Daveychan

Hello and thanks for any help or advice!

Today i drove to the supermarket with the roof open and after parking, closed it as per normal. Nothing strange or weird. Did my shopping, came back and started my car up. Now when i push OPEN for my roof, i get NOTHING. No light on the button, no chime or error sound, no sound of cables moving or trunk stuff moving... absolutely nothing.

Here's what i've checked about 10 times again and again:
- Pushed CLOSE and/or OPEN again to try and re-set... nothing at all
- The trunk partition is latched correctly (unlatched and re-latched several times to be sure. Also, i never even opened the trunk after parking.)
- Valet button is not pushed, and never has been (trunk opens with the dash button as normal)
- All other things have power and are working properly (GPS, stereo, A/C, seat heaters, door lights, etc etc)
- Car in park, car driven about 10 minutes, re-parked, shut off, key removed, tried again... same
-Checked all fuses under hood and in the trunk, everything seems fine
-Unlatched partition to see if i could get an error on the button. Got a one flash of red ONCE, but could never get it to repeat after several re-tries of latching/unlatching/powering on-off/valet switch, etc

Like most of you, i fear going to the dealer and getting hit was a monstrous bill because of something silly i did/didn't do...

Please, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

VVTiBob

Sounds like you did all you could. I see you're located in Japan. Do autoparts stores there scan the OBDII ports like most do here. If so, the car may have a trouble code which can point us in the correct direction.
There are more than twenty motors and switches which must remain in sync for the top to work properly. There are only two things I can think of which you did not do, one is disconnect the battery for about 30 minutes to see if the a full reset works and two operate a full roof open and close manually. These have worked for others in the past.

mandyfig

A mechanic friend told me that if there's anything malfunctioning in our SC's, the OBD II scanner will pick it up.

Daveychan

Hello again!

Thank you both VERY much for your replies! I'm very grateful for your advice and your efforts to try and help me out.

This morning i unhooked the battery as you suggested and left it off for about an hour... alas.... no joy.

So, having expended all other "common sense" stuff, i decided to take it into the dealer. Several hours later... it turns out that one of the sensors has gone bad. (If you're looking at the open trunk, it's inside near the left gear/pulley). The mechanic asked me how often i take the roof down. I laughed and said, "Every time i drive of course!" He smiled and kinda shook his head.

The good news is that the cause was due to simple "wear and tear" and i didn't do anything to provoke the break (except to drive it open everywhere! Ha!) and i'm also much relieved to know that there was no way i could have found out the problem on my own. Except maybe perhaps buying the sensor you both mentioned, which would just lead me to needing to buy the part and then pay to get it installed...

Anyways, the better news is the part is about $50 and the labour is about $200... a decent sized BOINK, but i think that's fairly lucky, seeing as i was prepared for a bill well over $500.

Again, thank you very much for trying to help out!

MUCH appreciated!

gripau1

Do you have a picture of what the sensor looks like? It would be interesting to know.

Thanks.

Daveychan

Hi again,

I don't have a picture of mine, but i CAN show you where the mechanic pointed.
(i'm stealing a picture that "Adi" posted on another thread with the area circled)

UPDATE - This sensor will be on the OPPOSITE side (behind the passenger seat) for North America owners (see VVTiBob's post below)

He said the sensor lets the system know if the roof is in "position 1" or "position 2". If it fails, the system doesn't know where the roof is, so that's why there's no response from the button when i push it. The button first finds out the position of the roof and then determines if it should start an action (open/close). Or, it gives an error because it's already where it needs to be - you pushed OPEN when the roof was already in the trunk.

Please keep in mind that my translation to English may not be spot-on for this. The mechanic was speaking pretty technical Japanese, so i'm paraphrasing where i'm not 100% sure I got the full details - it's certainly possible that i'm a bit off on this information.

Hope this is useful for someone else!

gripau1

Excellent thanks for sharing the info.

VVTiBob

One of our other members, Habious, posted this https://www.clublexus.com/forums/3619710-post4.html and as he said, we all should have a copy of it in our glove boxes. In addition to his PDF find, I'll add this diagram of the components (motors and switches). As you can see it's a complex piece of engineering with a lot moving parts and failure points. If any of the motors get out of sync or, in your case, a switch fails, the roof stops operating. That's why the manual instructions are good to have on hand.

Finally, having a OBD port scanner or access to one really does allow you to diagnose problems quickly... As I mentioned before, many autoparts stores will plug in for free to earn a parts sale. While they would not have this proprietary lexus part, they would have told you the trouble code and that's where all of us come.

Here's to many more years of roofless enjoyment!

Habious

I've noticed a number of "roof issue" threads popping up lately...and I've seen the Lexus TSB posted a couple of times.

Just for some quick clarification - I think most of the folks who have been here a while know this but, some of the newer members might not.

There are TWO different "manually open/close" the top procedures.


A) There's the quick-and-dirty method as spelled out in the TSB. This is a little one-page "what you need to get you home" type of instruction. It explains how to get the roof to finish opening or closing if the sequence is interrupted (by an accidental trunk opening or something). Basically, it explains how to determine if the roof is "mostly open" or "mostly closed" (based on the position of the parcel shelf), and how to manually move the panels to finish the sequence. This can be done by one person and should take under 5 minutes.

B) The full manual procedure, as found in the owner's manual. This procedure is considerably more complicated, requires two people, and takes a while. This will allow you to take the roof from totally open (top folded neatly into the trunk), to totally closed and latched. This procedure has help several members who've had a cable slip off-track. Just going from memory, I think this procedure takes up about 10 pages in the manual. It seems fairly daunting but, just take your time and follow each step.

Daveychan

Hey there,

Nice post with the picture! Thanks for that!

It actually makes sense with where the mechanic said my problem was, because we are right-side wheel drivers here, so this diagram shows the "Slide Roof Limit Switch" on the passenger-side. And that looks about right.

Thanks everyone!

VVTiBob

I have to agree with Habious, there has been an unexplained and unusual increase in the number of sliding roof problems reported.

I thought I might post an operational overview of the roof functions (this is for my 2002 year model) which includes a very useful list of trouble codes on page eight of the document.

IMO the roof is very reliable, but with age, it's just like my right knee and from time to time may need some work. While the document was written about the then "new" 2002 model, most of it is relevant to all SC430 model production years.

trygve1049

I just experienced the same issue with my 2006, took it in and the code was a Position limit switch fault. I have ECP on my vehicle, and the repair was estimated to be, part switch at some $157 and 5.5 hours of labour to install. And it is not covered on ECP. I have requested a remedy from the Lexus dealer management, will see what they say.

I was very disappointed at see it is not covered.

trygve1049

Well wonders never cease, Lexus called me this morning and said the ECP plan not covering the hard top was an oversight, and they would be pleased to repair my issue under the ECP.

Was I surprised, sure was, but thrilled.

Restored my belief in common sense.

Way to go Lexus. Way to go O'Regan's Lexus.

Cheers,

Trygve

PLAYTYM

Is it possible for me to get an ECP on my '02?

trygve1049

Not totally sure but I believe an ECP plan must dovetail with the expiration of original factory warranty. I may be corrected on this, I haven't seen the option of adding an ECP past warranty.