FOLDING ROOF MAINTENANCE?

[Guest]

The owner's handbook was missing when I bought my car recently (anybody have one to sell?), so I was wondering if there was any periodic or regular maintenance that needed doing? eg. lubrication

 

I'm generally from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" club, but since I have it off most days (I wish😁), I don't want to tempt fate and ignore any necessary maintenance to prevent any mishaps. I appreciate that the roof is reputed to have excellent reliability 🙏, and I haven't seen anything on my research, but just want to play safe.

 

Anthony

[Glyn Jennings]

There sometimes is some benefit in if it ‘ain’t broken don’t fix it’ philosophy. I worked for British Gas for many years and they also adopted this approach to save money. Customers on a  service contract used to have a full service strip down carried out on the visit. British Gas then changed the wording to safety or performance check which no longer included striping down the boiler and is just a visual inspection and an analysis of the combustion products taken in the flue. The reason they did this was for financial reasons as it was a fact that every time a boiler was stripped down it increased the incidents of call backs because something on the boiler would fail within a couple of weeks purely because it had been dismantled. This was costing the company of a lot of money and also LED to high customer dissatisfaction.  Having said this obviously any safety related items should always be checked on a scheduled basis as well as lubricants and parts renewed that have a defined life cycle.

[Tomtit]

I could not find anything about this in the Lexus workshop manual. 

I have sprayed all the moving parts with white grease, on the basis that metal parts moving together will eventually bind and seize without lubrication. The prospect of being unable to close the roof during a heavy shower was enough to persuade me. I have also sprayed the rubber seals with silicone lubricant, to keep them supple and prevent cracking, drying out and subsequent water ingress.

[Lexiguy]

I believe prevention is better than cure! 😁

i therefore greased the pivot and contact points with old fashioned grease.

The rubber seals were rejuvinated and made supple with Shin-Etsu grease, which I thoroughly recommend. 👍

 

[Guest]

Thanks for responding guys 👍, and what you’ve said about preventive maintenance certainly makes sense - so another little job to add to the list😁

I already have some silicone grease which is clear and effectively the same ( and a lot cheaper), so I will use that.