Convertible 09 plastic flaps don’t slide back in

[dad2twins]

What is keeping the eyelet secure to the mechanism?

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by dad2twins

What is keeping the eyelet secure to the mechanism?

Good question. Is it a screw or something? Hard to tell from the photo.

Long time 3 series user, I just bought a 1 series and it has this issue on both sides. (Not closing when top open) I will check this fix tomorrow. Thank you OP.

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by tshinkle

Same issue with my 2008 128i convertible. The plastic slide covers stick and it pushes up the entire plastic covering unless I push it manually. I thought it might be the covers themselves but sounds like I'll have to take the entire cover off and see if there is a spring or wire that is broken that is supposed to move the cover with the top as opposed to the top mechanics pushing on it. Thx

Did you ever fix your issue? Mine remain open with the top down. Had to purchase the top panels which they come with the cable attached underneath. I will replace them this weekend. I cannot find a good video or tutorial on how to replace these but it does not seem to be too hard to replace.

[ne14t]

I just finished fixing mine - one flap was stuck open, and the cable end had broken off on the other side. Thank you, gtsdrs, for the idea of using a crimp connector - this seems to be working although the metal is a bit soft and I'm worried about how long it will last. My theory is that the root cause is the cable sticking in its housing, causing more force on the cable end and/or preventing the flap from sliding back. So I took the top cover / trim off both sides and dripped a little oil down each side, plus I lubricated the tracks that the flap slides on with a little silicone grease. We'll see how it goes but I'm hoping it will stop the other side from breaking.

Disassembly took me a while to figure out, but once I got one side the other went quickly. I started with the top down, and then used the "top up" button just to raise the rear lid to vertical. To remove the top cover on each side, there's a horizontal torx screw at the back, and then you need to remove the front seatbelt anchor. To do this, there are two covers which you can pry straight out, and then there's an almighty torx screw underneath. I didn't have the right size bit **and I'm not going to advocate for this** but I did use a hex wrench to carefully loosen the bolt (don't judge). Of course if I had rounded off the inside of the bolt then I would have been in for a whole world of other problems, but with a little gentle persuasion it shifted. The cover then came straight out (vertically) and I was able to lube the tracks and cable inners underneath.

At the other end, the cable end is held on with a push-on retaining washer which I was able to pry off with a screwdriver. I found a replacement at Ace Hardware (3mm, I think). I carefully chewed away the remaining plastic from the end of the cable with a variety of tools before I crimped on the connector.

Thanks again, all of you, for the pointers!

[carcar123454321]

ne14t , if my square piece that slides forward is pushed down (one of my kid's friends pushed it down by accident) I'm thinking that if I try to pop the convertible cover up, the cable will pull on that piece and maybe break the cable?

I think they tried to put up the top to fix it and partially pried up the side top piece--if that's the case, I'm assuming they broke the piece if a torx bolt holds the back in place, correct?

Trying to figure out how I get access to that torx bolt if lifting the back cover for the convertible will pull on the cable and damage the little square more.

[carcar123454321]

As noted by ne14t, I was able to just push the top up button shortly


Note when you take the horizontal torx bolt out to pull up the panel, if it's popped up already from force, the little metal bracket that is about 3 inches long and pointy at one end (that end fits into the longer panel) may fall down into the well. That happened to me. You can retrieve it with an extendable magnet or if you can get your hand in there.

I got everything snapped back into the tracks and sprayed some silicone teflon on the track (there are also little white caps on the round pegs on the square piece that help it slide....one was missing on mine...see pic below).

Unfortunately, the cable did break at the plastic weakpoint noted in this thread. I'll have to try the electrical connector idea. So there is no BMW part to just replace it? Is it rivited into the arm or something or would you have to replace the entire cable (or do they even sell the cable?)?

[carcar123454321]

P.S. Is there a way to make pictures smaller so they don't hog up so much real estate in a post?