Help me diagnose my soft top

[nickbaum]

Hi everyone,

It's the 4th of July, it's nice and sunny... the perfect day for my top to stop closing! I've read a bunch of related threads on the forum, but don't have a fix yet, so it's time to post.

I was pulling up to a BBQ when the top of my 2003 NBC refused to come back up. The four windows lowered, but the flaps didn't come up , and the orange light by the rear-view mirror started blinking. Same symptoms after leaving it alone for a few hours.

The four-window button worked in both directions. I tried lowering and raising the windows 3 times then restarting, as suggested in another thread. I tried holding each window button for a second three times each as suggested elsewhere. No dice.

I then decided to manually raise the top. I got each flap open, and successfully pulled the red release string on the left side. However, the right-side release wouldn't budge... in fact, the string broke when I pulled it too hard (same thing happened with a new string). So I'm now stuck with my top down, and unlatched on one side.

Two questions for y'all:

1) any ideas for what is wrong with my top? what could explain the stuck release?

2) what are my next options in terms of:
(a) getting the release unstuck so I can raise it
(b) actually fixing it so I can avoid a trip to the dealer

Thanks for your help, and happy Fourth!

-Nick