Another Roof error bong - Please help

Stealth00

Member
Hi all, hoping somebody can help here.

The last two times I've had the roof down on my 2010 E89, it has stopped halfway as shown in the photo.

First time when taking the roof down, I got an audible bong. Wishful thinking, I thought my finger may have come off the button mid-operation, but sadly the next day, it did the same. The second time, no bong, but it got stuck in the same place. Both times, I've released the button, waited 10 seconds and tried it again and it's finished going down. Fortunately, when finished, the roof had closed back up okay.

I noticed the second time after I'd closed the roof, the driver's door window didn't drop down as expected. I had to manualy tinker with that and it's working now.

I've done a bit of reading on here and it seems really common for the hall sensors to develop faults, micro switches or wiring. Any ideas where my issue might be? If it's allowing the roof to go down after it stops, does that mean the wiring is okay?

I read the codes this evening and I got the following, none of the common more descriptive ones I've seen here. Not much info online regarding D204

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Needless to say, I'm very nervous about using the roof now as I don't want to get it stuck. I'm in Southampton, so the Zedshed is a bit too far to go.

As stupid as it sounds, I need to try removing the blanket in the boot, I've only put that in there recently, could that be doing anything?
 
Stealth00 said:
I had heard about them actually. What are your symptoms on yours? I'm interested to hear how you get on.

My roof still operates, but sometimes stops part way and then continues.

The errors are:

A698 rear-end module open during driving

A69E speed in soft top intermediate position higher than permitted

A694 microswitch 'cowl panel reached'

I also have a drain on the battery, so I am hoping there is a frayed wire somewhere that is causing both issues.
 
My best guess would be it’s not seeing the boot lid section is fully open, so it won’t start the loading of the roof in to the boot
 
It would be useful if I had some common codes. Most of the ones I've seen people mention start with an 'a' and not a 'd', so that doesn't help.

I'm keen to try emptying the boot and trying but I'm worried it will get permanently stuck and then getting to a garage would be difficult.
 
First i would look is the Hall sensor on the ram right boot lid.
On my car it was simply the connector plug came loose.
Right ram has two Hall sensors, one the slow down just before boot closes, the other to the rear seems to tell system boot is open, carry on put roof into boot.
 
flybobbie said:
First i would look is the Hall sensor on the ram right boot lid.
On my car it was simply the connector plug came loose.
Right ram has two Hall sensors, one the slow down just before boot closes, the other to the rear seems to tell system boot is open, carry on put roof into boot.

Today I thought I'd empty the boot and re-seat the luggage compartment. I then plugged in the code reader and ran a diagnostic report on the live data for all sensors prior to opening the roof. From what I could tell, all appeared as expected. I opened the roof and it worked without issue. I then closed it without issue. I then opened and closed it again without issue.

Now I'm stumped....... Could it have just been that the luggage cage wasn't engaged properly?
 
Stealth00 said:
flybobbie said:
First i would look is the Hall sensor on the ram right boot lid.
On my car it was simply the connector plug came loose.
Right ram has two Hall sensors, one the slow down just before boot closes, the other to the rear seems to tell system boot is open, carry on put roof into boot.

Today I thought I'd empty the boot and re-seat the luggage compartment. I then plugged in the code reader and ran a diagnostic report on the live data for all sensors prior to opening the roof. From what I could tell, all appeared as expected. I opened the roof and it worked without issue. I then closed it without issue. I then opened and closed it again without issue.

Now I'm stumped....... Could it have just been that the luggage cage wasn't engaged properly?

Pretty common…that then battery then other things
 
So I took my car to RBM Hampshire; they suggest replacing the roof microswitches. I have seen the video suggested by RobbieZ4, but I am still in two minds about doing it myself.

I saw a post on here that someone has done it and is happy to help out, but I just can't find it. I would be grateful for any pointers.
 
Hope you know what you are talking about!

The 2 roof microswitches (MS) hardly ever fail and are very special to replace. Don't touch it if not required.
But the two MS on the coupling rams in the trunk should be replaced each decade.
 
RobbiZ4 said:
Hope you know what you are talking about!

The 2 roof microswitches (MS) hardly ever fail and are very special to replace. Don't touch it if not required.
But the two MS on the coupling rams in the trunk should be replaced each decade.

Apologies for the confusion - it is the ones in the trunk I meant.
 
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