360 Spider Roof issue
Discussion
Hoping that one of our resident service / mechanical experts sees this and chimes in.
Ever since I bought my spider I've had issues with the roof.
Basically it will not lower on its own.
I press the button and it folds perfectly until the canvas part is almost flat and then it just stops.
If I get out of the car and push hard on the canvas on the passenger side (LHD drive car) whilst pressing the button then the canvas will drop into its well and the cover will lower and all is well, obviously that's a touch embrrassing to have to do though!
My local independant told me that the roof elastics needed replacing, so I had that done (along with some pins and levers) but there's no difference.
The garage have now had it in 4 separate times for the roof and they seem to be incapable of sorting it.....
Any thoughts as to what it might be, anything I can do myself?
Ever since I bought my spider I've had issues with the roof.
Basically it will not lower on its own.
I press the button and it folds perfectly until the canvas part is almost flat and then it just stops.
If I get out of the car and push hard on the canvas on the passenger side (LHD drive car) whilst pressing the button then the canvas will drop into its well and the cover will lower and all is well, obviously that's a touch embrrassing to have to do though!
My local independant told me that the roof elastics needed replacing, so I had that done (along with some pins and levers) but there's no difference.
The garage have now had it in 4 separate times for the roof and they seem to be incapable of sorting it.....
Any thoughts as to what it might be, anything I can do myself?
dudlow said:
I had an issue similar to yours when I had a 360 Spider a few years ago, I seem to remember it was a lack of fluid in the roof hydraulics. I would have thought that would have been checked though...........
A good place to start though, especially since I imagine the fluid is original and hence now about 12 years old.Kyodo said:
K50 DEL said:
The garage have now had it in 4 separate times for the roof and they seem to be incapable of sorting it.....?
I don't mean to sound negative but if the fluid isn't the issue, I'd be tempted to try taking it somewhere else - A fresh pair of eyes and all that...To be completely honest it's not really representative no.
I bought a car that had been off the road for at least 6 years and had not been serviced at all in that time..... I also took a number of risks when buying it (related to the way the buying process works here) that could have seen me lose about 75% of that purchase price with nothing to show for it.
In short I took a number of chances and bought a car that would be very tough to sell in the UK (lack of history etc)
Thankfully here there is little interest in service history so it would sell now for its market value which is probably about £40k. The fact it only has 8500 miles on the clock doesn't change the value here but it would make it easier to sell.
Certain supercars are definitely cheaper here but the flip side of that is that many are ill treated and there are no decent specialists for maintenance (it's no coincidence that a lot of the Arabs who bring their cars to Europe in the summer choose to have them serviced at the same time)
I'm glad I bought it and it's a dream realised but getting taken for a ride on all the maintenance does take a little of the shine off.
I bought a car that had been off the road for at least 6 years and had not been serviced at all in that time..... I also took a number of risks when buying it (related to the way the buying process works here) that could have seen me lose about 75% of that purchase price with nothing to show for it.
In short I took a number of chances and bought a car that would be very tough to sell in the UK (lack of history etc)
Thankfully here there is little interest in service history so it would sell now for its market value which is probably about £40k. The fact it only has 8500 miles on the clock doesn't change the value here but it would make it easier to sell.
Certain supercars are definitely cheaper here but the flip side of that is that many are ill treated and there are no decent specialists for maintenance (it's no coincidence that a lot of the Arabs who bring their cars to Europe in the summer choose to have them serviced at the same time)
I'm glad I bought it and it's a dream realised but getting taken for a ride on all the maintenance does take a little of the shine off.
Ok.... the way the buying process works here is that the seller must put the car through an inspection (similar to an MOT but not quite as thorough) as the first step.
Once the car is through that, ownership and registration can then be changed.
This car had apparently never previously been registered on the road in Dubai, the seller told me that it had been customs cleared with all duties paid 3 years previously but all he had to "prove" this was a small slip of paper covered in Arabic writing (which I can't read)
After I had had the car inspected by the local main dealer (what a waste of $1000 usd that was, I knew more about the car than they did) I agreed a price with the seller based on the recommissioning works that the dealer said it needed and the price quoted for them. We then took the car to the test and registration place.
It failed... pretty majorly. Both fuel pumps were leaking and all 4 tyres were 9 years old (they fail at over 3 years old) meaning that a fair amount of money needed to be spent before the car would pass.
The owner didn't have the money to fix the car (in fact he owed some powerful people a lot of cash and he was never alone when we met, always had a heavy with him from the guy he was in debt to) which meant that if I wanted to continue with the purchase, I had to spend around 2k GBP on a car I didn't even own and the seller couldn't prove was actually his.
Then it got worse.... before the seller would let me have the car taken away to the independant garage to have the work done, he wanted a much larger chunk of the purchase price... (like 75%) We ended up settling on 60%
From this point on I was out over 20k if it all went wrong.... and plenty could have gone wrong.
