430 2007 F430 spider top will not fully open

It looks like the elastic bands in your top have lost their elasticity. The top looks wadded up in the capote tub and that's probably why the lid isn't closing. The easiest way to test this is to manually "throw the bar" that's in the middle of the headliner back when the first section of the top starts to fold back. That process is done by the elastic bands (there are 14 of them) that help control where and how the top folds.

If you can get the top to stow properly by throwing the bar back, then you know it's the elastics.

I wrote this unusually long and boring article on the process: https://www.ferrari360.org/2020/09/capote-elastic-bands-and-more.html

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326197380164

 

John, it looks like the lid is not even attempting to go down. Would it be correct to say that an improperly folded roof wouldn't allow the "top inside bay" switch to activate?

Dave, if you have a good scanner, before you start replacing the elastics, I would look at the data stream for the roof and the status of the "limit switch softtop open". Also known as "E.V/A" or "top inside bay" switch or, in the wiring diagrams, "7Q".

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/150083113/

I believe the experts use a thin stick to poke the microswitches to see what happens, but I wouldn't do that whilst operating the roof switch. You wouldn't want the lid to go down on an improperly folded roof. Or at least not push and hold the microswitch.

EVA shown here:

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It looks like the switch is not in the bottom of the tub, but is actually part of the roof folding/lowering mechanism.

Roof problems appear about once a week, so you should have lots of people here with fresh ideas.

 

I wouldn't leave the top down for extended period of time ..it causes creases that are sometimes hard to come out

 

Q - looks like you know your stuff - so riddle me this…

Top functioned perfectly until today - now it goes all the way up and all the way down - but the dash light stays on that the process isn’t complete…

Which switch do I start poking at?

Kevin

 

Second not leaving it down for prolonged periods. Should always stay in the closed position when not being used to prevent wear.

 

I haven't quite figured that out yet. I believe it's a combination of switches, but I don't know which ones. I think you'd have to plug a scanner in to figure out which switch was causing the issue.

If I had to guess, for "roof closed" it's possibly a combination of one or more of the latch microswitches on the front part of the roof and maybe the lid, but there may be others.

During opening, a roof unlatched from the top of the windshield is unsafe... but you don't want the light to remain on when the roof is fully down. When the canvas is half way down, the front latches return to their locked state. The lid and side flaps seem to arrive at the closed/up position respectively at the same time at the end of the roof opening cycle, so those switches might be involved (although I don't think the flaps are so critical to roof safety).

I haven't actually worked on these cars, so I don't know when the light goes out during the opening and closing process. It's up to the Roof ECU to turn the light on/off.