Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Pikesville, MD
    Posts
    29

    Convertible top won't open or close. Fix inside...

    Ok, so the other night when my wife came home from work with the top down, she went to put the top up in the driveway before putting it in the garage. Well,the top went to about 4" from closed and just stopped, no noises or anything. It would not go back down either. All that happened was the light at the top buttons started flashing. Since it was close to closed, I pulled out the center rear cushion to get at the manual top allen wrench and top release button. Pushed the button to release the top and used the allen wrench on the header panel access to manually close the top (you really have to turn the allen wrench like a million turns to get them to latch, or to get them to fully open so you can open the top manually).

    Anyhow the flashing light told me that the CVM module had detected a fault in the sensor. Since the sensors are hall sensors and basically glorified magnets, they will probably never fail. What DOES fail, with regularity on these convertibles, is the wiring harness at the first bend of the top bows. The wiring harness runs down the driver's (left) side of the top channel bows and bends at the joints. Repeated bending back and forth putting the top up and down fatigues them and the wires break inside the loom. Before looking for expensive motors and pumps and the like, a simple check of the wires above the drive'r s side front seat is in order.

    Manually open the top up and hold it propped in the semi-folded position where the bows and loom are visible and easily reached. In my case it was immediately apparent by the fact that the wiring was encased in electrical tape, that the problem had been "fixed" before. Took off the electrical tape and sure enough, one wire was broken completely and another was bent, pinched, and the strands snapped. So I cleaned up the wires, stripped them back, made some jumpers (you want to use silicone shrouded wires so that it flexes better than stock), soldered them together, re-wrapped them and attached the loom back in it's location.

    Turned the car on, hit the top open button and viola, it worked again and opened up. After fully opening it, I hit the button to put the top up and also had success closing the top like it's supposed to. Since it had been repaired before I fully expect that next time it goes, it'll need a new top wiring harness (which is under $100 new), but replacing that is a bit of a PITA, so I can live with this fix for a while.
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    2005 330cic ZHP, black over Dakota leather.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Austin TX
    Posts
    7,606
    Good to know. Thank you for sharing.
    2005 IR / black / 6MT
    157,000 miles

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    18,064
    Great work and great info. Thanks for posting.

    Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
    Randeaux/Rando/John/jr - '06 Cic ZHP; Southern California
    "ZHP or not, I still like you"


    ZHP Performance Package, Cold Weather Package, Leather, Jet Black/Black/BlackCube, NAV, Anthracite Black "my individual" interior trim
    ESS Stage 1 Twin Screw Supercharger, Sprint Booster, BMW Perf Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, Dinan TB & STEP S/W, UCC Sway Bars, Apex EC-7 18x8.5 ET38
    Suspension: AST 44100 dampers, Bimmerworld front adjustable end links, Swift springs (8K front, 10K rear), Vorshlag camber plates
    Dynavin D99+, Hardwire V1 (w/V1 Connection), BSW Stage 1 Speakers, Kicker Amp/Subwoofer
    BMW Performance Strut Brace, Orion V2 Angel Eyes, No-holes License Plate, SMG Paddle Shift Mod, Besian VANOS, Gold DISA, Fan Delete, M3 Side Mirrors
    Note: Actual car no longer resembles signature picture

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