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Renault Megane 1 - Closing Cabrio Roof,Excellent Info

120K views 49 replies 35 participants last post by  ours2012  
#1 ·
This is a long shot but someone on here may know...
I was rushing and turned my ignition off before hood completed folding away (yes i know dumb ***). This meant that it would no longer work electrically and I had to pull a little release to release the hood cover and turn a little wheel to release the hydrolics so it can be opperated manually. I took it to local Renault to get fixed like it said in manual and they said that I need new motor for the hood cover release as electric current is going to it but its not working. (It was obviously working fine b4!!) Have they missed something - is it off and needs turning back on if you know what I mean as by pulling the release it turns it manual? They plainly had never done it b4!
Desperate for help as scared it is going to cost a fortune for part!!
 
#2 ·
I don't know if this will be the case for your car, but I saw a programme with a BMW convertable with a similar problem. The lever disengages the electric motor from the mechanism, which allows the hood to be opened / closed manually.

I would believe that the motor has to be re-seated into the mechanism, and then all should be well.

Its a long shot, but one worth trying.

Paul:)
 
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#3 ·
I have a similar problem, but I can't find where to manually release the hood. From what I've read on other forums, it looks as though it's a problem with a micro switch on the piston section (under the hood storage compartment). I can't get to the switches until I release / manually raise the hood!
Anyone got any pointers for me?
 
#4 ·
alright m8?
I ad to fix mine at garage £465 so I hope you can get sorted!
to release the hood cover you have to pull a loop of nylon ribbon. That is situated at the top of the hole for long items in the boot.
If u look an the side in the boot i think u will need to move the trim u will find a small brass coloured release if its the same as mine a bit like a T about 2" once released will only work manually.
 
#5 ·
patsmegane - you're a star!
Here's what I did - (with the engine running)

With the hood released using the handle near the rear view mirror > Released the hood cover using the nylon strap in the boot> lifted the hood cover and pushed the locking mechanism back to it's home position (as far down as it will go) > used the hood power switch (centre console) to move the hood to the fully down position > pull the nylon strap (in the boot) whilst pressing the hood cover down (locking it into position).
From this point on the hood worked perfectly.

Thats the last time I ever switch the ignition off half way through closing the hood - I was only trying to clean it!
 
#7 ·
the hood keeps beeping!!

hi guys

having a similar problem, stupidly turned the ignition of when the hood was closeing on my 51plate cabrio.. and the hood was then closed manually.

the problem is when the button for the hood is pressed it just beeps.. even when we have reset the ribbon and the hydraulic "tap".. (after closing it manually)

is there a "reset button" or have we got to get the motor replaced like patsmegane has.??

but my brothere reconds its the release mechanism for the hood cover.. as it doesnt seem to release when the ribbon is reset...

completely lost.. any help would be much apprieciated.

Image
 
#8 ·
It was certainly the locking mechanism in my case - take a look at the unit and make sure that it's in it's home position - I seem to remember there being a couple of microswitches on it. If they're not activated (de-activated?), the motor won't run.
 
#9 · (Edited)
My daughter recently tried to get the hood on her 51 Renault Megane reset.

She had turned off the ignition on the car while operating the hood and this had caused the hood system to get extremely confused. Following the directions in the drivers handbook we released the hydraulics (for hood cover) by using a small tap in the boot and then as directed pulled the release strap found in the small compartment in the luggage area.

What we didn’t know is this is a no return situation and the mechanism (similar to a bonnet release catch) will disengage and there is no way of getting it easily back into place.

The Renault garage mechanic charged 1 hours labour to diagnose that the complete release mechanism needs replacing - £405 including VAT.

SO...This morning I removed the mechanism and quickly re-seated the release catch and then reassembled the mechanism. The hood now operates completely fine. There was absolutely no reason to change the mechanism.

The whole job took me just under an hour – bearing in mind I am a computer engineer and not a car mechanic and know nothing about Renaults at all..

