Hi I need some advice/help, we have a 500c lounge 4 weeks old, the boot is stuck it does as appear the mircoswitch may have gone? However it may be more because when you open the roof then after a while close the roof completely it should click once, but it appears to click at the closed position and also there is a clicking at the rear on both sides from the rear of the car? Now we cannot open the boot, the roof goes up and down but clicks more than once, I've tried various things such as turning the car on and off. The boot switch on the key isn't working either. What makes it worse is we are away overnight and the manual/service book is at home! (good decision that one!) I have talked this up as we were talking a neighbour into a 500 on Friday as our previous 500 was fantastically reliable not one problem went wrong in three years! Any help would be appreciated.

2136russell said:

Hi I need some advice/help, we have a 500c lounge 4 weeks old, the boot is stuck it does as appear the mircoswitch may have gone? However it may be more because when you open the roof then after a while close the roof completely it should click once, but it appears to click at the closed position and also there is a clicking at the rear on both sides from the rear of the car? Now we cannot open the boot, the roof goes up and down but clicks more than once, I've tried various things such as turning the car on and off. The boot switch on the key isn't working either. What makes it worse is we are away overnight and the manual/service book is at home! (good decision that one!) I have talked this up as we were talking a neighbour into a 500 on Friday as our previous 500 was fantastically reliable not one problem went wrong in three years! Any help would be appreciated.

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On the standard 500 you can drop the back seats and open the boot on the inside. I saw the dealer do this when he didn't have the proper remote to open the boot. Do the back seats drop down on the 500c ?

Hi yes they do they split 50/50, this all happened in the dark, I can't really see to much inside. Ill certainly dive in the back tomorrow and see if I can open it then, it does seem the switch on the boot has gone there's no noise and it feels different, I know we haven't jammed anything between the boot and latch etc. It is bugging me though as I sure the roof is linked to this.

2136russell said:

Hi I need some advice/help, we have a 500c lounge 4 weeks old, the boot is stuck it does as appear the mircoswitch may have gone?

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Again my only experience is with the hardtop 500 but this post I made awhile back may help you get the boot open:

https://www.fiatforum.com/500/247768-cant-open-boot.html?p=2575882

Thanks for that I was try this in the morning, as I was trying to do this in the dark but I had no success.

jrkitching said:

Again my only experience is with the hardtop 500 but this post I made awhile back may help you get the boot open:

https://www.fiatforum.com/500/247768-cant-open-boot.html?p=2575882

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Great article jrkitching . The think the forum will have to be renamed as the rapid response unit.

Might need to reset the roof. If it thinks it's in the fully open position, it won't allow the boot hatch to release (which would explain why it won't open even when using the fob). If that's the case, you may also find the heated rear screen button doesn't work either.

The procedure should be in the owners manual, though from memory its little more than holding down the switch until in the fully open position, waiting for a few secs once the roof is back, then holding it in the fully closed position and keep it held until the second click is heard.

if that don't work close roof manually and you can always open boot by small lever left side of lock on the inside of boot.

If you have an iPhone download the torch app so you cansee what you are doing in the dark.
The other thing is downloads the official fiat 500 app it has the owners book in it and shows you how to open the boot and what fuse does what.

Thanks for that, we never have manual in the car, so when we return home I'll try that. I hope this is just a one off.

Hi finally got the boot open today from inside the car, just returned home checking various operations on the car, the rear heated window is not working, which is correct from a previous post... The roof instead of one touch opening/closing you have to hold the button to open or close. Anyone got any ideas how to reset the roof? I cannot find it in the manual, you would think there would be an extra supplement for the 500c for things like this?

2136russell said:

Hi finally got the boot open today from inside the car, just returned home checking various operations on the car, the rear heated window is not working, which is correct from a previous post... The roof instead of one touch opening/closing you have to hold the button to open or close. Anyone got any ideas how to reset the roof? I cannot find it in the manual, you would think there would be an extra supplement for the 500c for things like this?

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There was a 'sticky' for the Abarth on the owners manuals but I don't see one for the 500. If you have an iphone you could download the app (recent thread by GUI) and check it on that. Unfortunately being based in Ireland the app is retricted to the UK. At least you're half way there now !

