Strange. You've pulled back on the top, forcing fluid out of the secondary actuators (if there was any fluid in there to begin with). Perhaps there was air in the primary system which you've now filled with fluid from the reservoir. Whether this is normal, I don't know.
Here is is after sitting for 45 minutes. No noticeable additional fluid in the reseviour. At least with mine, nothing drained down. Based on this, to not overfill, I should top off the fluid with the roof in the fully up position. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sounds good. By the way, can you siphon out more of the old fluid from the reservoir? If you're not draining/bleeding the system, getting as much old fluid out of the system as you can is probably a good idea.
Very easy procedure. I filled slightly below the max line as my fluid level was higher when the top was up and I didn't want to overflow. Used a small syringe to fill. Maybe 7 or 8 times. Going to put it back together and test it out. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I may have been able to but I didn't try. I'm sure with a small hose I could have pulled to out through the bleed screw hole.
Well I would like to say the top works better but it doesn't. Still needs an assist both up and down during the part of the cycle with the upper rams. Ran the cycle about 8 times with no improvement. Maybe should have completely drained the system of the old fluid but I wS just hoping to do a top off.
Next step may be to drain the full system but that is more involved that I planned to do today. It may also be that I need to run it several more cycles to get the fluid going. Another project for another day.
Fully closed, the fluid is slightly below the max line. It maybe went up 1 mm from the fully opened position. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mine turned to gel in less than 8 years. Never seen that adding fluid rectified a problem, prevented yes but rectified ? If the fluid was so low that the pump sucked air, well than yeah air is in the lines and the rams. Have you seen how many lines and how long they are ? ! Anyway, yes bleeding the system is the next step. It’s not a hard job at all, just not a fun job. But in my case the outcome was well worth the effort. Top never cycled slowly after the bleed/flush.
I never knew that the secondary rams will close the top that far....WOW....I obviously have a problem. Top seems to work fine, but I need to manually close that final 10-12" Hoping those rams are not activated by the roof controller? (I removed mine.)
The Roof ECU is required for secondary ram operation. The secondary rams will not work with the bypass switches either (as that bypasses the Roof ECU and all the microswitch inputs). Your previous control setup and your current remote setup bypassed the Roof ECU.
uggg...OK... The secondary rams did not work with my original seats....guessing that was because my driver seat potentiometer was faulty?
More likely a problem with the secondary ram solenoid valve ("F1") which directs fluid to the rams during closing ...or the internal switches (S2/S4) in the primary rams which trigger the F1 solenoid. Or just lack of fluid? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Off topic, but I guess that raises the problem of how do you keep your secondary rams lubricated using your custom remote bypass system. You would have to provide an earth to the solenoid to open the F1 valve. Your remote only provides power, so I guess you'd need an additional relay*. This would make the primary and secondary rams operate at the same time (I don't know how healthy that would be for the motor/pump). *EDIT: Or you could provide a permanent earth to the solenoid valve, and use your remote to provide the power. In any case, you'd have to run in an extra wire from your remote to the F1 solenoid valve.
So it might be possible to have the secondary rams active? Any idea how I could wire in this earth? Where are the solenoids, and how would the relay be wired in? I am intrigued.......
There is only one solenoid. Not sure whose picture this is (my apologies for stealing it) Image Unavailable, Please Login It has a single 2 pin plug with a red and a red/black wire (colour variations have been noted on some cars). The red wire is (non-fused) ignition power. The black/red wire is an earth provided by the Roof ECU at the appropriate time. See A) in the diagram below: Image Unavailable, Please Login Now the modification (part B): Remove the plug on the solenoid and: 1. run a wire between the UP terminal of your remote module to the pin on the solenoid plug which usually gets ignition power. By "UP" terminal, I mean the one which feeds your UP relay socket. 2. short the pin which normally hooks up to the black/red (NR) wire to earth (permanently). I suppose you could add a small inline fuse on the (new) red wire to protect the (EDIT) solenoid and remote control. I can't recall what type of pins there are on the electrical plug. I don't know if you could find a corresponding female/male plug to make the wiring plug and play. CAVEAT: I don't really know what would happen to the roof. Possibilities: 1) The secondary rams may extend first (path of least resistance?). I don't know if this will cause the roof to unfold incorrectly and hit something. 2) The secondary rams may not extend at all (because something was broken beforehand)? 3) The roof may run more slowly (more fluid to pump at one time)? Very experimental.
