Soft top covering

[MiguelMadrid]

I don´t have and don´t miss this item, since normally you put the soft roof up and down with a certain frecuency and placing and removing the cover might be a work. Besides a bit of dirt you might catch while driving open top without the cover, any body knows of any other inconvenience or harm to the roof for this reason? Thanks.

[macfly]

If you are driving at speed the fabric could possibly get scuffed a little by the combination of dust and wind movement, and over time the strong UV from the sun in Spain will bleach and weaken the fabric.

I have always used it on all my three different Z8's, but I don't use them as daily drivers, so putting the dust cover on is part of the car's charm I enjoy on the special occasions I do use it.

[Z8Mania]

You should absolutely use it. If you drive above 20-30MPH the wind will pull on that top like it pulls on a sail and over time it will become damaged for all the reasons Macfly says and you can even get the mechanism pulled out of sorts.

[MiguelMadrid]

Thanks for your answer Macfly and Z8Mania. We can take my car as laboratory for the "non cover soft-roof driving effects". I will make a normal use of the car without the cover and let the forum know any incidence. I risk having the soft roof repaired or replaced, but will avoid having to put on the cover everytime a fill like closing or opening. On the other hand thanks to this forum I immedately changed my run flats and awaiting PP to be installed. All the best.

[macfly]

I can understand that, if I was using the car everyday I think I'd also want to ditch the cover. The best advice I could give is always put the top up for long freeway runs, as I think it would suffer the most when doing sustained high speed driving. Keep us posted.

[skicoach]

Just as a point of information, I have never used the dust cover and drive my car exclusively with the top down. It is garaged and stored with the top up always and currently has 14,xxx miles. It has no discernable stretching, chaffing, or otherwise abnormal wear. I have always used the convertable top cleaner/sealer as described by BMW and overall feel that the repeated putting on and taking off of the cover,at least in my case, is not warrented unless I relegate the car to a weekly drive with no time restraints.

[MiguelMadrid]

Thanks Chris for your answer. I appreciate it specially because I don´t use the cover either and no problem up to date (30.000km.) I am glad to check that other users don´t use the cover without significant negative effects. Not only for the nuisance of puting it on and off, but particularly I like more the car with the roof down and with no cover. I plainly agree with you in driving almost always roof down. The car invites to it once you don´t care much about crazy hair. All the best.

[Z8Ros]

My car has driven 125000km (80000 miles 2001) most of the time open. I never used the softtop cover.It is the inside part of the softtop that can be affected by dust and sunlight. So the outside part of the roof is covered. With sometimes highspeed driving on the german autobahn I have no problem at all.
Z8Ros
The Netherlands

[RRZ8]

I never used my soft top cover too, absolutely no problems.

[MiguelMadrid]

My car has driven 125000km (80000 miles 2001) most of the time open. I never used the softtop cover.It is the inside part of the softtop that can be affected by dust and sunlight. So the outside part of the roof is covered. With sometimes highspeed driving on the german autobahn I have no problem at all.
Z8Ros
The Netherlands

Thanks for reply and information. I am very glad to know other users never use dust cover, without a problem.

[MiguelMadrid]

I never used my soft top cover too, absolutely no problems.

Thanks for the infortmation. I don´t use it either and no problem.