Smartop

[geoffkp]

Bought smart top for my 98 boxster. Love it, love it love it.

However about two weeks after installation, my left rear clam shell cable snapped while in the down position. I had to take the car to the dealer to replace the cables. They would not reinstall the smart top chip and instead put back in the factory chip because they "could not calibrate the top with the smartop chip" Dealer said they werent sure if smartop had anything to do with it. Since my car is 8 years old, cable replacement is not uncommon, but the timing of it has me a little worried. I want to put the chip back in but dont want another costly trip to the dealer. Can anyone shed some light on this? Anyone else had cables snap on them after installation or can help me understand why the porsche guys couldnt just leave my smart top installed?

[LVDell]

This is the very reason why I just hold my factoy top swithc for all of 15 seconds. Besides being convenient, the risk is just not worth the 15 seconds.

[mark in sunnyvale]

They can't time the cable because you can't move the transmission a little bit at a time. I'm pretty sure that the Smart top had nothing to do with the failure since the failure is inherent to the design. With that said, having a smart top can cause a lot of damage if you don't stop it in time. Unless smart top/Porsche has a way of monitoring the current load on the motor and shut it down when it exceeds a threshold. I doubt it.

Bought smart top for my 98 boxster. Love it, love it love it.

However about two weeks after installation, my left rear clam shell cable snapped while in the down position. I had to take the car to the dealer to replace the cables. They would not reinstall the smart top chip and instead put back in the factory chip because they "could not calibrate the top with the smartop chip"  Dealer said they werent sure if smartop had anything to do with it. Since my car is 8 years old, cable replacement is not uncommon, but the timing of it has me a little worried. I want to put the chip back in but dont want another costly trip to the dealer. Can anyone shed some light on this? Anyone else had cables snap on them after installation or can help me understand why the porsche guys couldnt just leave my smart top installed?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Tool Pants]

The SmartTop top control/relay did not cause a top drive cable to fail.

This, like other devices, is simply a timer that replaces your finger holding down a switch for 12 seconds. It also defeats the speed signal requirement but other aftermarket units do that as well.

Like mark said the mechanic cannot time the top transmissions unless a drill is used to turn the cables with this unit installed.

[geoffkp]

The SmartTop top control/relay did not cause a top drive cable to fail.

This, like other devices, is simply a timer that replaces your finger holding down a switch for 12 seconds.  It also defeats the speed signal requirement but other aftermarket units do that as well.

Like mark said the mechanic cannot time the top transmissions unless a drill is used to turn the cables with this unit installed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it. Guess it was just bad timing. Im going to reinstall the smartop today!