S2 Cab roof motors not working

[Guest]

Hi all,

After 2 months off the road (who wants to drive a cab in december!) I thought I would dust off my S2, when I attempted to open up the roof to give inside a good clean the roof 'popped' open about 4 inchs and refused to move. I called out the AA - he made a complete balls up of it and took panels off and all sorts before having a look in the fuse box, he thought it may be a relay so he took my roof relay out and replaced it with the other blue relay (central locking?) saying if their the same colour they do the same job!. No joy. He gave up on the roof and said I should 'tape it up'. After he left I read my porsche book and lowered the roof manually as the book suggested.

5 things came of this AA visit.

1 I discovered some AA men are better than others
2 My electric roof still doesn't work
3 Since the AA man 'fiddled' with my relays my central locking doesn't work properly
4 I have nice muddy foot prints on my clean white carpet!
5 I had to reassemble the side panels as he left them off (they didn't even need to come off in the first place!)

Basically what I'm asking is - does anyone know why my roof doesn't work? []

 

[Guest]

Sounds like it was my old machinc [] But he left his fag ends and lunch under my bonnet. [&o]
Central locking, i'd say he probably damaged the relay. As for the roof it could be a ceased motor or some inline fuse at the motor end. Are you near London M25 J 20? JZ Machtech 07000 100 911 are great with 944 cabs give em a call they might be able to sort the problem over the phone.

 

[Guest]

Cheers, will have to call them as I live deep in the mountains of Wales!

 

[Fen]

I used my cab for the whole of December and loved it. The heater is (or should be) excellent and they are dry and quiet when the hood has to be up because it's raining. Moral of the story: use your Porsche.

Anyway, if it isn't in the fuse/relay box (which I don't think you have ruled out yet based on the description of the AA man's random stumbling around) it has to be a microswitch or a motor I'd have thought. I'd start by checking through the fuses associated with the roof and by replacing the relay for the hood and also the central locking one since the AA man has broken that it would seem.

I'd also write a letter of complaint to the AA as at the very least it's unacceptable that the car was not reassembled after a failed attempt at fixing it, and if you were left with non-functioning locking which was not rpeviously a problem then I would be looking for them to stand the cost of rectifying that.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Fen, will check the microswitches, am I correct in thinking there is a motor either side? If so is it normal for both to go?

My heaters do work very well (only on high speed, still haven't cleaned my contacts!)

I've already started the complaint procedure, will let you know the outcome...

 

[Fen]

I'm pretty sure there is a motor in either side, but I imagine the mechanism has failsafes built in to stop one motor from running without the other to prevent it from mangling itself.

I never had any problems with mine but there must be a microswitch or sensor of some type to tell if it's seated on the header rail as I had to lift mine slightly before the motor would run. Obviously it also only runs when the ignition is on position 1 (i.e. engine not running and no warning lights but blower and stereo working) and finally it is linked to the speedometer somehow as it stopped one time when I was coasting down a hill in a queue of traffic trying to put it up and the speed got to over about 5mph. Genuinely I was off road [], on the way into the car park at Thruxton in fact. I also assume it has some sort of means of stopping if it meets resistance like a body in its way. Perhaps it needs to be reset somehow if that triggers in case it loses track of where in the cycle it is?

 

[Guest]

I've seen the micro-switches, I haven't tried it since I manually lowered it, maybe it will work when I get home and try it...

 

[Big Dave]

If memory serves me correct ??
I think there is only one set of micro switches ,, only on one side of the car....
There are 2 motors which drive the "gearboxes"
The motors are located on/ under the rear parcel shelf + are a pig to get at...
The motors are connected to the "boxes" by a "speedo like cable"
The "gearboxes "2 off them , one on each side of the car,are behind the side panels ....the bit that you / AA man removed .. + the centre of the gearbox is where you manually closed the roof....
I did a LOT of work to my 968 cab roof . In fact overhauled the whole mechanism....whilst the "canvas" top was off....[ long story ]...
It now runs super smooth + extra quiet....

Not too sure on your fault though.. id start with the fuses....

I got a LOT of usefull info from Southbound Trimmers .....When my roof went "bad"..

I was told by the chap who fitted the NEW "canvas" top , not to drop the roof in temps less than 10degreesC as the "plastic" rear screens have a habit of becoming brittle + cracking in low temps....
I just want the weather to warm up now....[][]

Ps .. i USE my car ALL year round... in ALL weathers ....Like there meant to be.....+ find that the car /cabin warms up a lot faster than a coupe,s .....because theres less air to heat....

 

[Fen]

I lowered mine any time it was (mostly) dry and didn't have ice on it; back window was fine except it used to get a cloudy line across it over time but it always came back with some PVC cleaner.

10 degrees! May as well sell up if you can only put the roof down 5 days a year!

 

[Big Dave]

Fen
What PVC cleaner did you use.????
I know a few of them can scratch the plastic window..

 

[Fen]

Halfords own brand stuff for cabriolet back windows (and other PVC). It comes in a little squeezy tube but I've had mine for nearly 4 years so I don't know if they still do it. I't basically just a very fine cutting paste.

 

[Guest]

And the list continues....

Drove it for the first time since the damage was done Sunday. ABS warning lights on! I work for a huuuuuge company so we have all sorts of on-site specialists so I went down to see the enginnering dept and spoke to a guy who services walk in radiation monitors - I asked him to see if he could check the fuse box on my car and the relays etc, said that the blue 'relays' that the AA man swapped around seem to be control units of some kind housed in relay type boxes. upon further inspection they both seem to be shorted as they smell like burning plastic! He also found that the fuse for some sort of cabriolet sender unit has blown, this wasn't checked before the work was done and he thinks this may have been the initial cause of the problem...

 

[Fen]

That is good news (no, seriously). If all that is correct then you can get the roof working by replacing the fuse and you have something pretty concrete to take to the AA in terms of damage done and a simple cause which should leave them with little option but admit their guy was a muppet on this occasion.

Note that I'm not AA bashing as I have had good service from them on every occasion I have called them out over 9 years I have been a member. I seem to use them about once a year so I have some experience, although I generally either manage to keep it very simple (DME relay) or comprehensively destroyed so I need a flatbed (holed sump).

 

[Guest]

WOOT! I now have a powered roof again!, 50p for a pack of blade fuses - sorted! []

Central Locking is still 5hagged though []

I've got no problem with the AA in general, they've always been good to me - except this one time, still unforgivable though - and I still have to get that mud outta the carpet []

 

[Big Dave]

Glad youve got to the bottom of your problem....

Hope you manage to "sort out" the AA people...