Roadster rear strut removal help

[GomboRombo]

Oh wise and experienced ones. I am about to install new coilovers in my roadster and I've read several DIYs and it looks pretty straight forward. The only thing that is unclear is how do you get to the rear shock towers? I think I have to remove the soft top tray and the caps that go over the shock towers..... any pointers on the best way to do that? Any advise and direction would be much appreciated.

[mtrhed]

At the bottom of each knob of shelf there is a small strut which runs to the side of the knob and is connected with a push pin rivet.
Pull pin out of rivet and remove. This frees the strut.
Now pull straight back on the knob. It is connected to a thin rod which attaches the bottom of the shelf hinge to the plastic piece which sits atop the rear shock mount. The bottom of the hinge is now free.
The top of the hinge clips into the bottom sides of the shelf. Carefully "pop" the hinge out of these clips.
The hinge carrier(plastic piece which sits atop shock mount) has a 10mm bolt at it's front(by front I mean towards the front of car). It is held at rear by a torx bolt(27 or 30?) and a push pin rivet on top.
Once all fasteners have been removed hinge carrier can be removed by pulling in and back and up. It's kind of a pain and needs to be finnaggled up over the shock mount and the other plastic dome that caps it.

I ended up removing both plastic "domes" with a dremel and snips so I am able to access the adjustment knobs on my new shocks from the interior with top up and the shelf reassembled.
Just took my time, lots of light, try not to break anything, and make sure front tab on shelf is in it's slot so it hits the micro switch.

HTH's

Been a while.....

[GomboRombo]

Originally Posted by mtrhed

At the bottom of each knob of shelf there is a small strut which runs to the side of the knob and is connected with a push pin rivet.
Pull pin out of rivet and remove. This frees the strut.
Now pull straight back on the knob. It is connected to a thin rod which attaches the bottom of the shelf hinge to the plastic piece which sits atop the rear shock mount. The bottom of the hinge is now free.
The top of the hinge clips into the bottom sides of the shelf. Carefully "pop" the hinge out of these clips.
The hinge carrier(plastic piece which sits atop shock mount) has a 10mm bolt at it's front(by front I mean towards the front of car). It is held at rear by a torx bolt(27 or 30?) and a push pin rivet on top.
Once all fasteners have been removed hinge carrier can be removed by pulling in and back and up. It's kind of a pain and needs to be finnaggled up over the shock mount and the other plastic dome that caps it.

I ended up removing both plastic "domes" with a dremel and snips so I am able to access the adjustment knobs on my new shocks from the interior with top up and the shelf reassembled.
Just took my time, lots of light, try not to break anything, and make sure front tab on shelf is in it's slot so it hits the micro switch.

HTH's

Been a while.....

Thank you mtrhed. I studied your instruction last night and found these instructions as well. http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewto...p?f=24&t=51205 . Between the two I was able to get to my rear shock towers in about 45 min. Now for the fun stuff, actually installing the coilovers I bought.

[jdoublehcubed]

45 minutes, holy shit thats fast. Nice job.

[GomboRombo]

Originally Posted by jdoublehcubed

45 minutes, holy shit thats fast. Nice job.

I used the instructions in the link which didn't require disconnecting the little strut arm and pulling the knob out (plus it had pictures). I had mtrhed's method as a backup in case things didn't work out. Now that I've done it once, I can now do it without over analyzing everything and i'm sure I can cut that time to less than half.
I read a couple other write ups, and I was fully prepared to spend 3 to 5 hours on this. Even though it took less time than I thought, I will still order a set of RE rear strut mounts to make this easier in the future just incase I decide to try something different.

[mtrhed]

Nicely done! I'm always worried about breaking plastic interior bits and having a project become a nightmare. The rest is cake. Besides being an excellent mount, the RE RSM makes the next shock removal/replacement a breeze.