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After a lot of poking around, I think I worked out what the SDD was referring to.
The "dark grey" connectors on Powered hood_Connector 1 refers to the male/female plug pair located next to the hydraulic motor in the trunk.
The "grey" connectors on FTCM_Connector 2 refer to the second plug into the convertible roof module, which is located behind the left-hand rear seat, and behind the anti-rollover protection device.
This makes some sense in the sense that the FTCM has multiple connections, and the "second" from left-to-right as it's installed has 22 pins, is light grey and looks like the picture. Same for connector "1" (I didn't spot any other connectors back there)
Some pics for reference:
The hydraulic pump, with the connector "1" in the bottom right of the photo:
Taking that connection apart, it is the female side which matches the SDD picture:
The convertible top module (or folding top convertible module, FTCM) located behind the left rear seat, showing the four connection ports:
The second of which is used in the SDD, the bottom grey one in this picture (and the only one with 22 pins):
I do test my multimeter for resistance sanity-checking before each run. During one test, the probe just came off! Had to re-test all the high/infinite resistance passed tests in case of probe fault!!!
Always involving the FTCM connection, the following resistances were checked. I'm not sure these are in the correct order, but mine passed all the tests. For the low resistance tests (i.e. the wire is intact from the FTCM to the trunk), the resistances were low. For tests involving the battery posts, the resistances were infinite, so passed since >100 kOhms.
The final result - bad Hall sensor in the tension bow?
I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm not familiar with a Hall sensor outside of the luggage compartment divider. Also, what's the potential problem of "FTCM component"? The FTCM unit itself?
@WhiteXKR or anyone else - please add your thoughts to what I might look at next
A reminder about some of the DTCs I'd seen: all about pistons Sanity check!
A couple of videos for you to show off this part of the Jaguar SDD -- someone should make a "how to" guide for the SDD as it isn't the most intuitive tool....!
This shows 3 valves being tested at the same time. Initially they were all "off". When I pressed the roof retract button, they all switched to on and didn't turn off. Is that normal? @WhiteXKR Are these the three solenoids on the hydraulic pump?
Thanks @John T I should have paid a bit more attention to your post at the time, since I independently came across TopHydraulics in Oregon via YouTube yesterday. The owner has a great video on youtube about how to remove the various pieces of the hydraulic mechanism on an XK, all of which can be repaired - better than original!
Buzzer has contacted me and referred to this thread, so I thought I would chime in a little. Just to clarify, aside from being a convertible enthusiast, I am a vendor. As such, I am not supposed to refer to our products at all as long as we are not sponsoring this forum or even refer to our website. I respect these rules, as we sponsor several forums and I would be upset if some vendor came in and tried to get free advertising by posting on a forum. Thus, I will only make a few rather general technical comments below. Moderators, I hope you will find my brief comments below acceptable.
Buzzer, it is admirable how you stuck to it and got the SDD software. It is an awesome tool! This thread will be valuable to fellow XK owners, especially once you have identified the actual problem and fixed it.
About the pump: Yes, they fail with time and they can be rebuilt to better than new condition (at least on the inside, where it counts).
About the solenoids on the pump: Yes, there are three solenoids on the pump and they do get hot if you leave the ignition on with the top not fully up and latched or fully down and latched. This is okay for a limited time. You mentioned before that the whole pump housing got very hot to the touch. This was from the solenoids heating the pump because you were putting about 50W into them if they were all activated and the heat was barely dissipating inside the pump's insulated foam housing. The solenoids are probably still okay. If you do this a lot, then the seals inside the pump will suffer.
About the Hall sensors: There are Hall sensors on the three hydraulic cylinders on the right side: the tonneau cylinder, the tension bow cylinder and the main lift cylinder. These sensors are clipped into the the aluminum part of the respective cylinders. They detect the position of the piston inside the cylinder via magnetic Hall Effect. These sensors are fairly reliable, solid state devices. They are not switches but rather vary their resistance to a modulated signal depending on how much ferromagnetic material (steel) is very close to them. You can check with a multimeter if you have a short or a broken wire going to them. A multimeter will not tell you whether the sensor itself is bad, but you can deduce this if SDD points to this sensor and you have verified that there is no short and no broken wire leading to the sensor. The Hall sensors are available and we have witnessed through our customers that replacing defective sensors fixed their top issue. It is much more common that the failure lies in the pump or in leaking hydraulic cylinders, but this is a possibility.
About the hydraulic cylinders: John T was kind enough to point out that the problem in his car was with the hydraulic cylinders leaking. This is by far the most common hydraulic related problem in XKs and it can be fixed for good without spending a fortune, but it is not the problem in Buzzer's case.
What is it and where do I get it and how do I use it..Can I plug the cable into my lab top, Help, Thank you for your patience, Sorry everyone found the detailed explanation. Old Computer does not like web site and my knowledge , very slow to load
Last edited by vgbrocklebank; Jun 17, 2020 at 02:15 PM.
This has been a long road - in part due to Covid and childcare demands! - so I am pleased to report that the story has a happy ending!
Following some correspondence with Klaus at Top Hydraulics, he helped me test the hydraulic pump (which didn't show any life signs) before mailing off to him. A week later, I had my reconditioned pump back, though I was still apprehensive as it may not have been the only problem.
Fortunately, after plugging the pump in, and firing the cat up for the first time in months, the top worked! Of course, I did the window reset first, but that was all it took.
Thank you to the various people that have contributed advice on this project. I hope the detail I tried to share will help others work through similar issues in the future. It can only be a matter of time before more and more of us experience mechanical problems with the roof hydraulic system. I'm also going to do a separate post to summarise this whole process as a quick-read version
I'm not convinced the luggage separator has the magnetic piece in place, since both sides look the same to me. I had let the missus take it out for a shopping trip, which was the last time I saw the roof working, and wonder if I'd moved the luggage separator for that trip.
WhiteXKR - thanks for your help across all the threads with the roof issues! I will try the half hour pressure release if my luggage separator magnetic piece is missing. Whatcha reckon guys?
left hand side of luggage separator, in the deployed position right hand side of luggage separator, in the deployed position left hand side of luggage separator,slightly out of deployed position right hand side of luggage separator,slightly out of deployed position
You have to make sure this thing in your trunk is just like the very 1st And 2nd pic in order for your top to function properly like it should.What you should've done is changed your battery cause your top not working could be a sign of low battery and it could sometimes experience a glitch,and to fix that u just lock the doors for about 5 minutes and it should work normally again.Battery still have to give good voltage for it to work like it should tho
Last edited by Barry Leftwich; May 29, 2023 at 07:32 AM.
SDD System
