Ravskau

Well the first round is over. The service Manager and the Honda district rep both said that the latch had no rough edges or way to grab the top to punch through the top..... but the latch had definetly failed and they would replace it no problems.......
Latch came in and a service visit was scheduled. took it in at 7:00am (left it there on the way home from work) they called at 2:00pm and sid it's done come get it. I did. When I got there I was told the new latch won't fit without a new striker plate so we put old one back on and have ordered a new plate.
We will call when it's here.
Well they called last week and we set-up another service appointment...
took her in tuesday morning and they called about 3 pm and said come get it.
And as Paul Harvey would say....and now for the rest of the story.
While leaving work Wed morning went to "drop" the top and snap-POP! the new latch repunctured (with a much bigger hole) the top. So instead of going home went straight to the dealer, with the latch still poking through. Pulled up and SM came out wanting to know what could he do for me....
I just pointed..... He said that I must have failed to make sure the latches were locked down. I told him no and he asked why BOTH were open? All I could tell him was, due to past experience, I was making sure the lil devils were locked. He asked me to bring it forward and shut boyh latches HIMSELF and told me to drop it. And, god bless my little old snort actually DID IT FOR A SECOND TIME IN A ROW!!! and the latches aren't flopping open and sticking the top!!!!!

WHAT IS HAPPENING.
the front crossmember is movable and SHOULD be going all the way back very early in the dropping action, but sometimes it hangs forward and binds with the latch with top top fabric inbetween it and the latch
this binding action prys the latch open and pushes the top fabric in between the open sides of the latch, this puts a hole in the top AND after several episodes of the latch being forced open without being released by the little squeeze it breaks the little plastic peice. It looks like there is a small spring in each of the arms that hold the crossmember up that is sopposed to keep the member as far back as the top will allow. They seem to no longer be doing the job as they now only push it back about an inch before loosing tension.
The warranty guy at the dealership called Honda and confirmed that it is a
covered item for 3Y or 36K miles. Service manager asked well who do we charge it to? warranty mgr said Honda......
Then SM says well we don't do convert tops. Don't have anyone that is qualified to do the stitching. You'll hafta take it to Honda dealer in Memphis and see if they will file it eventhough you did buy from them......
So it's sorta a good news bad type thing but I'll be talking to the dealer owner next week and see what we can work out. Looks like to fix properly it will take new rag AND top framework and that should just be a bolt in...
That's where it now stands....
Jim