thefishstick

My convertible top has not been working for awhile; it stopped working after my mechanic was doing some work on the car; when i asked him about it he said that it was because of a defective top switch and it needed to be replaced. The switch itself is much more lose when pushing it back and forth (does not have as much resistance as before). Does this happen very often? Its been awhile since i've delt with this stuff but as far as electronics go could the switch being so loose possibly be something with it not be getting any power? It never gave me any problems before it stopped working.


Also he wanted to charge me $60 for a new one; any recommendations on where I can find a replacement?

Any help will be appreciated.

Stealth_SUX_

have you pulled ur center console up to see if they plugged it in..

Also check ur emergency flashers. from what I remember the top botton and the flashers have the same plug..

whiteflash

Pull the center console up.
Check the fuses.

My top switch went dead when whoever owned the car before me installed a new deck. Wires were crossed and when I plugged my zune in for the first time it went dead.

zeroptzero

mine stopped working after having some radio work done to it. It ended up being the switch under the parking brake, if the parking brake doesn't register as being engaged the roof won't work.

Check the plug under the roof switch first as listed above to make sure it is plugged in properly, it is odd that it stopped working when the mechanic worked on the car. Secondly, under the parking brake there are two small pointy brass needle-like objects under the brake switch, mine were pushed out too wide and they need to engage the switch in an upright position in order to send an electrical pulse for the parking brake. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to narrow the gap between the points and make them upright and then they engaged the switch properly once the parking brake was lifted. I have no idea how the radio repair guy messed it up, but it happened. He might have yanked on the parking brake too hard and that may have widened the brass coloured contact points.

Lastly, as suggested above check to see if the hazard lights work.

thefishstick

I havent pulled the console yet to see; I'll check in the morning. But as far as what i could check the hazards do work and I think it recognizes the parking break because my brake light comes on in the dash when its engaged. The words on the convertible top button light up when the cars on too. I don't know if it makes a difference but its an '03

zeroptzero

if the roof switch lights up then the plug is connected properly, and the hazards work so the plugs are inserted correctly.

When my roof stopped working my dashboard parking brake light worked, but the switch under the parking brake mechanism wasn't sending the signal to the roof, which made the issue more confusing. Once I repaired the switch everything worked fine.

thefishstick

[QUOTE=JFUSION,Apr 20 2010, 06:44 PM] if the roof switch lights up then the plug is connected properly, and the hazards work so the plugs are inserted correctly.

zeroptzero

it's hard to explain but you have to remove the center console, just pry it up and pull out the two wire connectors.

Have a look at the switch that is under the parking brake. At the base of the switch there are two brass coloured pointy objects that are meant to touch the top of the switch vertically. If those two pointy objects are bent outwards they won't contact the top of the switch properly. So check that they are contacting the top plate of the switch perfectly vertical. If they are contacting fine then the roof switch might be toast as I can't see anything else being a problem other than possibly fuses.

thefishstick

Cool thanks; that gives me some idea about what to look for, I'll check it out tomorrow and see what i can find out.

zeroptzero

the contact prongs on my switch looked like this \---/ , they should look vertical like this: l l , with the two prongs touching the top plate when the brake is engaged.



I used needlenose pliers to bend the pointed contact points inwards in order to contact the top of the switch plate in a vertical manner.