Hi, Guys. I'm sure this has been posted, but if someone has any guidance/insight it would be appreciated. Stuck Roof - (1) I unlatch the roof and push it back - beep is heard. (2) I press the switch to open the roof and the seats move forward, but the roof doesn’t open further. The interesting thing is that the driver's side seat keeps moving forward literally all the way, but the passenger seat stops moving (likely where the roof normally starts to continue opening. I can close the roof manually, latch it, and then move the seats back to normal position using the seat forward/backward buttons. Thank you for your help.
Close the roof, latch it. Move the seats forward as much as possible. Tilt the seat forward (the passenger side) Lower all windows. Engage hand brake. Engine on, unlatch the roof, push roof back until beep is heard, push button to open the roof. If it sounds like it is working too hard, you might need to top up the fluid.
Most likely a seat potentiometer issue. Just make sure your windows have dropped the required amount and that your instrument cluster Brake (EURO) or Park light (USA) is on. (EDIT: actually, my seats won't start moving unless the windows are down, the door is closed and the handbrake is set, so it seems that everything is ok on your car up until the seats.)
When I had a spider, I bypassed the seat potentiometer so it does not move with the activation of the roof. I just have to move the seat manually before I activate the roof. It became second nature.
The seats are being driven forward by the Roof ECU and the Roof ECU needs to ensure that they have been driven forward far enough (via feedback from the seat potentiometers on the seat). If the seats are fully forward, try disconnecting the white potentiometer plug under the seat. Image Unavailable, Please Login Seat potentiometers are no longer available, but there are repair kits. Not an easy job though. https://www.ebay.com/itm/335524368907 EDIT: Looks like there is a hideously expensive alternative potentiometer available https://www.ferrariparts.co.uk/part/ferrari/64978300?id=10227
That, or you need an SD1 computer to "program and synch" the potentiometers to their respective positions.
After fitting a new or repaired potentiometer, it would normally be recalibrated using the (Ferrari workshop) SD1 computer mentioned above, but with some effort, you can recalibrate it with an ohmmeter. You might be able to do that before you buy a new potentiometer or repair your old one, but the chances are, it will go bad again.
You remove the potentiometer from the motor. You hang it off to the side after you adjust it read maximum value.
If you’re going to do that, you may as well attempt a cheap repair. In most cases, it’s just a plastic part that breaks.
Thanks guys. Trying to get the car into the shop tomorrow. I’m still confused about the potentiometer though. If the potentiometer is bad would the seat move at all when the top switch is engaged? The driver’s seat moves forward until it has nowhere to go. If I try to close the roof while the seats are in this position using the roof toggle I can hear something trying to work, but nothing happens. I need to manually close and latch the roof, and only then do the seats move using the seat toggles (not the roof switch)
The roof ECU is looking for a particular resistance value as the seat is moved forwards. If the potentiometer is not moving because of broken internals, the Roof ECU will keep driving the seat forward in an attempt to reach that resistance... but the seat will hit the endstops before that. Not sure if this is the same logic. Anyway, there are plenty of threads on potentiometer repair. There is a ball and socket driving the potentiometer. The socket has claws or fingers on it and one or more of the fingers snap off due to old age. 3D printed replacement sockets can be bought. You can confirm that the potentiometer is broken by doing resistance checks on that white plug in the photo. You move the seat fully back (with the seat switch) take an ohms reading, then drive the seat fully forward and check the ohms again. We have some typical values for a functioning potentiometer.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Remove the white plug and check the middle and lower pins on the seat (fixed) side of the plug.
