One minute it opens and closes just like expected the next not so much. I think it's all in the open and close button. Sometimes nothing happens when you push it. Sometimes I'm driving with the top down and I get a message the hood won't latch. If I try to close with this message it either won't close or it closes and the rear quarter windows won't close. Sometime but less often I get the message about the trunk divider not in position but without ever touching it the top still operates. Other times there's no message but the rear windows won't go up. Sometimes if I push the close button 3 or 4 times the rear windows close. Sometimes I have to drive around a bit until things work. The battery is new.

Another problem I had once was it would not turn off. I had to remove the ground cable. It was still running but when push the start bottom it shut down.

Also a few times when I go to start nothing happens. I finally noticed that the brake pedal was very still. So if I push down firmly it will start.

 

Did you reset the front windows after installing the new battery? This is necessary for the top to work properly.

Also run the car for 15 minutes and then touch each battery terminal. If one is very hot, you have a bad battery cable.

 

I am also in the middle of a convertible top diagnosis so I am on the same road in front of you.

After the obvious steps of (a) fully charging the battery and (b) verifying the windows are programmed (will they auto-up and auto-down?) the best next step is to scan the car with SDD, to see if you have any DTCs set. Any DTCs relating to the top, including time sequence and repetitions are all crucial data for figuring out the root cause.

 

On my earlier model there is a delay between pushing the button and the rear windows operating to give the top time to go up. If you retry you still have to wait 10s before windows attempt to move. Try holding the switch down and give it time.

 

After a summer of top frustration I found the problem causing my “hood not latched” problem - a broken wire in the top’s electrical harness that was preventing the latch sensors from operating correctly, and now I have repaired it.

There is one spot where the harness is bent and unbent when the top is folded and deployed. It is only a matter of time before metal fatigue sets in….

Here is how we found it.

We hooked up a scanner to the car and set it to display the status of all sensors. We then isolated the sensors for the top latch.

First, with top down but tonneau cover open, we manually cycled the top’s latch between open and closed using the Allen wrench provided with the car for thus purpose, while watching the sensors. The sensors correctly showed the latch open and latch closed states.

We then opened and closed the top while watching the latch sensors, and saw that open sensor was randomly deactivating and activating as the top deployed, even though the latch was actually open the whole time. This indicated there was a broken wire in the circuit that was making and breaking contact as the top was moving.

I then moved the top to the location where I could see that sensor was randomly toggling from active to inactive, and we began to wiggle the harness until we found a spot in the harness that we could just barely wiggle and cause the top latch sensor to change from active to inactive (wiggling the harness was disconnecting and reconnecting the broken sensor wire). We then we proceeded to investigate that exact spot in the harness….

Here are some pictures.



This is the trouble spot on the driver’s side. Right here the harness bends and straightens when the top folds and unfolds.



You will have to cut and pull back the nylon outer cover to inspect the wires…



Once we were in there, the broken wire was easy to spot!



We stitched the conductors back together and soldered the bundle.



Then some shrink wrap and electrical tape to finish the job, and the top was working again!

 

thanks for posting this. something more for me to check. i had also posted issues with my roof. can get it working in the garage consistently ... but once i take it for a drive all bets are off. it either does not do anything ( tonneau cover does not open ). or if the roof comes up the quarter windows do not come up. but when it sits for a few hours in the garage the roof typically starts working perfectly again. i'll definitely go down the scanner path.