I'm having issues with my top going down. It starts to go down, but stops and won't go further back. What's strange is even when you manually try to open the top, you can't put the top down it stops about halfway up in the air and you physically can't move it. The only way the top will manually go down is by un hooking line #12 on the left main cylinder. The top operates just fine going up, and everything else when going down seems to be fine up to point when bow goes into tonneau area and the top starts pulling back from the front glass. It does pull back from the front glass, like i said without fail it stops about halfway in the open position when the top is straight up in air. What I believe is the problem is something is not allowing the pump to open the valve when the top is pulling back. When you turn the power off of the car after a few min the pressure releases and the top starts moving on its own weight. When you disconnect line #12, you can move the top open manually no problem.

Here's what I've done, its extensive and still can't find the culprit. I've:

• replaced pump with a new pump from TopHydraulics
• replaced all 7 cylinders with TopHydraulics ones
• I've replaced almost all the switches in the car that have to do with opening top
  • S843
  • S8411
  • S8413
  • S8415
  • S8418
  • S8422
  • S8423
• replaced hydraulic lines on the left main cylinder #12,#11,#15
• I've bought another convertible control module from ebay and tried that just to test to see if that might be it, no luck
• I've replaced the relays on the new tophydraulics pump just to see if maybe was that
• I've confirmed there's nothing wrong with any of the hinges/mechanicals of the top, when you unpin the top of both left and right side main lift cylinders the top will open manually no problem
• I've reconnected the top of the right cylinder keeping the left top unpinned/connected and the top will manually go down no problem
• I've connected the top of the left cylinder both keeping the right top unconnected and connected and the top will not manually go down
• I've temporarily zip tied the trunk compartment switch S849
• The pump makes noise when its stops, but something is keeping the valve from opening in the pump when top is trying to open

I think that covers it all, and I've checked the fuses the pump operates the issue is for whatever reason something is keeping the pump from opening a valve and it won't let the hydraulic fluid in and hence it feels like you'll break the top if you try pushing it further both when he power is on and when manually opening it. There are no error messages on the display, it has gone down a couple of times intermittently (maybe once in 20) and I get the closed and open message completing the cycle. I've not cheeked if there's any trouble codes when the top is stopped, I don't know if I can myself but outside of that I'm completely lost as to what it could be.
Any thoughts or ideas are welcome, and appreciate the help. -Btcruiser

 

What if you had just taken it to the dealer and told them that the top won’t go down and ask them to give you an estimate on what it would cost to fix it? Anyway, that’s what I would’ve done.

 

see attached

 

I did exactly that a fee years ago... it turned out 2 relays were faulty... total cost was about $150. Also, you have to know the system “locks itself” after a fee unsuccessful attempts - the dealer had to reset something.

 

Car came from florida and the seals in the cylinders were leaking in fact 6 of the 7 cylinders were leaking so wanted to replace them, and after reading how well the TopHydraulics refurb pump is thought I would do that also to make it last a long time since replaced the cylinders as the car is in excellent condition otherwise and extremely clean. Couple of the switches for tonneau cover were cracked, they seemed to still work but just replaced them so were brand new. I had thought originally with the leaks would fix the issue, and especially with the new pump. When it didn't fix the issue just seemed there could only be a couple of other things and so kept going.

 

Do you know which relays they were? I've never heard there's a reset for the convertible, I can look into that everything I've read suggested the opposite there isn't a reset.

 

thanks, I've been using that extensively and crossing things off.

 

The dealer invoice says ”INSTALL SPECIAL ORDERED RELAYS FOR CONVERTIBLE TOP PUMP” part number 002 542 74 19, RELAYS $35.10 (2x), LABOR $75 (Including FAULT CODES FOR SOFT TOP COMPARTMENT LID AND TRUNK NORMALIZATION)

Hopefully, this helps!