to say - Welcome to the forum! Vaya con Dios. .
I guess I had a "duh" moment there. Thanks for the gentle & civilized correction. If I had a vote for the new moderator Bill Howard is looking for . . . . you'd have mine. Best.
I just have a particular attention to detail, that's all. As for the issue at hand, I'm at work right now so I just did a quick and dirty Google search. It seems that someone on Bimmerfest has done this. There's only one reply to the original poster's question, but I think it contains pertinent information. Click here Now this operating arm; is this only essential for the electric part of the top to work or is it essential for the top to go up or down in general? I'm not familiar with cabrios so my knowledge on the subject is rather limited... And you're darned right; I did look up how to spell pertinent.
Thanks for the Bimmerfest reference! I was happy to know about the CCA forum. The other looks equally awesome. This is the main arm transfers the rotation supplied by the motor to the folding top frame. I'm thinking it originally got bent snagging on the boot lid that doesn't come quite all the way up. I think there's a part I could replace that will raise the lid all the way again, and get another rod - but if I can make it work manually without waiting for parts and the change is reversible, that's what I'll do. Thanks again for the post!
I think the second post in the link I posted tells you how to un-automize it. I think he was describing how to unhook the motors so you can raise/lower the cabrio top by hand. I wasn't entirely sure about what he was saying seeing as I don't own a cabrio and have no clue how they work...
just signed on so you may have already found your answer. I own a 93 E30 cabriolet and over the years have replaced both motors at substantial cost, close to $2000 parts and labor. I was told in both cases to make sure I hand raised the front of the top before engaging the power. Make sure you raise it high. Apparently this takes some stress off of the motors as they start. As for the rubbing/catching of the two parts as they pass one another, I just stop the operation before they rub, then restart the operation. Seems to work. I must admit though that I'm having my third problem with the roof, it seems that the lid and top are not in sync with one another, one wants to close while the other wants to open. Just about ready to go manual this time. Good luck
Well I've certainly learned something by reading the other posts. Seems some of the information I offered was not totally correct. You should read the website www.e30ic.com/powertop.htm before starting/stopping operations.
