TOP Story

[xlrator]

Greetings XLR friends.

Having top issues. Dealer said hydraulic top motor overheating and need new one. ($2566.00) Ordered new one from folks in Oregon. ($400.00). The dealer wants $1200.00 to install. My question is, is this that hard to do it yourself ?

Also said need to replace a tonnue position sensor (front) for $452.00, and that system will need to be bled after repair. Anyone have any advice for a novice do it your selfer? Should I bite the bullet and let the dealer install?

Any advice greatly apppreciated,


Rich
Xlrator

 

[ccclarke]

Yes and no.

Hydraulic Motor: Replacing the Folding Top Motor is do-able if you can follow directions and turn a wrench without maiming yourself.

Ensure the battery is disconnected when you de-mate and mate the (three) electrical connectors on the FTC module.

When you re-connect the (labeled) hydraulic lines to the manifold on the pump, install new O-rings. (There is a GM kit; the P/N is searchable on this site.) One of us can provide torque specs if you want to do this yourself.


You'll probably need hydraulic oil (Search here for the P/N.) Bleeding the system isn't hard (it's self-bleeding, you just need to cycle the top and add fluid to the reservoir if necessary). Again, one of us can provide a procedure to do the pump replacement.

Position Sensor Replacement: Position Sensors cost less than $100 online. You can install it (assuming you know which one is defective) without much effort, but will need your dealer to re-calibrate the FTC. Just torque it to specs and apply a bead of epoxy, creating a bond line where the sensor body contacts the mount and won't interfere with its operation. The programming takes all of ten minutes, so don't let them charge you hundreds of dollars for the privilege of working on your car.

If you don't know which Tonneau sensor is bad, ask your Service Manager if you can supply the sensor and have them install and perform the calibration. Naturally, he won't warranty the part, but that's okay. Again, the labor involved is minimal. The whole job can be done in an hour, unless there's another problem lurking in there.

If you want to scope out the complexity of these jobs yourself, use this link and pay the $5 daily fee for all the GM procedures you want. RepairProcedures.com - Providing electronic service information for 1995 to current GM vehicles

You can copy and paste the procedures you need into a Word document and edit them as you work, adding notes as you go. This is much cheaper than buying an entire Service manual if you don't work on your car often.

CC

 

[David_B]

I would question both going bad at the same time.

What was the original symptom you took it in for?

If you keep trying to raise and lower a top with bad sensors it could easily overheat, but not be bad.

 

[xlrator]

I would question both going bad at the same time.

What was the original symptom you took it in for?

If you keep trying to raise and lower a top with bad sensors it could easily overheat, but not be bad.

Thanks for all the responses! Top going down you have to let go of switch a few times (toggle it) to get it to work. It gets stuck after trunk opens, and before roof opens. Top going back up, no problems at all. Dealer said they got a bad sensor code, and a pump overheat code, when doing diagnostics.

 

[V Happy]

Top Story

Thanks for all the responses! Top going down you have to let go of switch a few times (toggle it) to get it to work. It gets stuck after trunk opens, and before roof opens. Top going back up, no problems at all. Dealer said they got a bad sensor code, and a pump overheat code, when doing diagnostics.

David,B
Im thinking from your symptoms your pump is ok but your sensor is bad. I would start with the sensor and then if needed replace the pump. If the pump isn't malfunctioning going up the overheat is probably caused by the switch recycling going down. I may be wrong but the pump has more stress put on it going up.
V Happy

 

[XLRATING]

We had the exact same thing going on with needing to "toggle" the switch to get the top to go down, same sensor was bad as dealer is telling you, replaced sensor & all is well. No problems came up with the pump. Sensor replacement was under a warranty so I don't know the cost.

 

[xlrator]

Thanks for all the info! Love this site! Will follow all the advice and will let you all know the outcome......

 

[David_B]

Hopefully your pump is good.

This is why I hate hate hate taking my vehicles in for repair.

Just imagine the BILLIONS of dollars of un-needed repairs done on vehicles.

 

[BusaMan]

Totally agree. Taking advantage of unaware customers, not to mention the unnecessary replacement and trashing of still-good and SCARCE parts, is awful!!!

As a former motorsports dealer, I typically advised customers to try the inexpensive ways first, and it cured the problems in almost every instance. Maybe not the most profitable way to run an operation, but it helped me sleep at night. FWIW

Tim

Hopefully your pump is good.

This is why I hate hate hate taking my vehicles in for repair.

Just imagine the BILLIONS of dollars of un-needed repairs done on vehicles.

 

[xlrator]

follow up

Well the dealer ended up installing the new pump after testing old one with a new sensor. Total cost was 1200.00 for their end plus 400.00 for the pump from Oregon. Oh well, still better than their pump cost. And all is well again.

Thanks again to all who replied....