# Roadster roof- sensor for canopy flap G597



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

My roof is currently misbehaving in that it raises an inch or so, but doesn't retract any further. The motor can be heard making an unhealthy noise though.

I plugged the car in this evening and it said there was an intermittent fault with the sensor for the canopy flap, G597.

Does anyone know what exactly this does? I would have thought the canopy flap was the flap that covered the roof when it was folded away, but am I wrong? If it is, surely that sensor wouldn't affect the roof going up and down?


----------



## moro anis (May 27, 2010)

Hi, only guessing re the sensor. If the flap isn't in the correct position for the roof to open then the sensor not beingmade will inhibit it.
If you use the search facility, I think there have been several posts re something similar and believe there's a possible recall on this but it may depend on year etc not sure.
Good luck anyway


----------



## beepcake (May 17, 2002)

Could be covered by the flap motor recall, or might need adapting, or might need replacing or be wiring. This seems to be it?

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/03247


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

That's it, thanks. Not a lot there though sadly .

I'll head over to Audi today and try my luck with the TSB for flap motors and see what they say.


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

Well, Audi said the recall wasn't outstanding on my car and dismissed the TSB's.

However as I took out an Auto Protect warranty with them, they are fixing it FOC including the diagnosis, which I'm meant to pay for!

Excellent news all round. Just means no soft top action until 14th June, but chances of sun in NI are slim anyway!


----------



## beepcake (May 17, 2002)

Good result in the end.. I got 2 years AutoProtect with mine.. They've always been fine when I've used them on other cars.


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

I assume its a standard thing that you have to pay the initial time spent to diagnose the problem? That was explained to me when I took it out, but figured Audi should be able to diagnose anything within 2 hours, and the warranty itself was cheaper than Warranty Wise etc.

Not sure why they're covering the diagnosis of the roof issue, but Im not complaining!


----------



## beepcake (May 17, 2002)

Most diagnostics on the car can be covered by vcds and google ;-)


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

I know, but you can hardly walk into the dealer with a VCDS print out and tell them to fix it without doing their own diagnosis!


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

So Audi ordered in a new motor, relays and something else which are the 3 most common things to go in the roof in advance of the car going in today.

After a day of stripping it turned out to be the struts leaking. They've never encountered this before, and the parts will take 10 days to arrive.

A Coupe would be more use in this good weather at this rate!


----------



## beepcake (May 17, 2002)

Good that its getting sorted, but slightly worrying they didn't notice the struts are leaking considering how accessible/obvious they are.


----------



## 911 Guy (Sep 20, 2012)

Do you know why the canopy code came up on diagnosis? were the flaps to blame as well?
Is it all fixed now?


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

No idea why I'm afraid.

Not fixed yet, it turned out to be the struts and pump that failed. It took them a while to get the parts in and it's now been in with them for a week. Bigger job than they first thought, but I'm due to get it back tomorrow or Monday.


----------



## 911 Guy (Sep 20, 2012)

Best of luck and I hope you have better success than me with the Audi dealers, as they seemed to be clueless with mine.
Let us know the outcome and enjoy the sunshine when it is done 8)


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

The sun could be away at this rate!


----------



## 911 Guy (Sep 20, 2012)

Don't worry there is always next year :wink:


----------



## Lyons (May 12, 2010)

Well, finally got it back with the roof fixed.

Couldn't have asked for a better day for it!


----------



## Patrizio72 (Mar 22, 2011)

Happy days


----------



## LaztSWE (Nov 20, 2013)

Old post but i figured I should add this.

I had the intermittent roof failure and vagcom also pointed to the flap sensor on the right side, values seemed a bit jumpy when running the roof. Seemed not too expensive part and very easy to change and recode so I was just about to buy the new part when I read that the sensor/motor combo is in the same enclosure.

So I figured, its problably dirty as f* with 9 years och roof up and downs, why not check it out?

Removal is 4 screws on the flap unit, then 3 more for the sensor, unclip a cable and its in your hand. Roof needs to be almost closed (like 20-30cm up) to get flap unit out.

sensor unit is easy to crack open, just a lot of tabs, so work slow and use a nice thin screwdriver.

This is how mine looked:









As you can see the (excessive) grease has travelled onto the potentiometer tracks that gives the value for the flap position, not good. I cleaned of the carbon bits with electricity cleaner and put it back with just a small amount of grease on tracks for oxidation protection (noted the position of the lever and such). Worked without flap initialization since its the same unit and i put it back the same way.

Will repost if it didnt solve my roof issue.

Im sure the new version sensors has redesigned grease retention or a barrier to potentiometer. But a clean every 9 years is ok for me.


----------



## Topdown (May 22, 2007)

I have a now ageing TTR but has been pampered and garaged all it's life, it has just clocked 16k so VERY low mileage. My dealer is Blade Audi Cheltenham, bought from them new in 2007 and always serviced by them (Not always a happy experience!)

About two years ago I had the roof stall which was diagnosed a sensor failure, they replaced both sensor/motor units but only charged me for one due to the low usage and my protests that this should not fail. Many thanks to LaztSWE for posting the photo of the crap design, if only they had made the sensor a separate unit it would not be a problem and less expensive to replace (not that Audi care about that!)

Now the same fault has reoccurred, not uncommon it seems. They quoted me £340 for replacement, I then showed them the invoice for the previous replacement less than 2K ago, as they claimed it was a different fault, -huh! After doing some research and showing them the photo they agreed to replace both free. During my research I found a 2010 TSB relating to poor seatbelt retraction mechanism, which has been useless from day one and was replaced under warranty in 2008 before the TSB. Still no better. They have agreed to also replace with the updated mechanism free at the same time as the sensors.

My question is this: During my research I have read rumour of an updated sensor/motor that gets over this annoying issue, does anyone know the part number? I mentioned this but Audi UK and the dealer but they claim there is none and have no knowledge of this being a common problem.
The replacements next week will be the same part: 8J0959311A.
I just don't believe they won't acknowledge that there is a common reliability issue.

Thanks for reading my rant


----------



## LaztSWE (Nov 20, 2013)

Two months with lots of roof action and it feels as this is fixed for me. Normally it would have faulted atleast 2-3 times in this time.


----------

