The wife has a 2010 Sebring convertible and as the title says the top will not go down. She does not use it much and has not since last year. The trunk opens and everything gets set to receive the top but it never even tries to open. Then the dash says top malfunction? No problem closing everything back up. Any idea's of what to check? All fuses are good. TIA

Can you hear the pump start?

I do not think so...……

Wait....... you said the trunk goes up - is this a hardtop convertible? If so, and the trunk goes up then the pump is running (I think)..
The trunk tray is properly positioned, correct?

Yes a hardtop convertible. And yes the trunk opens and all goes great but the top never opens to retract into the trunk. Message on dash just says top malfunction and yes the trunk tray is in the correct position. Just seems weird to have just stopped working and we have had this car since new and never an issue.

I can't say if you'll find anything, but have you checked for diagnostic trouble codes with a scan tool?

I know on the 2008 I had if the car was moving at all the top wouldn't do anything so obviously the top circuits are tied to a computer.

That would be the first thing I would do is see if there are any trouble codes then start checking circuits.

Yes, there is actually a dedicated controller for the top and yes you can get a $50 scan tool for your laptop to see what codes it's throwing as well as read every bit of data it's tracking. The list of data points is a lot longer than you would imagine.

The weak spot of the entire set up is the wiring harness and specifically the way they routed it along the passenger side trunk hinge. About 90% of the time the problem you're having is a broken wire for the limit switch that detects when the tonneau cover has fully extended. The next step in the top down sequence is to run the motor that unlatches the roof at the winsheild and that's the other 10% of the fails. Usually the limit switch in the header.

Been there, fixed that, lots of threads on the topic at sebringclub.net

Tangent observations about the top controller:

One dumb one: if you don't have the luggage protector in the top down position when you hit the switch, you get a plain english message on the dash telling you so. If the trunk lid isn't down and latched, you get no message at all. It just beeps at you as does nothing even though it knows damn well the trunk is ajar. Tossing out more useful messages like say "tonneau not extended" or "roof not unlatched" would clearly be expecting too much.

One cool one: The top switch has (2) top down modes. Push it all the way toward down and it drops all (4) windows all the way down before starting the roof dance. Push it 1/2 way toward down and it only drops the (4) windows about an inch, does the top dance and then puts all the windows back up fully. For the roof up there's only one switch position. The controller reads the window position sensors and will drop them an inch if fully up before doing the roof dance and the last step is always put all the windows up.

I gotta on this topic. No problems here on my newly bought 2012 200 and I sure don’t want any! Isn’t that whole system a bit fragile ?

Not as far as I can tell. Poke around that sebring site and all you'll see is trunk wiring problems and limit switch issues in the header.

Don't quote me on this as I haven't done the digging to prove it: pretty sure its a Mercedes design or at least based pretty heavily on it. More than a passing resemblance to the retractactable hard tops that showed up on the SLs in the early 2000s. Project you're own experience on to likely failure rate and cost to repair. From what digging I did do, the new in the box Chrysler repair parts are priced like a Mercedes. The other thing I noticed is that the Mopar branded hydro fluid is damn hard to find.

Your mileage may vary: ours spent 3 yrs as a rental in florida which means the top went up and down at least daily. Only problem so far has been that wiring harness gremlin. The other common story about these things is that dealer mechanics have absolutely no clue how to diag or repair them because they almost never see them. Low production numbers or low failure rate?

I spent A LOT of time digging in to the technical details of how all the pieces fit together before the license plate lamps went out and I stumbled on to the wiring problem. It's a pretty slick system and you can actually diag most of it with a VOM and some jumpers.

Lic plate light ? ..... I was over at the shop checking on how to get the headlight bulb out and DISCOVERED I had one of those out!

if you guys think the sebring can have issues with wiring, check out the wiring on one of those ford retractable's back in 59-60 or so.
the wiring, relays, and switches on those things are "really something".

GOOD to hear we have someone HERE that worked on those cars when they were in their 30's ! ....

One out is no biggie, it's just the bulb and ya can get it from the outside. There's a little latch on the side of the housing that ya release with a small flat head and the other side just pops out. Both out will probably be that wiring harness issue. Head light bulbs are a real PIA to swap. Only way in is yank the tire, pull the inner fender, cork screw your hand in, unscrew the cover on the back of the light housing.

Here's another one ya may not have noticed yet: open a door so the courtesy lights come on, wait about 5 minutes. The brain box for the body will power down the interior - including the glove box lamp. Would ya believe the thing even knows how to throw a code for a blown speaker?

what the DeViL are you sayin' DoC ? i ain't 90 [yet]. but i DO know those things were a NIGHTMARE to work on.

The weak spot of the entire set up is the wiring harness and specifically the way they routed it along the passenger side trunk hinge. About 90% of the time the problem you're having is a broken wire for the limit switch that detects when the tonneau cover has fully extended. The next step in the top down sequence is to run the motor that unlatches the roof at the winsheild and that's the other 10% of the fails. Usually the limit switch in the header.

Been there, fixed that, lots of threads on the topic at sebringclub.net



Thanks RWG75!!!!! You were exactly correct as I took apart the wires attached to the trunk lid and found a black wire and a green wire broke apart. They actually looked like they were cut. Anyway spliced them back together and works like it should.

Thanks again!!!!

Russ

I think just about every car, at least every Chrysler, has one thing that breaks on all of them. The other thing on 200s is the motor for the outside air vent door but ya can fix that with a machine screw.

Used car shopping tip: if you're looking for a 200 drop top, hope to find one with a broken roof. Beat them on the sale price because of how crazy expensive the repair parts are then splice the broken the wire. Not exactly ethical but neither are most used car lots.