I love my 1999 C70 ragtop...

Yesterday, I retracted the top, and it folded up into the well, but the boot never came down over the top...

After that I could not get it to move... Because the boot was straight up, I could not open the trunk...

I had to force it to start up, by hand, because, naturally, it started raining at that moment... I had my son hold the up button, and my wife and I lifted the top a bit, and then it closed the rest of the way without incident.

After that, when I got to where I was going, I noticed it did parts of the cycle, but not all of it... Top would start to retract, and the boot would come up, but that is all...

I assisted it closed.

Today, I noticed that the motor over the windshield only seems to go in one direction, if it is going up or down. When the top stalls, the motor over the windshield seems to lock-up or strain...

I am sure there must be some limit switches, and other control devices, but I do not know of any of this...

Is there anyone that can point me to good documents to help me learn to fix this, or someone who has the knowledge?

I love my car, and really miss the ability to drop the top already!

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Each road should be a bit better for having had you pass.

Thanks for sharing this info. I purchased a c70 last summer and truly have enjoyed it with almost no issues. I plan to check the wiring and other items you've pointed out to hopefully prevent a similar problem.

Thanks

Had a very bad experience at the volvo dealer...

I took it to a volvo/jaguar dealer, and they charged me $325 for a diagnosis, and could not find anything... They gave it back to me and told me that the top was broken. I told them that I knew that when I brought it to them...

I was terribly unhappy that they would take money from me, yet did not find the problem, so I had no where to go... They tried to explain that often the diagnosis could cost $800 or more, and then the repair could be any amount, depending on what they find...

I took it home, and looked around. It is a nice car, well designed, but hardly something from the future, or even a particle accelerator... It is only a mechanical frame with some motors to move it, and some limit switches to tell the motors where they are...

I found that the two small 3 inch sections that wind up right at the base of the rear windows were out of position, likely from a bend when the machine was being folded out of sequence...

I repositioned these, so that with the top up, the car was weather tight...

Then I simply followed the wiring harness in the top itself... This is not too easy with the canvas top and the headliner in place, but with the top 1/2 folded, the fabric is slack enough to reach in and look.

There was a pinch in the wires near one of the stiff metal floating guides for the headliner... It seems that it caught the wire harness, and cut some of the insulation on a couple motor wires, (Which I was afraid might short to ground) and also found a broken wire to one of the limit switches...

This wire harness fault was in the area where the front and back windows meet on the passenger side...

I repaired the wires and all is well again... (except I was charged $325 for nothing) I should have just fixed it myself, but I figured an authorized volvo dealer would be better. Clearly I will never return to them for service of any kind...

I even called the next day to say that I fixed it myself, and told them what I found, just like here... I was hoping they would think twice about the bill they gave me, but they just told me that they felt they did nothing wrong...

Again, if they had told me they found a problem, but I was unwilling to pay for the repair, that would be different. They did not even find the error, yet still charged me hundreds of dollars and then told me their professional opinion is that the top was 'broken'.
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Each road should be a bit better for having had you pass.

I have never owned a "power" rag top, so I couldn't be of help. Sorry. But I am glad you "followed the wires" and found the problem and fix it.
Yes, some dealers are inept. Even a simple Volvo scan tool would have provided diagnostics to the shop.

Yes, you are correct in never going back there. Please follow it up in writing. without being nasty, letting the dealership know how you fixed it and why you are miffed about the charge. It's broken is NOT a valid comment. Copy the Email to the New Jersey office: http://www.volvocars.com/us/footer/contact/Pages/default.aspx

I would make a paper copy of the NJ Email and hand deliver it to the dealer General Manager. Just put it in his in-box, words are not needed.

Klaus
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Common sense trumps a PhD

Karl, Sorry to hear about your bad dealer experience. That they didn't provide any diagnosis at all is totally bogus. If "broken" is all they could come up with then they either didn't do more than glance at it, or aren't telling you something. Perhaps they had a bad experience with one in the past and figure they are too inept to deal with it. They'd rather piss off a customer to get them to go away than try to fix it. Good choice in deciding not to ever go back.

Thank you for posting back. Unfortunately there's not too much in the archives about diagnosing and fixing C70 convertible tops and no one around regularly who has (until now). With any luck this thread or your future posts will help some other C70 convertible owner with the same troubles -- without resorting to taking it the dealer.

--Will
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