2005 New Bettle Convertible Top wont go down

[Germandude]

Hello

I own a 2005 VW New Beetle Convertible.
My top won't go down and the last time I used it was last year. I took it to the dealership and they told me that it's a "wiring issue" and it'll be 800 dollars. But they would not tell me what kind of wiring issue.

Any ideas? How to's? Anything i can check besides fuses?

Any help is appreciated.

[miffmole]

Are you under warranty by any chance? 4 years/50,000 miles on your car (a 2005)...That starts when the car was first put into service, not when manufactured.

[wawalker]

Yeah, seems like you should be under warranty yet? If not, I haven't heard of any NBC top experts--not even the dealers seem to be that knowledgable...

Ya know, at one time I thought if I ever get a 3rd NB it would be an NBC...but wow, all these expensive top problems I've read about for 4-5 years now.

If I ever do, it'll have to be a manual top and a 2.5L/5 speed--they make/made those, right?

[Germandude]

sadly my NBC has 70000 miles.
No warranty.
Any advice?

[miffmole]

A member of the Forum, pencilneck knows a lot about this sort of thing, but I haven't seen him on here for a while:
http://newbeetle.org/forums/members/pencilneck.html

[boogety boogety]

Try the following:

Make sure all four windows are all the way up before you do this. If they're down right now, turn on your engine, put them all the way up, and turn the engine off.

Go get your favorite adult beverage, and return to the car. Get in your car. Close door. Turn on the engine. Use the Master Switch (all four windows at once) and put the windows all the way down. Wait a second or two. Then put them all the way up. Turn off engine.

Turn on engine, roll your windows all the way down with Master Switch again... release the top, and drop it with the open/close top switch. Should work.

Just PayPal me the $800. Nah, just kidding... go ahead and make it $400...

That's the reset procedure anytime your top fails to drop. Try it!

Oh, one last thing: Call your doofus dealer and tell the SA to find a new line of work, all the thieves are in banking now...

[Germandude]

that sounds easy, if that works i owe you one or 400



Thanks a lot, Ill let you all know if it works. If it does I will personally raise hell in that dealership.

[Germandude]

well, I just discovered that my rear left window will not come back up. It goes half way, stops, and rolls back down.
It took me 20 minutes to get it back up.
Also, my master switch is not working

[boogety boogety]

What I would do in order if it was my car suffering these maladies:

Check the fuses. I don't remember which one is the window switch one(s), but your fuse menu should show you.

Replace battery with a known good one (don't buy a new one yet). Maybe your battery is acting up and messing with the computer (it did sit a long time, right? Batteries go kerflooey in many cases like these). Try it with a fresh battery. The very act of taking the old battery off line and putting a new one in will reset the computer, so don't skip this step: In other words, don't just jump it with another battery without disconnecting the original one, or whatever programming issue you may have going on won't go away. If everything works OK with the newer battery, then go get a new one for your NBC.

Make sure nothing is hindering the rear window going up: if the pinch protection is activated (or the window is hindered in its upward travel), it will reverse and go back down. Perhaps some lubrication is in order (it did sit for a long time... oh, wait, I already asked that).

If none of that works, then it may be a "wiring issue" and it'll be 800 dollars.

Another true story: My mom-in-law's seldom-used Kia Rio sat in her garage for almost a month-and-a-half last fall, and mice ate her wiring under the hood, causing all sorts of problems. $1100 worth of assorted problems (and guess whose saintly son-in-law took care of the ol' bag?). Could this be a probability? It did sit...

Good luck...

[sb_beetle]

Originally Posted by Germandude

well, I just discovered that my rear left window will not come back up. It goes half way, stops, and rolls back down.
It took me 20 minutes to get it back up.
Also, my master switch is not working

If you can find someone to scan it with a VAG-COM you might be able to save yourself some $$$. Could be a DIY.

[boogety boogety]

Just curious, did you ever get this resolved?

[katwalk]

If you don't mind the workout, you can check the manual and it tells you how to unhook the convertible top from the motors. My top got stuck down a year ago and I just pulled it back up again. It's not to hard to push and pull it up and down so I've just done the top manually since. That is the free method, which is annoying but you can use it.

[VWChikkie]

Originally Posted by katwalk

If you don't mind the workout, you can check the manual and it tells you how to unhook the convertible top from the motors. My top got stuck down a year ago and I just pulled it back up again. It's not to hard to push and pull it up and down so I've just done the top manually since. That is the free method, which is annoying but you can use it.

The douche at my dealer didn't give me this section of the manual. Can someone post it up? Thx!

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Originally Posted by VWChikkie

The douche at my dealer didn't give me this section of the manual. Can someone post it up? Thx!

I posted the info you need below the post in the other thread where you asked for this same information. Here-
'04 NBC Manual Crank for Convertible Top?!?

Btw, after a year it just might be time to get it fixed! Just sayin'!

M.