Anyone with experience with Tophydraulics ?

[MurphsLaww]

Posted this in another forum before I realized that forum doesn't get used much anymore, it appears.

anyway...

This has turned into a bit of an escapade. I bought a 2011 E89 3.0 from Carvana, with a SilverRock warranty about a year ago, with 42k, and since then, had SilverRock cover one ignition coil, and a hydro-bushing... BMW recommended replacing all of them. I ended up replacing the rest on my own after the next one went out, as I don't have time to take it in for every coil as they go out. Been running like a tank since and smooth as butter. Having a warranty is weird for me, as I tend to do a lot of work on my cars.

The top started hitching when opening a couple weeks ago, but always would close on the second attempt. I had an oil change due, and took it to the dealer, and had them look at it, and diagnosed, for $165, the top had some overheat codes showing for the Hydraulic motor. They recommended replacing it for around $5k. SilverRock, to their credit, approved the repair. With that repair, I'd be already into $7k+ in coverage on a warranty I paid $4k for and still have 30k miles and/or 3 years left on. They said I should retrieve the car and wait.

I picked it up, did some research and found I could get it rebuilt for $600 by TopHydraulics.

Also found there was about an inch of water in the lower recess of the trunk under the top motor and battery. It doesn't appear that it's been a recurring issue, as I'd guess there would be some rust or something ? There was some corrosion on the bottom of the hydraulic motor, but none anywhere else. I'm guessing the dealer couldn't get the top down, like I once couldn't, and manually did it, it didn't close all the way, and then they left it outside. There was rain while they had it, and I think they also washed it.

Problem is, BMW say they can't get a motor for 3-4 months, likely. I'm not interested in waiting that long, so I pulled the motor myself and am sending it off to tophydraulics.com and am curious to see if anyone has experience with them? They say they rebuild them better than new due to the seals they use.

They seem reputable, are run by an ex-physics professor from Stanford, but you never know, right ? If no one does, I'll post my experience. Sending the motor off today. They say they are super busy on the site, and their turnaround on rebuilds is now 1-2 weeks. Better than 3-4 months.

***In the time I tried to post this elsewhere, and having requested the repair and parts order be cancelled, lo and behold, BMW calls back and say they have a fedex notification that the part is on the way. More than a little sketch, that upon threatening to cancel the $7k repair, they manage to find one. Kind of my experience with the local BMW dealers around here. (wanted to charge $600 to re-glue a parking sensor into the bumper on a 1 month old to me, CPO, 2017 230i. I did it in 15 minutes without removing the bumper.)

I'm now thinking about still having the old one rebuilt, and selling it on e-bay. I didn't see a core charge listed on the BMW parts order, so I'd guess they don't re-manufacture these.

[RobbiZ4]

Top Hydraulics:
Klaus Witte is the president and founder of Top Hydraulics. He is a native German and an engineer. We had a longer phone call about 2 years a go and he seemed to be very relyable.
https://www.tophydraulics.com/content/4-about-us

He has published a bunch of videos on Youtube, where he himself is the speaker.

[MurphsLaww]

That helps a lot. Thanks for the detailed reply.

That vid is the one I followed to remove the pump. They/He seem to know what they are doing.

I've already paid the rebuild fee, and sent the motor off, and it looks like a new one will be put in as well. Hopefully, I can unload the rebuilt one, or put the rebuilt one in, and sell the new one.