I like what you have outlined, and would love for this to work, but......... This would be my concern...??....as soon I depressed the up button, power will immediately get to that solenoid, so why do you think the secondary rams would not extend first? Pretty easy to wire up, just unsure.... I am pretty sure there is not some other issue, but lets table this one.... That would be OK...
When the roof goes up, the secondary rams always go last on a normal car. The rams normally don't move simultaneously. I don't know if they would go first, last or at the same time with this modified system. With the roof down, system unpressurised, try manually moving the forward part of the roof only to see if it extends upwards, forwards or wherever.
It will extend upwards, but not forwards; the legs that rest against the square metal panel will not allow it to travel forwards. Any idea if the ground signal to the solenoid is constant upon top up operation, or if there is a microswitch that might tell the roof controller when the roof is 3/4 up? Also, found it interesting that my windows still go down once the top latch is released? Thought this was the job of the roof ECU? Do you know why that is?
Because the Roof ECU knows that the primary rams have been fully retracted (via the S2&S4 switches) and, I guess, that the roof is being commanded up. You could use these signals going to the roof ECU, but you would need a relay or other device to only allow these signals to be sent to the F1 solenoid when the remote control is being commanded up. The complexity goes up a little (wiring and mounting a relay and using switches in the rams which you don’t yet know if they are working. The Roof ECU wiring could be used assuming that there is enough room for an extra relay near your new ECU. The wiring would be neater (standard) at the F1 solenoid valve. The Window ECU controls the windows using inputs from various microswitches on the roof and in the doors and operates independently The Roof ECU also uses some of these window microswitches.
This seems very simple to execute, but I am somewhat fearful that the secondaries will jump the gun and act first: any chance of that happening?
Prior to the new modifications, you could temporarily short the F1 solenoid black/red wire to earth (e.g. at your removed Roof ECU plug A (pin 8)), then hit the roof up command. This will simulate the new modification (hydraulic-wise only). Image Unavailable, Please Login Something like this: Image Unavailable, Please Login Full-sized diagram here: https://www.dropbox.com/t/AZawYVdguBrrTvkL With this setup, the relay will be energised by only one primary ram reaching full retraction, but the F1 solenoid would only activate when both primary rams reach full (EDIT) retraction. Don't use those earlier modifications for the F1 solenoid. Ideally, you would want to use pins/sockets? to match the ECU plug pins/sockets (so that it would be plug and play and easier to restore to normal ops). All wiring would be under the centre console cover and therefore invisible.
Before carrying out the modification, I would confirm that your primary ram "compression" (up/retraction) internal switches work by checking for earths on pins A5 and B13 with the roof up. (EDIT: my relay symbology may not match the embossed graphic on your new 4 or 5 pin relay case. I usually draw my solenoids pulling on the little switch symbol). The terminal numbers are correct, however.)
I got sick of repairing the seat pots so I adjusted my top operation. I'll put the rebuilt seat pots back in when I go to sell the car.... I just ran the wires form the emergency switch to a black, low profile toggle switch I installed in the unused hole next to the ashtray. Fit right in. Push and hold switch forward and the pump operates the top in the up direction. Push and hold switch rearward and the pump operates the top in the down direction. Seats and windows set manually. Easy peasy
Paul (Carmellini) wants his secondary actuators to work, too. These don't work with the emergency switches. He's wired a remote controller directly into his pump relay sockets (bypassing the Roof ECU and the emergency switches). His roof ECU has been completely removed to give him more room to fit the remote control module. The roof ECU has small pins on the A & B plug, so you would want matching pins for your modification Image Unavailable, Please Login
