[Popcornjack]

3 weeks ago, when I got my car back from the shop for work wholly unrelated to the top (rims and axle) the top would not go down, no matter how many times I restarted the car and tried the "reset" involving turning off the engine while still holding down the window button. The next morning, it worked fine, but then wouldn't go back up when I got to work. I followed the advice on some youtube videos on how to manually raise it, but all I succeeded in doing is completely breaking both flaps that get out of the way when the top goes up and down. A co-worker checked the connections on the mini fusebox on top of the engine, and presto, everything worked, and continued to, until this morning.

As soon as I started the engine, the light above the rearview mirror that normally reads the temperature started flashing as if the top was going up or down. When I pressed the switch for the top, nothing happened: the windows didn't move, and there was no sound as if the motor was trying to work. I checked a few of the other threads and followed up with those suggestions. What's left of the flaps seem to be out of the way, the windows don't move when I go to pop the latch, and I've checked the fuses and wires and everything seems connected. I'm not sure what to do next.

 

[billymade]

A factory level scan tool; like vcds by ross tech or the cheaper obdeleven, would help you diagnose the problem intelligently, allowing you to read trouble codes from the control module for the top , then see live data to observe any malfunctions from the position sensors, etc.

The most common problem; is the position sensor, in the passenger side header location.

To understand how the top is setup, its basic operation and where the sensor locations are, check out the vw self study program:

self study program 281 new beetle cabriolet

self study program 281 new beetle cabriolet - Google Search