Help, rain's coming and my top's down

[JohnBoy]

When I came to putting the top up on my 2004 9-3 Aero convertible, nothing happened. I have a Haynes manual which I will be using to try and diagnose the problem in due course but my number one issue at the moment is trying to close the roof manually. I do have it under cover but it's not secure with the top down and I can't use it due to the risk of rain.

The manual has the steps for manually raising the roof but step 4 casually suggests lifting the soft top cover. I can't find a way to do it. What am I doing wrong? It seems locked in position and it's difficult to get a purchase on it.

Thanks for any pointers.

[nordwulf]

Here are the instructions from the WIS. Hopefully, it has more information than the Haynes manual.

saab-93-soft-top-emergency-operation.pdf

[JohnBoy]

Thanks for your quick response, I'll go and give it a try.

Rereading my post I realize I was unclear - it was the Saab's user manual which made it sound like a straight forward task to lift the soft top cover. The Haynes manual didn't have anything on manually closing the roof but it does have picture guides to help with repairing various soft top problems.

[Burnsside42]

Are you getting soft top error messages on the SID? IS the car dinging at you?

[JohnBoy]

Nope, nothing. The SID is not so reliable though. Every time I start the car I get a warning about a left brake light failure although is works fine (and it precedes the soft top failure by a couple of months).

Since we've had the car the soft top compartment in the trunk has hung down. I read somewhere that a potential fudge for fixing a problem with the soft top is to remove the spring which helps raise the compartment (although I can't remember which problem it was supposed to fix). It's probably unrelated but it makes me think that there might have been a problem which was never fully resolved.

On one isolated occasion the top refused to go down but after parking overnight it worked fine the next day.

[Burnsside42]

Sounds like you need to seek out a local Saab specialist to have this looked at. Could be a broken wire to a bad control module. If you hear NOTHING moving and the top makes no attempt to move - I would suspect broken wires. They are starting to do this more now as these cars age.

[JohnBoy]

Thanks for the tip. I planned to take it to a garage tomorrow but I am unsure about how to find a Saab specialist. Have you got any tips for that? It sounds like whoever it is may end up on my speed dial. I'm based in Miami.

There was a little whimper from it before it went quiet and refused to do anything. When I pulled up the trunk floor to get at the tool kit there was some kind of fluid in there but I don't know if that was related.

[Bit Rider]

Hello Most of the problems of the soft tops become of two metal rods used to ope it manually.
If this rods are pushed forward by accident,such as replacing a bulb,the soft top gives a message of failure.
How to solve it is easy with patience:
1 Pull them backwards
2 Reach the commpass that moves the soft top and pull it backwards,both sides.
3 Put the covers and rodson their right place.
Took 3 visit to different aknowledge dealers,and in the end the oldest mechanic of the crew solved it.Experience.Hope this helps.