Hi, Anyone familiar with the moving action on the 355 spider top? Right seat is moving but driver seat isn’t. It works manually but after engaging the spidertop it will not work. Maybe a fuse? anyone no where to look? thanks.
Possibly the seat potentiometer is broken. Not a fuse issue. How far do you get with roof operation? Does the other seat move forward automatically?
The spider top has to totally finish its operation (close, or open totally) before the windows and the seats are allowed to work again.
The right side seat is moving like it suppose to do. Only the driver seat is not moving. It works when I move the seat before starting the top operation.
Is there something like a reset mode? Maybe the car thinks the operation is not completely finished. After the engine is of and I put it back on I can move the seats again. It works but not as it suppose to do.
The passenger seat is happy with completion of the roof operation. Both seats use the same completion signal. i.e. a single microswitch at the bottom of the slider for the left hand primary actuator. The fact that your roof is going down indicates that the Roof ECU thinks both seats are fully forward. There is a 99% chance that a faulty seat driver's seat position potentiometer is telling the Roof ECU that the driver's seat is fully forward (when it isn't). As the Roof ECU thinks the seat is already fully forward, during automatic operation, it doesn't move the seat. There are lots of solutions for broken potentiometers. The expensive ones will get your car back to close to original (but you will still need the Ferrari SD1 tool to get things back to factory specifications)
You can pull the plugs on the potentiometers under the seats and compare the electrical resistances on the driver and passenger seats with the seats manually positioned at their fore-aft limits. Image Unavailable, Please Login The wire colours on the potentiometers may differ. Anyway, check the resistance between the red (outer) wire on the potentiometer (black wire on the car side) and the middle yellow wire (black/blue or grey/blue on the car side). I haven't heard of wiring being broken on the potentiometer or between the potentiometer plug and the Roof ECU, but the seat moves, so it's possible wiring can chafe/flex/break.
Sounds like a similar fault to what I had recently. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/355-spider-roof-not-opening.642621/ If its working with the over ride switch then I suspect your seat pot is the issue as others have said. Is that seat moving forward and back ok with the seat adjustment switch?
I bet your little plastic claw is broken. Carefully clean it up with rubbing alcohol and glue it back to the ball on the black gear. I did mine 9 years ago and it has been flawless since. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
My roof is going down as normal. Only problem is the driver-seat stays in position. The passenger seat is moving back and forward as suppose to. The roof get stuck behind the seat who is to much backwards in normal position. I can solve it to put the seat manually in front before activate the roof mechanism. That’s why I thought the mechanism is ‘lost’ his seat position. I going to try the wire signals. I’ll let you know when I have more information. Thanks for your help Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
Is it always broken or is it possible to reset the potentiometer and tell the ecu manually that the seat is in front position? When the ecu thinks it’s in front Indians it strange he doesn’t move the seat backwards after the roof is down. He does this correct with the passenger seat. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
In some cases it’s possible to reset the potentiometer to a position where the Roof ECU thinks the seat is fully forward, but that means the seat won’t move to its correct position before or after roof operation. You will have to move the seat manually. Also, you will have to remove the potentiometer from the seat drive mechanism and attach it to seat frame so it doesn’t move accidentally. In your case, the seat potentiometer is probably already broken and stuck in the fully forward position. The ball and socket in the potentiometer either partially loses it’s ability to grip or it breaks completely. You have to determine which by either pulling the potentiometer to pieces or doing electrical checks on the potentiometer. There are various ways to fix the problem. You can either: 1) buy a very hard to find expensive Jaguar seat potentiometer (old stock which may or may not work) 2) buy a 3D printed socket (around $40) on eBay. This has a 90% success rate. Unfortunately, the potentiometer itself can have too much friction 3) increase the friction of the ball and socket by some method. Some folks glue or nail the ball and socket together. Of course, the two pieces have to be in the correct position (determined by seat position and electrical resistance) There are many, many posts on this forum about seat potentiometers. I suggest you read them. There is nothing strange about the behaviour of your seat. It’s simply what happens when the seat potentiometer can’t provide seat position information to the Roof ECU.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/fear-not-the-seat-pot-potentiometer-how-to-rebuild-one-without-removing-it.288373/
This is what works for me: Remove seats, remove potentiometers, advance them to the most forward position "values", hang them out of the way and do not put them back on the shafts. Move the seats manually before you activate the top. Activate the top, and move the seat back to its comfortable driving position when the top is done moving. One extra step for driver, immensely satisfying by getting around that good for nothing auto spider top.
That works for me at the moment thanks. But you want a car like this in prestine condition if that’s even possible. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
I had the same issue and it was my seat potentiometer. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
