Here we go again.....Convertible top won't close

[BlackjackMulligan]

Went to a wedding last night. Had it all shined up and made sure I got a nice, slow drive by in front of the church as everyone was walking out

When I got to the reception, I closed the top just like always. It performed 95% of the normal action, but when the front of the top should meet and lock down on the windshield header, it just stopped there and the light started blinking above the button in red. Also, it flashed "Top not locked" on the iDrive screen. Shit.

So I start playing with the button, trying to get it to work. But the wife is getting antsy, and I'm thinking that I have a 1 hour drive home, I can't drive all that way with the front of the top bouncing and flapping in the breeze. So I send her on into the reception and decide to see what I can do.

I remembered that there is a way to manually close the top. So let's pop the trunk to get the manual and tools to see how it's done. Wrong. When the car thinks that the top is in motion, you can't open the trunk, this way you won't risk hitting metal on metal when the clamshell tonneau cover opens and the trunk opens. So I start panicking wondering HTF I'm going to take care of this. I then remembered the "key within the key" and pulled it out. I stuck it into the keyhole above the licence plate and was able to open the trunk manually.

After that, I had to pop off the little black square plastic cover on the header panel of the top, and insert an allen wrench and turn it to lock the top to the windshield header.

Needless to say, at this point I'm sweaty and frustrated as I walk into the reception. I'll call on Monday to make an appointment.

Anyone else have this issue, and know what the outcome was? My guess is that it's somehow out of alignment.

[cagekicker]

that sucks! hopefully it' a quick fix. that had to be extremely frustrating.

[warmtoes]

Holy crap. I've never had that problem. Does anything seemed mis-aligned? I wonder if it's some sensor issue?

The only time I had a slight problem was when my top was replaced back in December. A few times after it was replaced I had a problem with it going back into the tonneau cover but that resolved itself after making the top go up and down a few times.

Keep us informed.

[moveswiftly]

I'd do a battery reset.

[Zuzu]

Thanks for the info...Will go now and make sure I know how to close manually in case of an emergency..

[MOCKBA]

I had a similar issue with Z4, so I could close using keys in a driver door. I showed the car to a dealer after. The issue was fixed by chaning switch.

[BrokenVert]

How often do you raise and lower the top? My mechanicals failed a few months back and the top got stuck half up. My dealer said I put a few years worth of wear on it.

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

How often do you raise and lower the top? My mechanicals failed a few months back and the top got stuck half up. My dealer said I put a few years worth of wear on it.

That's complete BS and that's exactly what I'd tell the dealer who said it.

[Artmasterx]

For what it's worth, our sunroof just malfunctioned this week after about 13k miles/11 months. I would say that is does not get a lot of use since over 6 months of the year the weather sucks up here.

It will not retract back into the roof, but with still go up and down into the vent position. Annoying, but I guess my first service and inspection is about due anyway, so we'll kill a few birds with one stone.

Edit:
I just searched around and found the re-initialization procedure and it fixed it... so that's good (Pressing down the sunroof button for ~45 seconds)

[warmtoes]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

That's complete BS and that's exactly what I'd tell the dealer who said it.

No doubt. BrokenVert, your dealer was feeding you a totally load of crap to cover their asses.

[BrokenVert]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

That's complete BS and that's exactly what I'd tell the dealer who said it.

Originally Posted by warmtoes

No doubt. BrokenVert, your dealer was feeding you a totally load of crap to cover their asses.

I really don't care what they told me. Because at the end they fixed it with no issues under warrenty.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by warmtoes

Holy crap. I've never had that problem. Does anything seemed mis-aligned? I wonder if it's some sensor issue?

The only time I had a slight problem was when my top was replaced back in December. A few times after it was replaced I had a problem with it going back into the tonneau cover but that resolved itself after making the top go up and down a few times.

Keep us informed.

Will do. Nothing jumps out at me as far as being misaligned, although when it gets to the point when it's almost closed, but just dies there, the left side of the top appears to be slightly lower than the right.

Originally Posted by Zuzu

Thanks for the info...Will go now and make sure I know how to close manually in case of an emergency..

No problem. Luckily, it didn't get stuck under the tonneau cover, there is an additional procedure to open up that too if need be. When I put the top down it's fine, it just happens when I'm trying to put it up. If my wife had had the car on her own this day, and if it started to rain, she would've been SOL because she'd have no idea how to manually lock the top.

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

How often do you raise and lower the top? My mechanicals failed a few months back and the top got stuck half up. My dealer said I put a few years worth of wear on it.

I put the top down quite a bit, but leave it down overnight in the garage until the next day after arriving to work. So I'd say on average it goes up and down once a day. Certainly nothing beyond what I'd consider normal.

