I need helps. I have a smarttop installed a few months back and it was working property. Yesterday I took it out and I brought the car to the dealer to adjust the latch so the convertible top would latch properly.

Anyhow, I installed the smart top module back and tested openning the top down. It worked ok but by the time I got home, it didn't work. While driving there is an error displayed in the intrument cluster saying that the comvertible module error. the key remote works fine with sound and all. Does anyone know what is wrong? How do I manually open the soft top and inspect the smart top?

Thank you in advance.
Alan

 

There are instructions in your owners manual on how to open the top manually. Red handled tool is included with the car and inserts under the plastic caps on either side of the roll bar cover. Are you sure you installed the Smart Top relay correctly ? Could be a loose connection that showed up once you closed the top and drove the cars a ways. Not an expert on The Smart Top but the one I had in my Boxster never gave me any trouble and appeared to be invisible to the computer.

 

Before opening the top manually try to correct the the Smarttop as follows:

1. Put the Smarttop into Workshop/Diagnose Mode (Mode 1, setting 0) and then turn it back on again, see your instruction manual.
2. Disconnect the battery and leave the car for 30 mins and reconnect, don’t close the hood with the battery connected. You will have ABS and TPS errors on startup but they will clear after about 20-30 mins of driving and a restart.
3. If these fail then you have to open the top manually. After reading the manual I am not sure that if you open the top manually that you will be able to recluse without a visit to the dealer. The Smarttop is probably not broken but the internal “state machine” is probably hung up.

In future just put the Smarttop in Workshop/Diagnose mode before a visit to your friendly dealer.

 

Good luck. I had a Smart top system fail catastrophically, with the top unable to go up and the horn blowing until the battery was disconnected. Fortunate that there was no damage to the car. The manufacturer was unapologetic and uncaring. I was out of pocket for installation, removal, two way shipping and several days use of the car. The worst experience I ever had with an aftermarket supplier. I have not received even a simple apology from them to this day, two years later. Do business with them at your own risk.

 

Wow- sorry to hear that. Guess I've been lucky so far, mine has been nothing but stellar (knock on wood).


bluebonepc- +1 on Martin's advice. Just use workshop / passthrough mode - no need to uninstall. I just took my car in for top service last week, put it in workshop mode, no issue.
You may want to check the plug and be sure you have it on the pins correctly. It is very easy to accidentally put it one set of pins off.
Either that or it may not be completely seated in the socket.

 

Thank you for great advices, this board is fantastic. Apparently [FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']smarttop was out of the socket, therefore the connections were interrupted. Dadio, thank you for the tip on instructions to manually raise the top.[/FONT]