To prevent this happening to others I have included a very quick guide of what to do if this happens again. I realise this will not fix all Renault hood problems but should at least be tried first and 1 hour labour should do it…

1) Release hydraulics on hood cover by undoing the small tap located in the boot (under left hand carpet in boot)
2) Pull manual release for boot cover – located in the boot area <> rear seat compartment (Step 1 and Step 2 better documented in the owners manual)
3) With the Hood nearly closed (but with the back window in the air !) and the hood cover opened – by hand, remove the 2 nuts that hold the rear seat onto the rear bulkhead.
4) Now use a star / torque drive to remove the 4 screws that hold the hood release mechanism onto the rear bulkhead.
5) There is no need to disconnect any cables just remove from the cable clips.
6) The release mechanism can now be viewed easily. Look to re-engage the cam that the emergency release cable is attached to into the metal arm that is driven from the worm gear on the motor.
7) May need to engage small micro switches on the mechanism to get the worm gear to operate (do this very carefully and by holding the switches on while operating the hood from inside the cab. (need 2 people for this) Operate the hood only for short 1-second bursts until the worm gear allows the cam to drop easily back into place.
8) All above sounds complicated but actually when you have the mechanism laying in front of you in the hood storage space area its very straight forward and should take 30 – 40 minutes maximum for someone who has seen it once before.

thanks to others on this forum - I tried and succeeded in saving over £400 in repair bills. I have now asked the Renault gave to refund the £40 charged for wrong diagnosis - they obviously dont have access to this website :)
Martin
 
#23 ·
Hi there, same problem, my partner at the time turned off the eninge as the roof was going down, now when i try to get the roof down it just beeps. I also get the bleeps everytime i turn my engine on too. I have followed the online instructions as close as possible and i have located the whole thing, screws Etc but i'm not really sure what i'm supposed to be doing after this, can anyone provide specific instructions? should the car be turned on? should i turn on the hydraulics again after unscrewing everything..? i would really like your help as its been 2 years now and i would love my roof to work! please please help,

thanks in advance
 
#10 ·
Hi there, i hope you have all managed to get this sorted with the expense of you know who. My mother has done this quite a number of times, ( killing the power whilst hood going up or down. ) , and it jams. However i have always been able to get it to restart after a small period of time. There is one problem though, i dont know what i do to get it started. I play with all the buttons in the cab, handbrake off and on, electrics off and on etc etc and somehow i always get it to restart. Ive never had to manually raise or lower. Some1 give it a try and see if they can work out how it does it. This is on a 52 Cab 1.6 16v. I once managed to do the same on a friends 55 Plate BMW M3 Convertable. Managed to restart itself too.
 
#11 ·
hi basically what you are doing by opperating the buttons is kicking the pump into action and when the presure reaches the rams and movement starts it catches up with its self and the position it was in when shut down! its a bit like running a bath with the plug out then putting the plug in half way and the water level starts to rise then put the plug all the wy in and it rises rapidly! its not something you really want to do to many times as it will cause premature failure of the pump! hope this helps your understanding!
 
#12 ·
hi martin, thank you,thank you,thank you!!!!, l did the same as your daughter with my roof, thanks to your instructions we managed to fix it, took about hour an half but got there in the end. l did take it to the renault garage who were a big help NOT!!!!. l think they should print your instructions for future use cos they need them. many thanks :d
 
#14 ·
Thanks for this info, I turned the ignition off before the roof fully closed less than 2 hours after buying the car today..is this a record i wonder!! My husband got the roof working again by following these instructions and it only took him about 15 mins. The most annoying thing is that I had read this thread before buying the car :(
 
#16 ·
Hi, had the same prob on my misses 51 plate, she killed the ignition before the hood was fully up,,I got it working again by getting her to hold up the cover of the compartment it hides away in, as it was not fully elevated after she killed the ignition been fine ever since.
only other problem we have is... its the dreaded 2.0 16v IDE,, and yes the pressure regulator is at fault,, any suggestions gladly accepted.
 
#17 ·
I cannot get my hood to move either, when we bought it the nylon cord had been pulled, so I've reseated the cam no problems have tested the motor and that works fine, with the back lifted up the hood cover will raise and lower no problem.
On lifting the hood I get the continuous beep then on pressing the roof button I can hear the pump run but nothing happens, so have removed the pump and the impellor is intact. but still no movement.
Have spoken to a local garage who reckon its out of sync how do I re sync the hood please??

ps

have not got a manual so two simply questions do you push the button forward for roof down? and should the T bar on the pump be in or out for manual mode.???

regards
 
#18 ·
ALL SORTED NOW :d
I reset the the cam on the hood lock, the easiest way to do this I found without having to unbolt the back seat or the locking mechanism, is to remove the plug connector and using a power source from the boot ( boot light supply) pulsed the motor on pins one and two until the motor moved to a position where the cam can be re instated.
Despite the pump working when button pressed the hood would only work with me helping it. So stripped apart the entire hydraulic pump with everything clean inside re assembled and tried but again without success unless it was helped.
By chance a local breaker had a 51 plate cab in for breaking so bought the pump complete with hoses and rams for £50 ( I think he got the price wrong) fitted it all works ok now, so can only assume the old motor was tired, have sourced information regarding the power packer motors and no spares seem to be avaliable as according to there website the agreement is to supply dealers only, a shame as I would have liked to replace the motor to keep as a spare but will keep searching.

Steve
 
#19 ·
Hi guys, i had a similar problem with my roof as for some reason unknown to me my roof decided not to work electronically and had to be done manually. since then i thought id managed to fix it and have been getting it opening and closing electrically.

But the cars currently sorn and hasnt been run since nov 11, the cars engine has been turned over for 10 mins or so near enough every day since but it seems that the battery has flattened itself and now my roof doesnt want to work electronically anymore, now i can use the manual release cord and open the rear storage space of the roof open, from here the roof can be opened and closed electronically and it can be done several times no problem, i can turn off the ignition and come back the next day and bam! 5 beeps and the roof doesnt work.

Is the issue something to do with the possible low power in the battery itself? i dont ever open/close the roof without the engine running as i know that it eats away at the battery power rapidly im just confused as to how once i get it working its fine then i come back the day after and its not. HELP PLEASE!
 
#22 ·
But the cars currently sorn and hasnt been run since nov 11, the cars engine has been turned over for 10 mins or so near enough every day since but it seems that the battery has flattened itself and now my roof doesnt want to work electronically anymore, now i can use the manual release cord and open the rear storage space of the roof open, from here the roof can be opened and closed electronically and it can be done several times no problem, i can turn off the ignition and come back the next day and bam! 5 beeps and the roof doesn't work.
Ok reading from above the hood operation itself is hydraulic,the position sensors,ecu and the hood cover latching motor are electric.
So you are saying that once you have pulled the release cord the hood operates normally? via the switch??

You should hear a continuous beep once the hood is unlocked and pushed up, if you hear the 5 beeps then the hood is not in a start/finish position have you tried to manually put the hood through a complete open and close procedure? then try using the button operation?

Thinking about the battery once your car is started and assuming it is being charged the hood should operate, if when you car is running and sometimes it will operate and sometimes not then you probably would need to be looking for a supply fault?

Hope this helps a little more.

Regards
 
#24 ·
hi all new to the forum but i thought i would inform any users that are having probloms with the closing of the cabriolet hood that there is a micswitch on the passengers end of the hood itself as i was having probloms with my hood opening and closing i clicked that microswitch after doing all the usual things like pulling the the cord thing and releaseing the mechinism and resetting the worm gear i also had the cllick the microswitch on the hood itself so in total there is 4 microswichs on the megane cabriolet 3 on the lock and the 4th is on the hood near where the speaker is on the hood itself hope this helps any people so yoiu dont fall foul like i did i replaced every part on the hood and all i had to do was click the reset switch yeah what a dumb ass :crazy:
 
#25 ·
hi there, could someone please help me, i have a 2001 y reg. i have changed the roof today and there is 2 problems, 1, the electrics are not working? 2, at the front the 2 clips that clip in just above the window screen dont line, please tell there is an adjuster or something somewhere? its not far out but far enough to not engauge. i hope that makes sense and hope you can help me.
kind regards dave
 
#26 ·
**update** ok so i have managed to get get the rear window section working on the electrics, but thats as far as it goes, i think the next step is the cover where it folds into should come up after this??? any ideas how to get this bit working, im sure i have the worm gear in the right place and all lined up. any help please!!!
 
#28 ·
I just brought a 1999 megane 16v 1.6 and when I brought it the guy showed me how to put the roof down, undo the handle near the rear view mirror, push the dash button, get out, open the boot, fold the roof down.

Could it be that its broken and should work automatically? I just assumed it was a manual roof!!
 
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