Sc430 Roof Not Working

willydoit · August 7, 2015

Hi all,

today when closing the roof on a 2006 sc430 we noticed that despite holding down the roof button the front windows did not close after the roof had closed, they did however close with the switches on the door. We then noticed that the roof open button was showing red as though the roof hadn't completed closing although the roof was up. Any attempts to open the roof since fails. It sounds as though the roof locks are operating and if you press the close button to try to complete the close process the front windows drop but that's it.

I have checked the valet switch in the glove box and the petrol filler cap opens from the interior switch however the boot does not open with the interior switch, although it will open using the keyfob.

The boot cover is also properly in place.

Can anyone provide any advice on what to check next please.

Thanks in advance

steve2006 · August 7, 2015

Check the fuses as the first course of action, next disconnect the Battery ( ensuring you have any required radio or other codes first) and reconnect to see if it resets things.

willydoit · August 8, 2015

Check the fuses as the first course of action, next disconnect the battery ( ensuring you have any required radio or other codes first) and reconnect to see if it resets things.

Thanks for that, I have checked the fuses in the boot which I believe are for the roof and they are all fine, also tried disconnecting the Battery but the red light still stays on permanently on the roof switch when the ignition is on. That said, after the Battery is disconnected it will allow the roof to open and close just once. I am however concerned that it may stick in the open position if I push my luck and we dont have anywhere undercover to store the car.

I did have a look at all obvious hinge areas while the roof was stopped in different stages of opening but couldnt see anything obvious that was wrong.

What I did note was that even on opening, once the roof is in the boot the front windows do not return up even with the roof button still held down, so the failure of the windows to close isnt just happening when the roof is being closed. I am suspecting therefor that whatever the issue is it would seem to be some element which is used in checking the roof or boot lid position in both open and closed positions which may help track the issue down.

Is there a sensor to say the boot is pulled down and locked in place?, what is the last check performed by the car before it starts to close the windows?

I could see a number of the blue micro switches and while I couldnt get to many of them they all seemed to be clear of any debris.

I suspect it is going to need someone who is familiar with the roof mechanism or has access to Lexus diag information to track this one down. The fact that I have been able to operate the roof after the fault and albeit with the permanently lit roof switch gives me hope that it isnt a motor issue unless there is more than one and one isnt working.

With the roof closed and pressing the close roof button I can hear movement which seems to be coming from the nearside boot area as though it is trying to lock something down but as mentioned I cannot see anything which is obviously wrong.

As seems to be my luck, the Lexus guy at my Indy garage has just gone on holiday for 2 weeks and it looks as though we are going to have a few days of sunshine at long last that I am going to miss out on.

willydoit · August 9, 2015

Just a quick update, had a closer look at things yesterday and found a small Label that had at sometime been stuck to part of the roof mechanism which had come off and was loose near the offside boot hinge. Removed that and at the moment everything seems to be operating fine, touch wood. Hopefully it was just the stray label interfering with a sensor. Will monitor things over next few days.

RXJasonRX · August 9, 2015

Well done hope everything continues to be ok

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

mrphilb · July 22, 2016

On 09/08/2015 at 6:48 AM, willydoit said:

Just a quick update, had a closer look at things yesterday and found a small Label that had at sometime been stuck to part of the roof mechanism which had come off and was loose near the offside boot hinge. Removed that and at the moment everything seems to be operating fine, touch wood. Hopefully it was just the stray label interfering with a sensor. Will monitor things over next few days.

Hi, i know this was a while back but we are having the identical issue with our roof now. It will only work when i reset the Battery.

Did your issue ever come back again? I had it on the diagnostic but they couldn't find a fault listed.

cheers

Chris Skelton · July 23, 2016

This is when owning a nice 2CV (manual roof) seems appealing?

willydoit · August 14, 2016

Hi Phil,

unfortunately your post couldn't have been better timed as we had the car in Lexus yesterday as while the original problem with our roof started as a rare occurrence it has become far more regular the last couple of weeks, probably due to the extra use the good weather has brought. I found that when the issue occurred the roof would go up or down fully but not register completion in order to generate the beep prior to the Windows going back up. I calculated that the issue was something in the front near side of the boot mechanism as more often than not a small amount of downward pressure in this area of the boot lid while the switch was being pressed would be sufficient to complete the operation.

Recently this hasn't been as effective although sometimes just turning off the engine and restarting it then pressing the roof switch to complete the cycle would work which made me think there was possibly an adjustment needed perhaps on a sensor/switch.

As mentioned, I had it in Lexus Hull yesterday who advised that their diagnostic showed a sensor error however I suspect that this may have been due to the roof sequence currently being in a state of none completion. My personal view is that it is still an adjustment issue as they advised the sensor error code couldn't be reset yet my issue is intermittent which doesn't make much sense if the fault is due to a permanent failure of a component part.

they advised a replacement sensor would be around £100 however the sensor concerned is apparent buried deep in the boot system and requires 6 hours labour to replace taking the bill up to £700 plus vat.

Having got the car back they confirmed that it was an adjustment issue which they rectified for £185 and roof has worked fine since. If no error codes I would definitely advise getting them to check for adjustment issues.

Hope this helps.