How to re-wire your convertible top

[IRSmart]

I hated the fact that I had to pull the e-brake on my 03 convertible to put the top up or down. I always wanted to raise or lower it when coming to a light, but I had to come to a complete stop, pull the brake, and when the light turned green, of course I’d always forget to put it back down. Now that’s not an issue, because I figured out how to bypass this security feature.

Tools you’ll need:
1) Flat head screw driver
2) Wire strippers/cutters
3) Electrical tape
4) Pliers

Optional (will make things easier)
1) Wire crimpers
2) Small cardboard box, or other prop (you’ll see why)
3) Crimps, solder, or however you want to splice the wires. I just wrap them into each other and tape them up
4) Silver metallic sharpie

First, you need to understand why the car does what it does. It basically works the same way a DVD player head unit does. The convertible top relays each have 2 wires coming off of them that ground, and BOTH wires must be grounded in order for the top to raise or lower. The first wire coming out of each relay simply grounds shortly after coming out of the relay to a body point. The second wire (the one we need to re-route), runs to the front of the car and attaches to the wire connected to your emergency brake sensor. When the brake is pulled, it completes the curcuit, allowing the second wire to ground, allowing the convertible top motors to work. We basically need to re-route that wire to another ground source, “fooling” the relay into thinking that it is still connected to the e-brake, and that the brake is pulled. This way, you can raise and lower the top whenever you want! For anyone interested in the electrical side of what you're doing, you're changing your car's wiring from this...

...to this...

Okay, let’s get started!

1) Open your trunk and locate the 3 plastic push pins that hold the back of the trunk enclosure to the top of the trunk frame. You can see the area in the pic below.

Use the flathead screwdriver to pry them apart. My wire crimper is shaped almost like a square figure 8, so I found that using it, I could grasp just the head of the pin and pull it out. Be careful though, I broke one of the heads off of the push pin and had to pull the stalk out with my pliers.

2) Rather than removing the vinyl boot that the top rests in, use something to prop it up. MAKE SURE IT IS NOT SHARP OR YOU RISK TEARING THE BOOT! I had a spare cardboard box laying around, so I used that to keep the boot raised up and out of the way.

3) Look right in the middle up against the backseat. You’ll see your two amps, if you have them, and the pump for the convertible top in the middle. It will look like a silver metal cylinder. The convertible top relays are attached to it on the left side. They are what we need to rewire. Stick the flathead screwdriver on the righthand side of each relay to free it from the metal clip holding it onto the top motor, and set each one aside, allowing you access to the wires going in from behind.

4) Now we need to locate which wires to cut and splice. The colors may not be the same on each model, but the wires we need to cut are pretty simple. On my car, it was the only wire that was physically smaller than all the rest, the Violet/White wire. CUT that wire about 3 cm from where both relays’ wires connect. Then, SPLICE the end of that wire that comes out of the harness into the BLACK wire without cutting the black wire. The black wire goes to ground, so by splicing the Violet/White wire into the Black wire, you have just given that wire another ground point, and fooled the computer! Wrap the other end of the wire really good with tape so that they don’t accidentally ground. If this happens, your brake light on your gauges could start flickering and drive you bonkers. Wrap the wires good with electrical tape to make sure that nothing comes apart (I wrapped mine really good after taking the picture, I just wanted to make sure that you could see what I did, electrically).

5) Plug the relays back into the metal clips on the side of the top motor, and test the top before putting your whole car back together. Make sure that the e-brake is down, lower the windows (you should always have the windows down to raise or lower the top by the way, in case you didn’t know), and try to lower the top. If the top goes down, you’re done! Go back to the trunk and put everything back together, making sure everything is nice and neat when you do. If it will not lower with the brake down, or it will raise but not lower, or vise versa, check your connections.

6) (Optional) I didn’t like how the switch said “Set brake" or something to that effect, so I decided to do something about it. I put the IUP interior package in my car, and I also had a silver metallic Sharpie from when I colored the word MUSTANG on my airbag. So I colored the outside of the top switch silver. It matches my shifter, and it doesn’t give false instructions anymore!

Disclaimer: Do not be an idiot and lower the top while the car is moving, that was not my intention of making this how-to. You WILL break the top, or worse, it could come flying off, hit another car and kill someone. I am not responsible if you screw something up. This how-to requires basic electrical skills, so if you don’t think you’re up to modifying a major component of your car, DON’T! This is meant as a guide only. If you screw it up, either by not following the directions, or by lowering the top while driving, I am not responsible. This how-to is meant for instructional purposes only.

[Kmoran81]

I just pull the e-brake up 1 click. It doesnt slow the car down hardly at all. But great write up!

[IRSmart]

thats what i used to do, too. but now you can skip that step entirely, and the best part, this is a free mod. free is my second favorite 4 letter f word.


(my first is fart, what did you think i meant?)