Can I put the hardtop on with the fabric top up?
No. The hardtop sits over a folded fabric roof and a closed tonneau. Operating the soft top with the hardtop fitted will destroy cylinders, the header, or both.
Hardtop & soft top
The fabric top is electro-hydraulic. The hardtop is a two-person piece of painted architecture. Mixing the two procedures is how headers get ripped off.
No. The hardtop sits over a folded fabric roof and a closed tonneau. Operating the soft top with the hardtop fitted will destroy cylinders, the header, or both.
Because it must not. There is a header connector / recognition path so the module knows the hardtop is fitted. If the switch is dead WITH the hardtop off, that is a different fault — start at Diagnose → Soft top.
Roughly 35–40 kg. It is bulky, not just heavy. Two people, a dedicated stand, and felt where the skin can kiss the body. The panoramic glass hardtop (1997-on option) is heavier and more fragile.
The electrical plug at the rear header. Pins corrode, the dummy plug for soft-top-only driving goes missing, and the hardtop loom inside the shell breaks at the hinge. Probe the car side first: if there is no 12 V there, it is not the hardtop.
Tensioning-bow cylinders that no longer pull the last bow down, flattened D-seals on the header, or a top that was restretched badly. Also: windows not seating (Hall sensors). A new cloth on tired cylinders will roar just as loud.
Air in the system or a cylinder bypassing. Fluid level first. Then look for the ram that is ahead of its twin — that side is healthy, the lazy side is the leak.
The toolkit has the adapters. You are relieving hydraulic pressure and then moving latches by hand. It is a get-home measure. If you force a bow past a live cylinder you will tear a seal or snap a microswitch, and the electric sequence will not run again until that switch is replaced.
No. The fabric will balloon and crease, and the next rain will fill the well. Pull over, reverse the sequence, or convert to manual and finish it.
It is supposed to, in a perceived rollover. It also pops when a sensor is wet or the module is confused. Inspect the rear-shelf sensors and the wiring in the well. Do not tie the bar down and call it fixed.
N52 / convertible-top controller, typically on the right rear of the cabin, behind trim, with a large connector. Water from a leaking rear cylinder finds it. Dry connectors have saved more roofs than new pumps.