I was most concerned that when I came to register the car there would be duty to pay on the original declared import value (closer to 70k GBP) I was also concerned that it was a complete scam and the car might be stolen.
In short it was a very nervewracking week whilst I waited for fuel pumps to arrive and so on.
Happily it all turned out perfectly and I'm now the owner of my own Ferrari (which is something I never thought I'd say lol)
Hope that's not bored you too much but you did ask lol
Once the car is through that, ownership and registration can then be changed.
This car had apparently never previously been registered on the road in Dubai, the seller told me that it had been customs cleared with all duties paid 3 years previously but all he had to "prove" this was a small slip of paper covered in Arabic writing (which I can't read)
After I had had the car inspected by the local main dealer (what a waste of $1000 usd that was, I knew more about the car than they did) I agreed a price with the seller based on the recommissioning works that the dealer said it needed and the price quoted for them. We then took the car to the test and registration place.
It failed... pretty majorly. Both fuel pumps were leaking and all 4 tyres were 9 years old (they fail at over 3 years old) meaning that a fair amount of money needed to be spent before the car would pass.
The owner didn't have the money to fix the car (in fact he owed some powerful people a lot of cash and he was never alone when we met, always had a heavy with him from the guy he was in debt to) which meant that if I wanted to continue with the purchase, I had to spend around 2k GBP on a car I didn't even own and the seller couldn't prove was actually his.
Then it got worse.... before the seller would let me have the car taken away to the independant garage to have the work done, he wanted a much larger chunk of the purchase price... (like 75%) We ended up settling on 60%
From this point on I was out over 20k if it all went wrong.... and plenty could have gone wrong.
I was most concerned that when I came to register the car there would be duty to pay on the original declared import value (closer to 70k GBP) I was also concerned that it was a complete scam and the car might be stolen.
In short it was a very nervewracking week whilst I waited for fuel pumps to arrive and so on.
Happily it all turned out perfectly and I'm now the owner of my own Ferrari (which is something I never thought I'd say lol)
Hope that's not bored you too much but you did ask lol
Cerbieherts said:
There are several possibilities;
1. Fluid level. Check it carefully, it's a common cause of your issue.
2. Micro switch adjustment on l/h hinge, check the metal arm engages on closing the roof.
3. Air in system/old contaminated fluid. Look at the roof as it is folding into the bay, hold the button in the down position until it stops working, if you release the switch and you hear a click and the roof drops slightly, change the fluid. Don't buy the Ferrari overpriced stuff, buy it from Mercedes.
OK, on point 3, when I lowered the roof this morning it played up again so I released the switch, no click and the roof actually popped back up out of its well a little.1. Fluid level. Check it carefully, it's a common cause of your issue.
2. Micro switch adjustment on l/h hinge, check the metal arm engages on closing the roof.
3. Air in system/old contaminated fluid. Look at the roof as it is folding into the bay, hold the button in the down position until it stops working, if you release the switch and you hear a click and the roof drops slightly, change the fluid. Don't buy the Ferrari overpriced stuff, buy it from Mercedes.
I'm going to head to the garage this afternoon to get them to check the fluid level etc.... when I spoke to their technician on the phone he told me that "they all do that sir" and there's a little tweak you perform from the driver's seat as the roof is folding back that makes it go properly....... this doesn't sound right to me!
Nothing untoward happens at the point where it stops going down, the roof opening symbol is still showing in the dash but nothing else.
I popped to the garage earlier and the technician showed me a technique that makes the roof work every time. It's hard to explain but basically when the roof is in a vertical position you reach up and knock a little bar backwards, this seems to slow everything to function properly.
He said that the only way to make it work without knocking the bar is to replace the entire outer roof fabric..... Thoughts??
I popped to the garage earlier and the technician showed me a technique that makes the roof work every time. It's hard to explain but basically when the roof is in a vertical position you reach up and knock a little bar backwards, this seems to slow everything to function properly.
He said that the only way to make it work without knocking the bar is to replace the entire outer roof fabric..... Thoughts??
Cerbieherts said:
The elastic which pulls the centre bar backwards has broken or stretched. An easy DIY job if you are handy with a needle and cotton. You can buy suitable elastic strip from many sources. When I get home later I'll post up a pic of the roof diagram, so you can see where they are located. There is one piece of elastic per side.
The strange thing is that I just spent £200 at the garage having the elastic replaced ( they definitely were replaced as they were snapped) Sounds like possibly they're not taut enough??
Would be grateful for all assistance as I'm not the handiest person in the world with the spanners!!
Cerbieherts said:
The elastic which pulls the centre bar backwards has broken or stretched. An easy DIY job if you are handy with a needle and cotton. You can buy suitable elastic strip from many sources. When I get home later I'll post up a pic of the roof diagram, so you can see where they are located. There is one piece of elastic per side.
Any chance you could post up those pics / a bit more detail on how to do this... I'm keen not to snap the frame as that does sound rather pricy!!Gassing Station | Ferrari V8 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff