Hello fellow Crossfire owners and fans,
I am hoping someone can help us with solving an issue with the power top module on my wife’s 2007 Crossfire Roadster Limited (automatic). The car has only 5000 miles and sits in a heated garage, only driven on nice sunny summer days. The first time out last summer the power top would not retract automatically. Downloaded manuals and spent hours tracing all the wiring diagrams and electronic module interactions. Took car to a Chrysler dealer and had the codes read. The power top module could not communicate. Checked power and ground circuits and they are fine. Looks like we need to replace the module but none are available. Next I am looking to repair the module or find someone with expertise on repairing these. It’s a long shot I know. Any suggestions or help would be immensely appreciated as this is the main feature of the car that my wife loves. Struggling with the top manually is like owning a Solstice (cheap shot..lol)
Thanks,
Randy

 

Welcome, you have come to the right place. The experts will chime in soon so have a little patience and you will get your answers.

 

Mistake number one. The only reason to take a Crossfire to a Chrysler dealer is to trade it in.

By some underpaid kid with no training who can only read the code and tell you what he read - this car is not supported by Chrysler anymore.

So says the kid who does not know what he's doing. Exactly WHAT code(s) did they pull? P0600? That's a generic code, mine throws it at times with no know reason or symptom.
U0101? That one I think I'd believe, or at least CONSIDER believing it.

I doubt that is the problem. In TEN YEARS (as of TODAY!) owning three Roadsters, being a member here, going to meets and helping others work on their tops - only ONE time have I seen the module fail on it's own. SEVERAL times I've seen them fail, because water leaked into the trunk area and destroyed them. ONE time, the module was fine, but another module in the trunk was sitting in water - interrupting the communications on the CAN bus. You might tear the trim from the trunk and look for water intrusion. (But it sounds unlikely, given how you say you protect the car.)

I doubt the module is bad, and I'm not standing by your car, all I can do is go on what you have typed (and been told).
You have given us nothing to work with. My confidence in the dealer is zero, I'm not wasting my time on what they told you. It COULD be the module, but given your description I see no reason to believe that.

Let's start from ground zero:

When you turn the D handle, do the windows do down? (If so, the Top Module is communicating just fine. If not, the Top Module is bad, the CAN bus is compromised, or the headliner switch has failed.)
When you turn the D handle, does the red light come on, the one on the top switch? Does it light steady or blink? (It should come on steady. If it blinks, the top module has lost sync, use my manual top procedure three times with the engine running to try to re-sync it.) EDIT: IT may have lost sync, in cases of a blinking light, I like to try a re-sync first, as it is the easy thing to do.

Manual procedure:

 

Pizzaguy is very knowledgeable about these tops
He is accurate in all he has posted here to your initial question

 

Hello Pizzaguy... Thank you for your reply. I haven’t looked here for a while and didn’t realize someone had replied. It’s been awhile since I tried to figure out this no top down situation and the car is under cover in the garage. I recently ordered a used PTCM on eBay but haven’t received it yet. Like you, I have a hard time believing the module just up and failed but I have literally checked everything and that’s the last item. The Tech who read the codes at the Chrysler dealer was a seasoned Crossfire tech. I didn’t let anyone else touch the car, it did not go into the service shop. I made sure I was with the tech and I told him everything I had done/ checked. I don’t recall what the code was or if there was one, but I wrote down “ No Response From Power Top Control Module”. I have downloaded the Service Manual and went through diagnostics for this error message.

1. Power to the module - yes
2. Ground circuit good - yes
3. SCI circuits good (not open, not shorted) - yes, good
4. Checked every wire in the harness for shorts, open, and grounds. - All good.
5. Checked every sensor switch in the system and all are good.
6. Manually put the top down and up numerous times to try and resync. - no luck
7. Disconnected battery and waited for system to drain voltage and reconnected.
8. The windows do go down partially when the d handle is opened.
9. The switch light goes on and there is a beep .. I don’t recall if it flashes.
10. I have removed and opened the module and checked for any visible signs of burning, bad connections, etc. Looks like new!

I am concerned with the possibility that the replacement module won’t correct this, but we’ll see. I will keep you posted on the outcome. If there is still something I missed, I’ll kick myself.

Randall

 

Stop there.

If you turn the D handle, the switch relaxes in the frame of the windshield and the switch changes state, as long as the hook from the top is not pressing on that switch, the windows should go down all the way.

If they stop, I'd think that is an indication that the switch is indicating you have re-latched the top to the frame - so the windows stop moving.
With this indication, the PTCM will not allow the pump to start. This is expected behavior.

When you turn the "D" handle, the switch up there relaxes, telling the PTCM to tell the BCM to lower the windows. IF that is not happening, your first step is to determine why it is not happening.

 

Thanks for responding. I can’t recall if they go all the way down or not .. my wife says they do, so she’s always right! For some reason I thought they just go down far enough to be free from the top. Anyway, I’ll check that again...memory fade!

 

When using the symptom/function troubleshooting technique, every detail matters. If that switch is acting up, you just found your problem. If the windows ARE NOT going all the way down, the PTCM is not about to run the pump. PERIOD. If they are going all the way down, then we have more investigation to do...

This is why I lecture people (and I am not always kind, patient, courteous or polite about it) that: "I/we are not standing next to your car. We don't know what is going on, only you do. If you can't tell us what is going on, how can we troubleshoot something as complex as this?"

We can sit here and throw "ideas" or guesses at you. But that is a waste of time and is often financially costly to you.

It is way worse in the retarded world of Facebook, EVERY DAY, I see asinine posts like this:
"My car won't start, any ideas?"

I have an idea about the person posting, not their car........

 

Just want to mention here that my windows also lower some centimeters only when I release the D handle. They go all the way down as soon as I press and hold the top switch. And my top is working fine. Always been this way. Roadster from beginning of 2006.

 

Hello pizzaguy and anyone else who followed this. Thought this deserves a follow-up as to the outcome on this top not working. First, I appreciate all your posts regarding this topic as it has helped me and many others. This car has been in storage since last summer and I just pulled it out yesterday to go after this again.

I did get a used PTCM on eBay and replaced the module. The car battery has been on a battery minder and is at 12.5 volts at rest after 24 hours. With the car running, I tried the top down again but no dice. The windows went down all the way (to confirm they did go down all the way before too) and the top down switch just beeped continuously. The divider switch, top open switch, and trunk latch switch all work. So now I was going to go through the manual top down and raise sequence to see if it would need a sync, but just then I noticed the dome lights not working when I open the door and find that the fuse had blown. I replaced the fuse and it blew again, so now I am faced with another problem. I check the wiring schematics and see it also feeds a portion of the Body Control Module at C4-75. I start disconnecting harness connections in the circuit to isolate a possible short. I had the central locking harness and the tow sensor harness disconnected and replaced fuse. It didn’t blow. Hooked everything up again and fuse didn’t blow and the dome lights worked again. Tried top again to see if maybe now it will work. VOILA ... everything works now! So now Im curious if the original PTCM will work. I put the original PTCM back in and it worked. So now I have a spare. In the end this is still a head scratcher. It started with removing the battery for storage and when I put it back the top didn’t work so I am guessing the system lost status because in the end I replaced nothing.

Still would like to know why fuse was blown (#9 on schematics but it is #13 on my 2007) as I see a recent post that had the same fuse blow. I don’t recall it being blown originally when the problem started as I checked al the fuses before.

Any way all is good now ... and you’ll be happy to know that I won’t be going back to the dealer for this car. And as you previously noted “ never seen a PTCM fail”. This car is a mental challenge for sure. I’ve printed out schematics for power top, SKREEM, central locking, etc and now have a full binder.

Cheers,
Randy

 

Exact the same error has a guy in germany. Why the put the power for the divider switch on fuse 9????

 

Same problem top won't go down. In the up position, releasing the d-ring and the windows go down fully, light comes on solid on top switch but when i push the switch I get constant beeps and the top does not move. Help!!!!

 

Are you sure the trunk divider switch is seated? When that happens it is the trunk divider switch or the switch above the passengers right ear.

 

Did you get this resolved?

 

Not yet. I am going to check the trunk divider one more time the switch... Thanks for the quick reply.

 

This is the other top switch.