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Early 986 Roof Stuck Closed Problem

Ruston

Ruston

PCGB Member
Member
Hi All
I picked up a 986 Boxster 2.5 Tiptronic yesterday as car for my partner to enjoy a bit of roof down sun. Unfortunately on getting the car home, the roof has become stuck in the closed position (better than stuck open I guess!) and the roof warning light is lit on the dash. The roof worked earlier in the day so something has happened when I raised the roof on getting home. I suspect something has broken or bent in the mechanism as it sounds as though the roof motor is trying to drive on pressing the open button.
Does anybody know how I can release the mechanism with the roof closed so I can manually lower it and try to figure out what is wrong?
As it stands I can unlatch the roof and the side windows drop (so at least one of the latch microswitches is working), the handbrake light is on so the handbrake microswitch also works.
Pressing the open button results in a hum from behind (I assume this is the roof motor stalling as I also get a voltage drop and the dash lights dim). There is no movement in the clam or roof and pushing/pulling them by hand makes no difference.
After about 5 seconds the hum stops momentarily and then repeats. I get the same if I push the close button.
I can just about get to the clam linkage ball joints on the end of the ‘boomerang’ from inside the cabin. Should I force these off to release the clam so I can then just lift it up to access the space underneath?
Any suggestions appreciated!
 
Isn't there a process in the handbook for lowering and raising the roof manually? Sorry, I can't remember the details as it's a while since I had mine.
 
Thanks Brian, the car didn’t come with a manual but I believe it says raise the clam using the switch and then unhook the roof cables. My problem currently is that I can’t get the clam to open.
 
Thanks but not really, I’ve been through Google links and videos all day and none that I can find seem to relate to my specific issue and symptoms. I will have to try forcing the clam linkage off but access is a problem to gain enough leverage to pop off the ball links.
 
hi
not sure if this allows uploading of pics or not but this is in the owners manual for manual operation - more to follow as it only allows one pic at a time !
 
You need to pop those ball joints off and then everything will move manually. They are tight! I had to use a bigger pry bar, the one in the tool kits wont give you enough leverage.
 
Problem solved, thanks for the help all.

I ended up unscrewing the ball from the boomerang arm (17mm spanner) as it proved impossible for me to pop the links off. The problem I was having is that with the clam closed, the link is in such a position that there is nowhere to support a pry bar / screwdriver in order to lever it off. All of the pictures in the manual show the roof in the down position where the link is at a different angle so you can get a screwdriver between the link and the arm. The attached photo shows how it looks in the up position.

Now the roof is released but is very stiff to manually raise and lower so that’ll be the root cause of the issue. It looks like that has caused the drive cables to fail at the gearbox end.


 
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