2136russell said:

Anyone got any ideas how to reset the roof? I cannot find it in the manual, you would think there would be an extra supplement for the 500c for things like this?

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There is an extra 12 page manual for the 500c, which should have been provided. Have a look through your documents in case you've missed it - it's just a thin leaflet so easy to overlook.

Instructions for the roof re-set are as follows:

Initialisation Procedure

The soft top must be re-initialised after disconnecting the battery or if the relevant protection fuse is blown (which I guess has happened to you?).

Proceed as follows:

make sure the motor is running during the whole initialisation procedure

keep the opening button pressed until the soft top is completely open

when the soft top is completely open, keep the button pressed for at least 2 seconds

keep the closing button pressed until the soft top is completely closed

when the soft top is completely closed, keep the button pressed for at least 2 seconds

When the procedure is terminated, the soft top will automatically carry out a complete opening and closing cycle (up to 25 cm from the completely closed position) to inform the driver that correct operation has been restored.

Hope this helps!

2136russell said:

Hi finally got the boot open today from inside the car, just returned home checking various operations on the car, the rear heated window is not working, which is correct from a previous post... The roof instead of one touch opening/closing you have to hold the button to open or close. Anyone got any ideas how to reset the roof? I cannot find it in the manual, you would think there would be an extra supplement for the 500c for things like this?

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Davren has uploaded the two 500c supplements here. Scroll down, they are near the bottom of the page.

loulou - MANY, many thanks for posting those instructions - this is the second time this has happened to us in the 4 weeks we've had the car. The first time we took it back to the dealer who reset it for us but claimed that we couldn't do it ourselves....

BTW - I did try the black button on the catch itself, but it was extremely difficult to get to underneath the covering.

penguin said:

loulou - MANY, many thanks for posting those instructions - this is the second time this has happened to us in the 4 weeks we've had the car.

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You're welcome penguin, glad to be of help. Sorry to hear you've been having problems - does anyone know if this is this a common fault? I've had my car 3 weeks and haven't had any problems with the boot so far.

I am glad that you have solved the problem. I had the same incident too on my 2 week old 500C TA. I found out that it would happen every time I unplugged the pole with the clip from the battery in order to reset the Blue & Me communication with my Blackberry. The procedure to reset the roof (which IS the solution) has been already described from another blogger, so I wan't repeat it. However, bear in mind that every time electricity is interrupted from the battery, you just have to reset the roof.

Hope this helped. Enjoy the car, it's a star.

loulou said:

I've had my car 3 weeks and haven't had any problems with the boot so far.

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I obviously spoke too soon as my boot stuck today I didn't unplug anything, so I don't know what caused it, but at least I knew how to fix it!

loulou said:

You're welcome penguin, glad to be of help. Sorry to hear you've been having problems - does anyone know if this is this a common fault? I've had my car 3 weeks and haven't had any problems with the boot so far.

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It's not a common problem, though it would be if like Badis you were constantly disconnecting the battery. The roof motor is just a simple hall-effect motor and goes through several revolutions during an open/closing procedure, which means it has no standardised reference points for the various stages. The initialisation procedure allows the system to learn where those points are for correct operation. If the battery is disconnected, or the roof is closed manually (so the reference points are wiped/moved), the roof will need to be re-initialised.

loulou said:

I obviously spoke too soon as my boot stuck today I didn't unplug anything, so I don't know what caused it, but at least I knew how to fix it!

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Was the roof fully down? Or not fully closed?

Had the issue with my 3 week old Twinair 500C today. Been to Classic Alfa's track day at Goodwood and not dry enough to take the Duetto so jumped in the 500. Coming home was aware the roof wasn't opening and closing to its pre-set positions. Remembered the post here about it and when I got home realised I couldnt get into the boot! Followed instructions and all sorted again now thanks the usual great advice found on this forum

I've switched on ecodrive (wont dare share what my eco index is but suffice to say I haven't seen a lower score anywhere) and since I've been collecting data I've had a few electrical glitches. Filled up with petrol and the temp gauge plays up when restarted. Started the car yesterday and it fired on one cylinder for a while and then the roof issue today. Not sure if its ecodrive related but only started since I started using it. Going to switch off for a while. Happy I've got the lowest score anyway and it's all far too politically correct for me ...

Thanks again everyone.