Problem with my 2011 Convertible Top

[MikeyR]

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I have a 2011 convertible 370z. Never had a problem with the convertible top until about a week ago. I was driving along with the top down and it began to rain. I quickly pulled over, hit the top up/down button and started to raise the top. The back lid flipped up, top came out, back lid fully shut itself. However, the actual top stopped and froze at about 3/4's of the way up. Needless to say, I panicked and started googling on how to manually close the top. Came across the video from Klaus from Top Hydraulics that showed me how to do just that and was able to use a 5mm allen wrench to lock the top down and make my way home.

The annoying buzzer that tells you the top is not fully up was constantly ringing, so I pulled the fuse for that so I didn't go crazy.

Right now, with the fuse installed, the top up/down button does absolutely nothing. The windows don't go down, the hydraulic motors don't activate, nothing. I felt behind the driver's seat for hydraulic oil, but it's totally clean.

I checked all the other fuses, both inside and outside the car, and all of them seemed totally fine. I even ordered and installed a new top up/down button, thinking it was that button that failed, but no luck there either. So I guess I'm stuck right now.

I've done a ton of research online and think it could be one of the following items:

1. The wiring harness could have failed? I'm not exactly sure where that wiring harness is, but it seems to be a common problem.
2. One of the hydraulic motors to do the final top closure failed?
3. One of the many sensors for the top could have failed, causing the top to be non-functional?

Any ideas? I've googled the heck out of this problem, but no one seems to have this exact problem of the top just doing nothing when I hit the top up/down button.

The car's top is about 8 years old, I had it replace under warranty due to the rubbing of the top on the window problem. Of course the new top is doing the same thing, but that's just the way it's designed I guess.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated!!

[Red Voodoo]

I had kind of the same thing happen to me in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Nevada. I left my sunglasses on the roof by mistake, folded the top, and then realized the error. Everything looked great, but the obstruction of the glasses was enough to freak out the sensors and nothing worked. I took out all the luggage, used the cables in the trunk to unlock the tonneau cover, and raised the top manually to retrieve the glasses. After that, the mechanicals were unresponsive. The windows were stuck down, the top had no power, and that damn buzzer would not shut up (didn't think about pulling the fuse)! I turned around and drove 70 miles back to civilization where, after screwing around with the top and power windows buttons for several minutes, finally got the thing to work again. I couldn't tell you what sequence I used to trick it back into operation. I figured then that I was on borrowed time before I was going to have the same thing happen again. That was a couple years ago, so I guess so far, so good! The ZR is nice roadster, but what seems to be inevitable problems with the top reflects poorly on the overall reliability of the model.

Good luck on finding a solution, and please keep us informed!

[Rodd]

Originally Posted by MikeyR

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I have a 2011 convertible 370z. Never had a problem with the convertible top until about a week ago. I was driving along with the top down and it began to rain. I quickly pulled over, hit the top up/down button and started to raise the top. The back lid flipped up, top came out, back lid fully shut itself. However, the actual top stopped and froze at about 3/4's of the way up. Needless to say, I panicked and started googling on how to manually close the top. Came across the video from Klaus from Top Hydraulics that showed me how to do just that and was able to use a 5mm allen wrench to lock the top down and make my way home.

The annoying buzzer that tells you the top is not fully up was constantly ringing, so I pulled the fuse for that so I didn't go crazy.

Right now, with the fuse installed, the top up/down button does absolutely nothing. The windows don't go down, the hydraulic motors don't activate, nothing. I felt behind the driver's seat for hydraulic oil, but it's totally clean.

I checked all the other fuses, both inside and outside the car, and all of them seemed totally fine. I even ordered and installed a new top up/down button, thinking it was that button that failed, but no luck there either. So I guess I'm stuck right now.

I've done a ton of research online and think it could be one of the following items:

1. The wiring harness could have failed? I'm not exactly sure where that wiring harness is, but it seems to be a common problem.
2. One of the hydraulic motors to do the final top closure failed?
3. One of the many sensors for the top could have failed, causing the top to be non-functional?

Any ideas? I've googled the heck out of this problem, but no one seems to have this exact problem of the top just doing nothing when I hit the top up/down button.

The car's top is about 8 years old, I had it replace under warranty due to the rubbing of the top on the window problem. Of course the new top is doing the same thing, but that's just the way it's designed I guess.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated!!

Hi MikeyR,
Any luck getting your top fixed? You need to post your problem in the Roadster section of this forum. It does sound like the common broken/pinched wire issue which is a cheap, easy fix. Have read through the roadster section and you will see the photos showing the wire location. Goodluck.