2010 Carrera S Cab ~ 120,000 miles (mine since 92,000)

My cab top is stuck in the down position.

It is my daily driver and I had about 400 miles to go for work, so I shot back home and snagged my son's car for the drive. But before I left, I grabbed the Convertible Top error codes from the Durametric:

8030 Maximum time
8041 Right rear window lifter

It happened once before on the eclipse day. Fortunately, I was able to get it to move some and then give it a tug. It went up. I was about two days from home and did not think to pull codes when I returned. I salved my mind by making sure all the joints were dry lubricated. (teflon) I have had zero issues since then.

Both times I had driven some (engine compartment was warm) and then tried to put it up while rolling - although I do this regularly when the car is cold at the start and end of short trips.

Today, I had to leave before it had a chance for it to cool.

QUESTIONS:

Are there things I should check before I take it to the dealer?

Could a good shade tree guy work on this or are they mostly for engines?

Is the temperature thing a red herring?


THANKS!!!

 

Not really knowing much about the cabs, the 8041 error code you posted seems to suggest that as part of putting the top up, the module has to do something with the rear windows, like lower them so the top doesn't hit them, then it probably lifts them back up when the top raising is complete. Looks like there may be a sensor on the right rear window that's not telling the module that the window is down, so the top can be raised, or maybe that window isn't dropping, so it won't start the next step in the process. The 8030 code looks like the process just times out an aborts after some set amount of time.

The rear window is where I'd start purely based on the codes.

 

Thanks!

The window itself works fine. I tried to close the roof with the windows in the up position to see if it helped with no joy.

 

There's probably a sensor for the window that tells the controller when it's down and that it can start raising the top - my guess is that's the sensor that's malfunctioning as it does't know the window went down successfully so won't lift the top.

Maybe someone who had done troubleshooting of sensor issues with a cab can chime in or try searching Renntech or Google for similar "997 Cab top won't raise" posts.

 

Just to confuse things, I looked back at my history.

When I bought my Durametric, I ran the diagnostic and saved the results.

These errors and more were present back in December when everything was fine.

 

I got home from my trip. I put the key in and the top would not go up.

Engaged the SmartTop module and presto it went up.

I put it up and down and up again... no problem.

At this point, I am convinced there is something wrong with the module when it gets warm, but that is just a gut feel.

Anyone know a way to test it?

 

Follow up:

I went back through my records. I got my car used. It came with a "SmartTop". I disengaged it and re-engaged it. According to my notes, that did the trick. For some reason, I had it off for about 2 days.

I continued to fight it for another 6 months until I paid Porsche to recalibrate the roof. ($62.50 well spent) I haven't really had problems that weren't my making after that.

It will occasionally balk at going all the way down, but if I open a little and retry then it works.

 

Good information.

I was not familiar with "SmartTOP" but after reading your comments, I certainly would never want to get it. For anyone like me that does not know what it is, here's information on it:

https://www.motivemods.com/Mods4Cars...4c-stlbpe1.htm