hey guys... im a new member here but i have been reading this forum for the last two months because that is how long i have been working on a buddies 350 roadster... a little about me... i consider myself a professional when it comes to auto body collision repair and a pretty decent mechanic. a little about the 350... the whole top has been replaced by the dealer, costing 5k, then took a crap... later replaced by a third party shop 1.5k then later took a crap, due to them using junk yard parts... then i get the car and replaced the brushes in all 5 motors that run the top... everything worked for a few minutes but now its all going to crap again... 5th bow works, storage lid wont open, i disconnected the passenger side motor that lifts the actual top, motor is located in the trunk, tested with meter and there is now power coming from switch... i tested while a buddy was pushing the switch and the driver side motor was engaged... question 1. is there individual fuses for each motor to the top? if so where are they located? 2. is there a limit switch on the passenger side top motor like there is on driver side top motor? 3. where does the wire from that motor go, so i can put a meter to it? i know there are a lot of top problems and solutions on this forum but i have yet to see any about the storage lid motors... one more thing, there is a box in the trunk on the left side of spare tire that the storage lid motor connects to along with a few other wires... what is this box? could this be where my problem lyes? thank you so much in advance and also i will be on here VERY frequently because i am dying to get this top working.

 

can someone please answer his question mine is basically doing the same thing!!

 

Did you discover what was wrong?

 

The top is solely controlled by the top control unit under the roll bar. Whatever connectors you see in the trunk are for you to manually throw power and get the actuators to open if you cant access it from the cabin.

I suggest you eat the FSM on the convertible top. There is a single fuse that controls power to the module which sends it to these motors/actuators.

Understand that the unit needs to see a ground from the passenger seat control module to let the soft top unit know the pass seat has moved 5 degrees forward. It also uses a ground signal from the power window switches to let it know the windows have rolled a few inches before it can commence activation. Without these two inputs the top wont even act. Usually if the top even attempts to move then it means it's receiving these inputs. If it fails to even do anything, then start with these two.

If the vehicle has had a seat change or had bad window switches the top might fail to operate.

 

That is great information. . . I'll take all the help I can get! I just had a new top put on, and picked it up a couple of months ago. It worked well enough for long enough that I don't think it is related to that. My seats move properly, and the windows drop as well - for both cycles. The storage lid was being wonky off and on before the repair. Once, it didn't want to fully close/latch, and a time or two the storage lid needed the button refreshed to restart it's upward movement. Now, the storage lid 'froze' in the 90 degree position, in preparation for closing the top (rain ready). Lots of info out there about the 5th bow, but I know it isn't that! Or the straps! I'll go back to google with this new info ~ Thanks so much!

 

To an extent.

At the 90 deg position on the closing cycle the only thing that will stop the storage lid is the missing continuity from contact switches that cancel the command from the unit. The unit is pretty basic as far as intelligence goes. It depends heavily on these contact switches outside of this the other two main problems are older motors that run at different speeds or non at all and the lack of elasticity from the top which can bend a bow or not let it make full contact.

The only possible thing you can do is to pull the covers behind the seat to access the unit and probe EVERY CONTACT switch as it operates. Its a lot of work trying to understand this section of the fsm but totally worth it for those that are planning on keeping the vehicle.

I had to do this on my last vehicle which was an 04 vert auto which I converted to a full wiring swap from a 16 coupe mt. I was able to isolate the entire electrical system and understood it a lot better.

In summary receives the signal, receives the signal from the seat, receives the signal from the window and all the contact switches. The rest are timed commands.

 

i just got a 350z from a car auction car has no seats or doors so I replaced the doors and seats. can't get my top to go down do you have a diagram or where can I get more info on vehicle requirements to get soft top to go down

 

Attached.

Have fun.