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Problem with the roof finally solved (after 5 years!). It may be of some help...

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  400ixl 
#1 ·
Dear all,

Hoping it may be of some help to someone now or in the near future. I explain one problem I've been suffering with my Saab 9-3 Cabrio since I bought it (December 2008).

From time to time, in the control panel it showed the message: “Complete soft top operation before driving” for no apparent reason. As if I didn’t correctly complete the process of closing the soft top. From the moment the message appeared, the roof was completely inoperative, it was impossible to open or close it!
The Official Saab Service, while the car was under warranty, changed the electronic control of the roof, the hydraulic system, etc. I think they changed almost everything but the problem continued! At the same Official Service from Saab, they told me that when this problem happened I had to change the 40 mA fuse, because it was a sign that it had melted and if I wanted to recover the functioning of the roof I had to replace it for a new one.

The problem is that every time the fault repeated more often, the car was no longer under warranty and I, sincerely speaking, had lost confidence in the Official Saab Service .


I discovered that the problem was produced when I connected the heating from the rear window (the small one inside the soft top). I looked for help in most of the forums devoted to Saab but I wasn’t able to find answer to my problem

I looked for a good car electrician who FINALLY! Found the origin of the problem. He advised me to write about this problem in the Saab forums because He said that probably all the cars that were manufactured on the same day or by the same worker in Trotalham will suffer from the same failure.

It appears that the set of electrical cables running from the front of the car to the rear of the soft top were placed from the factory in the wrong position and, when folding the roof, they were " pinched" by one of the retractable arms of the hood. As time passed by, one of the electrical wires was peeled and when making contact with any metal part when removing the soft top, caused the fuse to melt.

The mechanic fixed my cable and placed it in the right place and the problem was finally solved (after 5 years!). Since then I've never had any more problems. Too bad there were many hours of work involved and a bill of 260 euros but ... The case was finally solved!

I hope this announcement will be of some help to any colleague of this forum now or in the near future.

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#2 ·
Useful post, but extremely surprised it wasn't found earlier. The obvious cause would be a sensor or wiring to one.

Strange faults like this with hatchbacks is usually a nipped wire on the hinge, so would have assumed the same as it was at the point of closure on the roof cover.
 
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