Also, even after locking the top down manually, I'm still getting a warning that says "top not locked". I'm going to try and get it in this week.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Update:

Got to work this morning, and the top operated as it should. I'm not going to bother taking it to the dealer because if they can't replicate the issue they're not going to do anything about it. I'll keep an eye on it for the next week or so and see what happens. Don't know if I'm happy it fixed itself or not.....I'd rather it be broken and let the dealer fix it than there possibly being an issue that could come up again down the road.

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

Update:

Got to work this morning, and the top operated as it should. I'm not going to bother taking it to the dealer because if they can't replicate the issue they're not going to do anything about it. .

I would think it probably logged the conditions that caused the warning light, but I could be wrong. I think I'd take it in and at least see if they'll scan it. If they have to order parts it may take a few days to get them.

[JimD]

This is also one of those situations where having a OBDII reader is nice. You can get one for around $50 (mine came from Harbor Freight and I think I paid $40 on sale) and if something like this happens, plug it in and see if there are codes. If there are, your dealer should have no issue checking it out. You can also reset the codes if it's something silly like the gas cap.

Jim

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by JimD

This is also one of those situations where having a OBDII reader is nice. You can get one for around $50 (mine came from Harbor Freight and I think I paid $40 on sale) and if something like this happens, plug it in and see if there are codes. If there are, your dealer should have no issue checking it out. You can also reset the codes if it's something silly like the gas cap.

Jim

I doubt the codes for the top will show up in a standard code reader. They're not going to be the standard OBDII codes, and may not even be stored in the ECU. There's another module that controls a lot of the interior functions (they call it the "footwell" module) and I think that's where the top functions are controlled from. The dealership techs can likely pull fault history from it though.

The stuff you get from the standard OBDII readers is just the government mandated standard emissions codes.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

I would think it probably logged the conditions that caused the warning light, but I could be wrong. I think I'd take it in and at least see if they'll scan it. If they have to order parts it may take a few days to get them.

The dealer agrees with you Jeremy.....they think that they can pull a code from the system. I made an appointment for tomorrow.

I'll keep everyone posted!

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

The dealer agrees with you Jeremy.....

That's a first. Dealers usually tell me I'm full of shit and to leave the diagnostics to the pros.

[amybang]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

How often do you raise and lower the top? My mechanicals failed a few months back and the top got stuck half up. My dealer said I put a few years worth of wear on it.

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

That's complete BS and that's exactly what I'd tell the dealer who said it.

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

I put the top down quite a bit, but leave it down overnight in the garage until the next day after arriving to work. So I'd say on average it goes up and down once a day. Certainly nothing beyond what I'd consider normal.

Yeah, in New England, I'd say it would be impossible to put that much wear on the top. Seeing as they sell the same cars to southern and western states where I'd have the top down every darned day if I could. Whereas here, I barely had the top down at all in June.

I discovered yesterday that the wearing spot that's been discussed in other threads is a full-blown hole in Orca now. She goes in soon for her 15K mile checkup and I'll make them look at it then. Guess I gotta pull the SmarTop module before then. *sigh*

amy!

[nordique14]

Originally Posted by amybang

Guess I gotta pull the SmarTop module before then. *sigh*

If the top is functioning as intended then there is no need to remove the SmartTop module. You can just "turn it off". One of the setting is to disable the SmartTop features and go back to the normal setting (effectively you bypass the module). Unless they pull out your back seat they will never know it is there.

[warmtoes]

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

Update:

Got to work this morning, and the top operated as it should. I'm not going to bother taking it to the dealer because if they can't replicate the issue they're not going to do anything about it. I'll keep an eye on it for the next week or so and see what happens. Don't know if I'm happy it fixed itself or not.....I'd rather it be broken and let the dealer fix it than there possibly being an issue that could come up again down the road.

It sure sounds like a similar problem that mine experienced briefly although mine manifested itself going down instead of coming back up.

I've never had a problem since and hopefully you won't either. I'm betting the code they pull is generic like top is not closing properly which basically tells you nothing. But, at least it gives you some history that the dealer cannot refute.

[G5Ti]

Originally Posted by Artmasterx

For what it's worth, our sunroof just malfunctioned this week after about 13k miles/11 months. I would say that is does not get a lot of use since over 6 months of the year the weather sucks up here.

It will not retract back into the roof, but with still go up and down into the vent position. Annoying, but I guess my first service and inspection is about due anyway, so we'll kill a few birds with one stone.

Edit:
I just searched around and found the re-initialization procedure and it fixed it... so that's good (Pressing down the sunroof button for ~45 seconds)

I had the exact same thing happen. I called the dealer, they told me what to do, and within a minute all was well. Happened once and has never come back!

I wonder if it's similar with the convertible top...