1998 Convertible roof/hood not working what so ever...

[jamesforster91]

Hi Guys, I'm new here so not too sure how to work the whole forum thing ...

Anyway, I recently bought a 1998 9-3 convertible and the roof/hood has completely stopped working. It doesn't go half way then stop, it doesn't make noises or bring up codes or messages or anything, It is currently down at the moment and I don't have a garage so I need to get this sorted asap... However you can still open the top cover (behind the seats and part of the boot/trunk) by hand. When it originally stopped working the roof/hood was up but someone that thought they knew what they were doing got in fully down (don't ask how or why). I am a mechanic but have never worked on SAAB's or convertibles before.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can someone let me know what the problem is.

I have searched on here and the internet but have found nothing for when it completely stops. I don't want to go down that road that we all hate... You buy lots of different things and it's the last and most expensive way to do it .

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your advice.

[Oscuro]

I haven't owned any convertibles, so I don't know what's wrong, but there are procedures for manually raising the roof in the owner's manual. Here are a couple for similar years in case you don't have one:

1995 900 (US spec)


1999 9-3 (US spec)

[jamesforster91]

Thanks for that Oscuro

I will get the hood up today. Lets just hope its the pump as I will be ordering it shortly

[Burnsside42]

If it's the control module - I know Jeff over @ epartsland.com stocks them and the control relays too. It's hard to diagnose those sometimes without having the car in front of you.

[vgbob]

Another issue with the convertible top is that there are a number of switches that tell the control module the state of different things.
I had a problem with the ones in the trunk that indicate the 'bag' for the top was properly extended. I was getting a message on the SID
though so it was not too hard to figure out which one was causing the problem. I just mention this to warn you that there may be a
number of reasons that the top is not working. If any of the switches are not in the correct state, the top will just not function.