posted
With your top down, pull the panel on the left inside of your trunk (the one with the access slot for the manual top valve...) and check the level of your top's hydrolic fluid. It should be between the two lines on the side of the tank. If it's low, use an allen wrench to pull the plug on the top of the tank and fill to the top line with Dextron III tranny fluid. Replace the plug and you're set. It's a lot easier than if you wait until the top isn't working properly. I'm making it part of my regular routine to check it and top it off. It's a lot easier to fill if you have a very small funnel or one of those squirt gun oil cans...
posted
My top just quit working one day, out of the blue. The owner's manual helped me find the manual valve to raise the top and later I searched here thinking it was the motor. I found the post about bleeding the top and decided to give it a try. The fluid was below the bottom line and the hoses on one side were empty, so I followed the refill procedure and it worked fine. I didn't see where the fluid leaked out, but I assume that just like brakes and power steering, the fluid needs to be checked periodically. I ended-up stranded in a parking lot, reading the manual to figure out how to raise my top, as a thunder storm approached... I left the post because I wish I'd known to check the fluid before it became an issue. Just wanted to help someone else avoid the same problem.
Posts: 87 | From: Boulder, Colorado | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Thanks for the post. I will check mine too.
I have always told myself to learn how to put the top up manually just in case I need to in an emergency. Now I will make sure I read up on it.
-------------------- Mark H.
Whoever said you couldn't run away from your problems obviously wasn't driving an SS. Posts: 942 | From: Santa Barbara and Ventura, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
How do you even see the lines on the side? All that I could see was the top of the tank... I basically topped it off, and then siphoned out a little bit, since my top has been getting slower recently.
Posts: 12 | From: Chicago | Registered: Sep 2001
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The owner's manual helped me find the manual valve to raise the top and later I searched here thinking it was the motor. I found the post about bleeding the top and decided to give it a try. The fluid was below the bottom line and the hoses on one side were empty, so I followed the refill procedure and it worked fine. I didn't see where the fluid leaked out, but I assume that just like brakes and power steering, the fluid needs to be checked periodically. I ended-up stranded in a parking lot, reading the manual to figure out how to raise my top, as a thunder storm approached... I left the post because I wish I'd known to check the fluid before it became an issue. Just wanted to help someone else avoid the same problem.
