Convertible top not opening

[sotavento]

I recently bought a 1999 328 convertible. The roof was working properly a few days back. But today when I tried it, it released from the windshield, moved about 8 inches back and stopped.
I can close it back and repeat the procedure. But the back doesn't go up and the roof trunk doesn't open.

I may have accidentally pulled the over-ride - I didn't pull it all the way, but may have tugged it when looking at the back seat.

I would appreciate any help on this.
Thanks

 

[etniessk8r17]

Dude i Just bought a 95' 325I 3 weeks ago, and i did the exact same thing!!! i'm taking it to a dealership because i think a wire might have gotten sheared, because i reset the motor and it still doesn't work. Try this first though.

OK if you did pull the manual override have you reset the motor?

if not, in the driver side of the trunk pull the carpet liner from the left side fender and reset the motor because all the overide does is drops the motors down therefore taking it out of gear. Sorry its kind of general but i dont know how else to explain so. Once you see it it will self explain. But i don't know if the lid is the same motor or not. I think so because when i did it, i only seen 1 motor. So i hope this is your problem.

 

[sotavento]

Even though I touched the manual over-ride, I don't think I pulled the manual over-ride enough to reset the motor.
I looked in the trunk, left side by the fender and it all looks in good order.

I see from the manual over-ride there are 2 wires attached. One seems to towards the trunk, and the other one was somewhere towards the right side of the car. What does that one attach to? Maybe that one is the one that got released.

Does the whole backseat come off? I can lift up the right hand side a bit, but the left side seems to be pinned.

I'm wondering if it's a fuse that's gone, or some other reset procedure that needs to take place. I've noticed on some other board that they refer to a reset procedure where you turn on the ignition with the roof button pressed. I've tried that too, but it does not seem to have an effect.

Having the top on a car wasn't a big deal for the last 20 years. Now that I have a convertible for a few days, it's driving me nuts not to be able to open the thing.

 

[sotavento]

OK. I looked again and was able to re-engage the motor. Now things are as they should be. Except that of course it had to rain now

Wrt to the poster above, there are actually 2 motors. If you pull back the liner all the way back you should see both motors.

In the process of researching, I found of useful info about it. The most useful in
http://home.att.net/~ebaines/converti.htm

Good luck.

 

[etniessk8r17]

ya thats the same article i used too.