Mazda Rotary Club

Cars by Model Type => 2nd generation RX-7's => Topic started by: easylife on May 27, 2012, 05:22:35 PM

Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 27, 2012, 05:22:35 PM
Put roof down this morning, no problems. Came home parked up, engine running, handbrake on, no movement on roof when switch used!

Is there a way of hand cranking the roof up temporarily until i can get someone electrical to look at the car?

Old cars, just when you think you have everything working something else goes wrong!!
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: grinder on May 27, 2012, 05:41:44 PM
errrr im sure there are manual winders located somewhere at the side of the car - actually on the motors

might be worth jiggling the handbrake just to make sure
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 27, 2012, 05:51:49 PM
Managed to find another thread which mentioned the service screws to disengage the motors, so have done that - at least the roof is now up.

I checked all the usual fuses etc, even changed the switch out in the dashboard  but to no avail so i think it\'s probably the motor relay as opposed to the motors but open to suggestions?
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: Prof on May 27, 2012, 06:15:08 PM
It\'s likely to be a fuse, connector, switch or relay.  I have a feeling there is some sort of diagnostic function which can tell you what\'s wrong with it - will look out the circuit notes for it later.
 
If it is a motor, I have a couple of spares  ;)
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 28, 2012, 09:06:09 AM
Prof you\'re a star. I don\'t mind a keep fit roof, it is actually quicker to put up and down. But I would rather it worked.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: Prof on May 28, 2012, 09:21:26 AM
OK - found some beep codes for you :)
 
If it\'s not beeping at all - then the little control unit on the roof motor is not getting power - so check the 30A roof fuse, assuming that\'s ok, I had an issue early on with the black cab where the wiring had been hacked by the alarm dudes - it meant that the keyswitch needed a wiggle (technical term ;) ) before the roof would operate.
 
If it is beeping:
 
3 very short beeps - handbrake not on, or not detected - verify that the handbrake warning light comes on - if not it could indicate a faulty handbrake switch - it\'s just a leaf switch in the mechanism, have to take the cover off to get to it.
 
3 beeps plus a longer beep - means it detected a limit swtich - if it\'s down and you are trying to raise it then it could indicate a dodgy contact on one of the limit switches.  The mechanism is a bit clever in that it automatically cuts power to one or other motor if the roof is not raising evenly - if the wiring to these switches is bad / dislodged then this could give you some issues.
 
Normal beeping - 0.5 seconds on / off, rapid beeping 0.25 seconds and the long beep is a 1 sec beep.
 
I can post up the circuit diagram later on if needed, but the roof is covered in detail in the body section of the service manual pdf - it\'s 5MB so I can email it to you if you want to PM me your email addy.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 28, 2012, 12:05:35 PM
There is no beeping at all - what do you mean by the keyswitch, the ignition? i checked the fuse and it\'s fine. The wiring to the control relay next to the nearside motor looks ok and i wiggled it whilst turning the dashboard switch. the only other possibility is that the dahsboard switch and the spare i have have both failed.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: Prof on May 28, 2012, 12:46:17 PM
With mine, it was the ignition key, it has a couple of circuits switching power to accessories / ecu, in my case some functions like wiper, roof and a few others were not working even though the car could be driven.  A quick wiggle of the key in the ignition got the other circuit live and then the hood worked - the symptom was no beeping at all, which indicates no power is getting to the control unit on the motor.
 
You may also want to try unplugging and plugging in the connector to the control unit - big white plug connecting the loom to the unit - you can get at it by taking the spare wheel cover out, but I suspect that\'s what you\'ve done already.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 28, 2012, 01:15:33 PM
OK i\'ll have a fiddle (ooeer) and let you know. Yes i did remove and replace the white connector to the control relay.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: BenLewisMav on May 29, 2012, 12:56:38 AM
To be honest mine did this one day last year as it was starting to rain.. Thankfully found out about the screws in the motors before it got too bad. Next day I just played with the screws on the motors and tada!, all was well again, not problems since.
Apparently the systems also sense if one motor is out of line with the other (twisting) and I guess to save the roof from tearing itself apart it disables it. Maybe disengaging the motors, fully closing/opening it, then reengaging the motors realigns them? Who knows, anyway it worked for me

edit. Just saw Prof already mentioned the bit about the roof motors being out of line and stopping! :)
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: Prof on May 29, 2012, 07:22:28 AM
Quote from: BenLewisMav;824691To be honest mine did this one day last year as it was starting to rain.. Thankfully found out about the screws in the motors before it got too bad. Next day I just played with the screws on the motors and tada!, all was well again, not problems since.
Apparently the systems also sense if one motor is out of line with the other (twisting) and I guess to save the roof from tearing itself apart it disables it. Maybe disengaging the motors, fully closing/opening it, then reengaging the motors realigns them? Who knows, anyway it worked for me
 
edit. Just saw Prof already mentioned the bit about the roof motors being out of line and stopping! :)

I never knew you had a soft top !
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 29, 2012, 09:09:41 AM
Thanks for all your input guys, invaluable as always. I\'ll let you know if i manage to sort or not.
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: BenLewisMav on May 29, 2012, 01:43:47 PM
Quote from: Prof;824694I never knew you had a soft top !

Yes I ended up buying Lee Mills old BN sports widearch vert last year. Been using it as an impractical daily for a while now, just doing some power mods to it at the moment :cool

(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/429097_10151323990300215_800250214_23183796_579783856_a.jpg) (http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/429097_10151323990300215_800250214_23183796_579783856_n.jpg)


(http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6763/wp000318.th.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/wp000318.jpg/)

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/wp000323.jpg/](http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5025/wp000323.th.jpg)
(http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/wp000318.jpg/)[/U][/URL]
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3985/wp000241.th.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/wp000241.jpg/)
(http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9033/wp000112p.th.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/wp000112p.jpg/)
(http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6728/wp000184a.th.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/wp000184a.jpg/)

Sorry for the Hijack! :Thumbs-up
Title: HELP - roof won\'t go back up
Post by: easylife on May 29, 2012, 02:44:23 PM
No worries, hope to see you at Rotorstock this year.