E30 Zone

Hi Everyone,

The lid on my '94 318i cabriolet is catching on the hood frame when the hood either is raised or closed, from the mark on the lid it has been doing this for years as the lid is badly scratched.

Does anyone know how to adjust the lid / frame?

Any help much appreciated !

Cheers

so it does not open fully...i assume it is an electric roof...can we have pics

Where exactly?

On the leading edge, above where the catches/hoops are?

And electric or manual hood?

Hi,

Sorry, its electric, rubs on the leading edge near the catches, has worn about 6 inches of the hood frame material and left a nasty grove in the lid. I'll try & get some pics tohight.

Cheers

Random suggestion - the lid is adjustable, has four bolts right? I've adjusted mine a few times, really easy can move it backward away from the hood.- if it is that which is causing the prob

'93 Lux Convertible

no - it sounds like the hood is not opening fully like Dave said; the base of the hood should end-up leaning over from the vertical towards the front of the car slightly.

Be very cautious, as electric hood frames often tear-out the top of the motor casing if the rods get jammed.

IMHO you should disengage the motors, and play with the hood by hand, and see what you can glean what is going wrong.

Thanks alot,

Here's this picture, the lid has been rubbing on the hood for years and is slowly destroying the hood material. The hood is not fully opening on this side. Apart from this mark the hood is in excellent shape & this spoils the car, especially as she has only covered 41,000 miles !

What can I do to adjust the hood?

Cheers

once it is in the position you show in the picture, try VERY GENTLY pushing the top of the next-hoop-along-in-the-frame-towards-the-front-of-the-car, towards the front of the car... and then see if the base of the hood will then ALSO move slightly more towards the front of the car GENTLY

that sounds stupid, but do you understand? Read it through a few times

Thanks, I will give this a try tonight when I get home from work. I know the hoop thats rubbing will move forward, tried that this morning, I was VERY careful. What does it mean if the base of the hood does or doesn't move when the next hoop is pushed?

Cheers

this seems to have been a problem with the hydraulic hood and bmw recommended that you adjust the flap back on the hinge which seems to be the most sensible solution (54-39/1 in the manual {see in links}) also the whole roof may want adjusting forward a fraction on that side and they use shims to move it round so you might loosen the whole frame on that side and see if you can move it forward...never had to do it so this would be a first....

what he said - though it does catch slightly on my manual hood depending on how I open it, so it's not just an electric issue.

It might be worth ringing Jason... do a zone search on
'jason and hood'

Good luck

ps what is your location? (put it in your Avatar section)

Thanks guys, Will have a go at moving this around tonight.

Cheers

Well I moved this lid back, something went bang !?! The hood now opens fully & it still works OK.

Cheers

eek

well if you are happy.........

Keep an eye on it, and if it ever jams, STOP pressing the button immediately

has the wire that stops the boot opening come off...its the only thing i can think of...at least it works

Not sure I would have moved the lid at all... more likely that he sync between the two motors is out or the pull rod (the light brown/greeny one not the black) is bent or needs adjustment. The noise you heard sounds like the bang might have been your lid motor jumping a gear (hopefully not tearing it off). This MAY lead to the system getting further out of sync so be very careful in use of the roof. It may also have been the lid clashing with the body if you moved it too far back.

If your interested, read the waffle, otherwise skip to the end for adjustment.


I asked about electric hoods before, we had much more fundimental problems with the top motor, missing parts and weld happy previous owner bodging broken parts together.

For those of you who remember last year (DaveD & Orangecurry) I did in the end fix it.....for about three days. My mistake was to reattach the boot lid safety device (from another car with all the other hood parts that were missing). The cable was too short and stopped the lid opening before the motor turned off. This caused it to jump gears, get out of sync very quickly and break the black push rod end within a couple of days.

I have just fixed it a second time by bending the black rod that came with the car, (as opposed to the one I broke) in a vice as a temporary measure till I go and see the mythical Jason for a new one (very nice guy to talk to on the phone). After fixing it the lid was scraping on the bottom hood hoop like yours. I adjusted mine to acceptability ( i will tinker again when I have the new black rod) by doing the following.

1. Open the hood far enough so that the lid is open and the bottom hoop is upright.
2. Remove the trim cover (if there) from the top of the hood motor
3. Carefully undo the nut holding the brown/green coloured rod in place on the cam by the motor. This may be under tension and may spring off, so be careful. You may need to ease the roof mecahnism back in the other direction when reconnecting (with the electric switch).
4. The rod is adjustable in length, shortening the rod slightly will pull the bottom lever (which lifts the bottom hoop) further forward when the top motor cam is pulled back. Shorten this rod slightly in stages until you get the desired result.
5. Put everything back and enjoy.

This worked for me but I worked it out by myself by staring at the thing long and hard to understand what does what! Be VERY careful! If in doubt, phone jason as I worked this out in desperation rather than following instructions.

Again, sounds like the bang might have been your lid motor jumping a gear (hopefully not tearing it off). This MAY lead to the system getting further out of sync.

laters,

Frank

Hi, Found out what went bang; I forgot to tighten up the lid nuts on the right hand side, DOH! The lid was flapping around against the hinge. This is why it closed without catching ! Anyway live & learn. So I've tighened it up & guess what, back to square one. Will try out Franks idea at the weekend. Cheers Pete