I love my '08 Sebring convertible. It's been a dream to own so far. I'm a snowbird, so it may sit unused sometimes for 3 months in Florida. I'm in Florida now. Recently when I tried to put the top-down, the operation stopped prematurely. For simplicity, I'd describe my top-down operation normally appears to take 3 steps: 1: trunk parts open to receive the top, 2: top retracts & folds down into trunk, 3: trunk parts close. What I observe now is the trunk opens as it always has, so step 1 completes, then step 2, nothing happens when the roof is supposed to retract. I've tried half dozen times over several days, with the same result. Is there a fuse associated with the motor that executes the 2nd step of operation? Is there something audible or visual that I should look for, to share with this group? I have an electrical engineering background, handy with a multimeter, I can troubleshoot some things. My experience is that often a connector is loose, a fuse is blown, or something mechanical needs needs some lubrication like WD-40. I'd like to try to solve this if possible, before I give it up to the dealer. Ask me anything, I'll explore it. Any assistance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm not familiar with that particular model but there might be a problem with the unlatching mechanism at the windshield header. There may be some way that the system detects whether it's properly unlatched and if not, or if it thinks it's not, the operation stops.

 

Thanks for the input. I haven't noticed any sound whatsoever from the area where the roof would unlatch from the windshield. All the action & noise is in the rear. I wonder if a sensor in the rear hasn't detected that everything is in place so that the next step (roof retraction) may begin.

 

How does the header unlatching mechanism work? Is it automatic or manual? If it's automatic, can you force it to occur by jumping some wires?

I would think it should make some noise when it would occur. If no noise, it's not happening, which is perhaps why the whole operation must stop. The sensor to detect the unlatching would probably be in the header itself.