When I had my F355 spider it was required or advised to have the engine running when lowering the top. So, for the F430 spider is this also advised (engine running) or a requirement? If the battery is in good shape and fully charged, can this be used alone to lower the top? Curious as to the consensus among the Fchat community. thanks, Mike
The owner's manual (I suggest reading it cover to cover) advises to operate the top with the engine running. The hydraulic pump takes a lot of power and if there's a dip in voltage, the motor may drag, which can cause extra stress and even failure of components. That said, if your capote system is in perfect operating order, and you have a good (like in new) battery, then it really doesn't do anything harmful to operate the top with the engine off. There's a lot of room for error in what I just said so for good measure, only operate your top with the engine running, unless you are sure about the condition of your car's systems.
Thanks much. I did read my manual but it was 6 months ago and old guy short term memory is sketchy On a related note, I remember on my F355 there was a small hydraulic fluid reservoir that supplied the top system. I assume the F430 has similar. Does the manual illustrate the access for checking this?
Pretty much everything you might have to do is detailed somewhere on this forum. Sometimes it can take a bit of searching but it's there. All of it.
Agree with @EastMemphis , it's in the manual, I've never opened it without the engine running. I don't even power my windows up or down without the engine on
The first thing that went wrong with my car was the top broke, an hour after I got it off the trailer. That was quite disappointing. It got worse before it got better. Instead of shipping it off to a shop and waiting months, I decided to figure out the capote system and make mine right. I had just about every possible problem one can have with a top that hasn't been torqued. That's the key thing. If your top used to work and it wasn't damaged by a size 20 girl doing a clandestine photoshoot while you were getting a quart of paint at Home Depot, then it's likely it will be easy to fix. The typical things that can go wrong are: Hydraulics: typically the three rams in the movable part. Elastics: The 14 elastic straps that control a lot of the movement. Fabric: The fabric can delaminate on the wings which causes all sorts of fun. Frame cracks: If the elastics are shot, the mechanism crashes into the capote cassette (?) and eventually cracks the delicate frame pieces that are on the front corners of the frame, one on each side. The good news is that these are all very DIY fixes. The hydraulic rams can be refurbished for less than half of the new price and the elastics take little more than care and the ability to sew by hand. Once you get the top working great, you can trust it to work every time. If your top has wear holes, then it's likely time to replace the canvas. The good news there is it's pretty easy to do, or at least looks easy as doing the elastics properly requires the top to be nearly taken off. There are videos online showing the process and it's not that much different than any other fabric top.
