1st Gen R52 Cooper Convertible Most liked posts in thread: Top only goes down

Yeah, I saw that, but I'm trying to avoid it. Besides, it doesn't fix the problem, only puts the top up for a while!!

Appreciate the input tho~~ I'll try and post the outcome. The car was purchased from a dealer just last night so if I'm lucky I can run it into him tomorrow and he might just be able to figure out the issue if only for an immediate repair. And HE can put the danged thing up manually instead of me!!

 

I also checked the fuses and at least the 5 amp on the top of the holder is good. I attempted to get to the 50 amp underneath, but it was such a pain to get to I gave up.

 

Didn't think about the key bit. Tried it but no go. Things locked, but the top remained silent and immobile. The windows didn't move either, although they might not until the top has cycled.

One thing I wonder is about that platform in the trunk that you need to move. I don't know if I had it in the right place. The top worked but I don't know if there's any safety in the positioning. I had an Audi A4 that needed a flap to be in a specific location or the top wouldn't go down, but it was also an electrical interlock to prevent anything from going wrong. This shelf/flap doesn't appear to have an interlock. If I put the top down and it was in the wrong place I don't know if that caused a problem and blew the 50 amp fuse that is mounted in the bottom of the fuse block and not the 5 amp on the top that is still good.

 

For the weekend I won't be able to try anything. I'm out of town until Sunday evening. I'll probably get time Monday during the day, weather permitting.

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. Keep 'em coming!!

 

I just got back to this problem and tried the abovementioned suggestions. The light on the switches doesn't go on for anything. The key in the door idea resulted in the doors locking and nothing else.

I truly believe I managed to blow that 50 amp fuse. No time to fiddle until tomorrow evening. Gotta go to work tomorrow, and taking the car out is impossible because my driveway is getting repaved and probably won't be drivable until Tuesday at the earliest.

In the meantime I'll make it my business to get to that 50 amp fuse that's on the bottom of the holder. STUPID~STUPID~STUPID BMW design!!! Serviceability mustn't be in their vocabulary. They probably have a three hour charge to access the thing! :mad5: :cryin:

 

Continuing my adventure, as if anyone really cares!!

Tonight I tried again and nothing. I resigned myself to a manual raising of the top. I got my trusty sidekick, the missus, and I opened the breather on the pump, we lifted the right and left sides of the top mechanism and the top went ip smoothly under manual power. At that point I wasn't clear as to the next step and out of frustration I tried the power again. Lights on, pump engaged, and the sunroof closed and the windows went up too. I'm bringing it back to the dealer I bought it from without trying the top up and down until I get there, but since it is a used car lot and not a Mini dealer, I haven't got much hope for anything to be "discovered". I intend to run it through a full cycle while I'm there to see what happens.

The story will continue tomorrow~~

 

A continuation on my adventures. I finally got a chance to manually raise the top. I got it to the top up, sunroof open position and couldn't figure out how to manually close the sunroof. Out of frustration, I decided to try the buttons again. The lights lit and the top motored to the closed position! Go figure. I took the car back to the selling dealer and and tried to show him what was happening. The sunroof opened but after that all we would hear was the pump motor running but no motion occurred. His guy spent time with it and has determined that the pump is bad and has ordered a pump. In the meantime I have the car back until the part arrives next week. While I want to believe the pump being bad is the only problem, I'm puzzled as to why the entire electrical function shut down no matter what I did, until I manually raised the top to the sunroof position.

I should know the outcome in the next week or so.

 

As a continuation on this topic~

I am still waiting for the dealer to contact me about the new pump. I'll probably call him tomorrow on it. In the meantime I've avoided trying anything with the top. However, this evening I decided to check my tire pressure as I replaced them earlier in the week and am heading out of town for the weekend in the Mini. I needed to open the passenger door and it seemed to me that the window wasn't doing it's usual partial drop prior to opening. I decided to try and initialize them since the battery had been disconnected along the way. Nothing seemed to work so I figured I'd open and then reclose the windows. The drivers side worked fine but the passenger side just made a few clicks in either the up or down position. It did work a few days ago because my wife was in the passenger seat and opened it, plus it was working when I first attempted to open the top a week or so ago.

I'm beginning to wonder if the car was originally traded in because of the dreaded BMW gremlins, forget any Mini ghosts that might be rattling around as well. I can accept a bad motor/pump for the top, except that it opened fine and then the red light went out and the entire top went dead. It sprang to life again after I manually closed the top and couldn't figure out the manual override for the sunroof. Now it opens the sunroof and won't open the top. That's where the mechanic decided the pump was bad and is ordering a new pump.

The adventure continues.

 

The "dealer" is a used car lot, not a Mini or any other brand name dealer. In fact the car went from a brand dealer (can't recall what brand) straight to auction. My thinking is that they didn't want a brand X on their lot that was already getting on in years. The body isn't 100%, just 98%, and the top shows some wear in two places, both things that I assumed (NEVER ASSUME!!) would be things that the Toyota (or whomever) dealer didn't want to have to get involved with. Plus the 34K runflats were cracking and we know how much a set of them costs. Don't know if another dealer would understand to just change them to inflatable tires, but even THAT isn't cheap. I too wondered, but emotion fogged my logic. Right now i'm interested in getting the issues resolved for good. If other things pop up or this stuff drags on, I guess I need to look at alternatives, maybe legal. I'm not going at the guy with guns blazing, at least not yet.

And I did check on reviews of the dealer and they had an amazing 5 stars from a few dozen buyers. The warnings signs really aren't there. And until I start feeling shafted, I have to retain some sanity and logic. Otherwise I'll feel used and abused every minute. For now I'm taking a road trip for the weekend, about 200 miles away to my condo in the Berkshires. Hopefully all will go well and even the window may decide to resume working, or not!