General Fiat 500 - damage to retractable roof .

[joncook100]

Hello,

Just bought a Fiat 500 for my wife- Fiat 500 (150) -Lounge Chassi ZFA 3120000JD30506 automatic
We tried retracting the roof fully which caught on a rear headrest and it twisted coming out of the running guide on one side.
The mechanism is damaged but the cover is in tact .
I took it to a Fiat garage locally and they managed to close it but not fully and gave me a crazy price to replace the whole cover and mechanism.
We live in Portugal near Lisbon and wondered if anyone knows of any mechanic/ enthusiast that could look at it and repair it or offer advice.
Having looked at it closely it appears one of the plastic connectors to the metal roof bars has sheared off but can be aligned .
When operated the roof retracts unevenly and when closed it is not completely closed and there is a gap ( see pic) This causes air noise when driving.
To replace the whole thing seems crazy.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jonathan Cook

 

[the green vanper]

Hello,

Check this thread, seems same issue as yours.

EDIT: ah!!! it's not an automatic, the Dualogic / Selespeed system needs servicing, too!

 

[AndyRKett]

Hello,

Just bought a Fiat 500 for my wife- Fiat 500 (150) -Lounge Chassi ZFA 3120000JD30506 automatic
We tried retracting the roof fully which caught on a rear headrest and it twisted coming out of the running guide on one side.
The mechanism is damaged but the cover is in tact .
I took it to a Fiat garage locally and they managed to close it but not fully and gave me a crazy price to replace the whole cover and mechanism.
We live in Portugal near Lisbon and wondered if anyone knows of any mechanic/ enthusiast that could look at it and repair it or offer advice.
Having looked at it closely it appears one of the plastic connectors to the metal roof bars has sheared off but can be aligned .
When operated the roof retracts unevenly and when closed it is not completely closed and there is a gap ( see pic) This causes air noise when driving.
To replace the whole thing seems crazy.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jonathan Cook

Hi Jonathan,

Some pictures of the damage may be of more use, no need to put them in PDF files, simple JPEGs will suffice

 

[the green vanper]

@AndyRKett the problem is always the same with such roofs. The plastic 'vessels' (as called by FIAT) tend to brake and / or block in the rails. The result is the cable cannot pull / push the roof into place (both directions). Sometimes also the gear in the motor brakes, but from my experience (I have two cars with such roofs = mine + my GF's and had one earlier, some 10 years ago) it's a less common problem. I can't remember having read / heard of a broken cable, but of course, that also can eventually happen. The symptoms are also the same. I doesn't fully retract, can block and makes strange / cracking noises on the way, one side goes further than the other.

The idea is to dismantle the roof following multiple tutorials available in the internet, check what is wrong and then look for spare parts or how to repair them, as not all the parts are available from the dealers

 

[A3jeroen]

Maybe have the part on the side that isn't broken scanned and invert and 3D print it.

 

[the green vanper]

Very often such parts are made of POM, which apparently is very hard to glue / weld. So, it is not 'printable'.

Typical (and not only) printable materials are not that good in such applications. We speak about plastic / plastic or plastic / metal friction without (or almost without) any external lubricant. Apparently POM has 'self-lubrifying' capabilities. People say nylon+carbon is a good replacement, but logically the strenght of the carbon comes from the fibers' structure. But to print it, you can't have large fiber stuctures joined together...

Why no lubricant? The rails are open to road dust and heavy weather conditions. Imagine not washing your car for 15 years...

In my gf's car one of the parts was broken and printed (no idea of what, but could possibly be nylon+carbon), but while dismantling I've seen that it's just rubbing out and leaving small chips and powder on the rails. It will need replacement and thorough cleaning of the rails.

The pieces for those two cars are no longer available but I'm working on a replacement

First thing first to do by the OP is to check what needs replacement, then if the parts are available and if so, buy a set or two, as they will be needed some day in the future. And the day will definitely come

 

[AndyRKett]

Very often such parts are made of POM, which apparently is very hard to glue / weld. So, it is not 'printable'.

yeah it is, and if you don’t have the kit to print it yourself there are loads of companies now which offer printing services where you upload your model online and they post the finished article out to you, you can order all sorts of things this way including metal parts 3D printed

 

[joncook100]

@AndyRKett the problem is always the same with such roofs. The plastic 'vessels' (as called by FIAT) tend to brake and / or block in the rails. The result is the cable cannot pull / push the roof into place (both directions). Sometimes also the gear in the motor brakes, but from my experience (I have two cars with such roofs = mine + my GF's and had one earlier, some 10 years ago) it's a less common problem. I can't remember having read / heard of a broken cable, but of course, that also can eventually happen. The symptoms are also the same. I doesn't fully retract, can block and makes strange / cracking noises on the way, one side goes further than the other.

The idea is to dismantle the roof following multiple tutorials available in the internet, check what is wrong and then look for spare parts or how to repair them, as not all the parts are available from the dealers

Thanks for your reply,

I have sourced parts on the internet and found someone at a garage that may help !

 

[the green vanper]

yeah it is, and if you don’t have the kit to print it yourself there are loads of companies now which offer printing services where you upload your model online and they post the finished article out to you, you can order all sorts of things this way including metal parts 3D printed

I haven't found a company that can print POM. But I have found one that in theory could produce injection moulds for plastics including POM and produce from 1 piece of part from a 3D image. Testing this possibility now.