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Taking the soft top off of a Roadster

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wayner

Active Member
Oct 29, 2014
4,294
1,787
Toronto
I took my Model S in for service and I got a Roadster as my loaner for the day - the Very Orange model owned by the Lawrence Ave SC in Toronto. It is a beautiful day here in Toronto so I was going to take the roof off. When I looked at the online manual it looks like you have to manually roll up the top and put it away - is this relatively easy to do? It looks like a pain in the butt. I was looking for a button to push where the top goes up automatically.
 
Nah piece of cake. Open both doors. Now look under the soft top at the plastic rails that run front to back on each side of the car. There are two sliding buttons, one front and one back. Slide them inwards and then rotate the whole piece upwards. Roll it to the center of the roofline, and then unhook the support strut (you'll have to bend it up slightly) and tuck it into the soft top. Repeat on the other side of the car. Put the roof (three pieces) in the trunk, done.

Getting it back on is a bit fussier, so if the weather stays nice just leave it in the trunk when you take it back to the SC!

Now that I have the Model S, the roof comes off in the spring and goes back on in the fall...
 
Very easy Wayne...grab the soft top roof pillar (between the windshield & the roll bar), and gently twist it towards you...this takes the tension off of the locking pins...with the tension neutralized, slide one of the locking pins in, towards the middle of the car, and gently raise the front of the roff pillar out of it's seated, locked position...now, with one side out, there will be no tension... gently pull the locking pin for the other end of the roof pillar in, and fold the roof back towards the middle of the car, draping it over one of the (two) roof supports....go to the other side of the car, and repeat the process...remove the roof, fold it gently, and put it in the trunk...then grab one end of one of the two roof supports, and apply gentle but consistent pressure pulling the end straight out of the support seated position (either in the rollbar, or the top of the windshield)...once you have removed one end of the support, you an easily remove the other (as there is no longer any tension)...remove both roll supports and place them in the trunk, and you're done!

Important, don't place any of the roof components on the PEM...if you do, and forget about them and try to close the trunk, you will damage the CF trunk!

Looks like a great day for a Roadster drive...enjoy!!!
 
What's a PEM?

PEM = Power Electronics Module. All the electrons used in the Roadster first make a stop at the PEM, either coming from the charge port on the way to the battery or from the battery on the way to the motor.

When you open the back, it's the black box directly behind the trunk space. It looks like this:

PEM.png


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He means the Power Electronics Module. The big electronic thing just forward of the trunk. It's tempting to use it as a shelf, but there's no space there when you close the trunk.

Well, there's a little space. I've left my phone there. Sunglasses, too. And found them again several miles later .... :)
 
I remember that one of my Roadster's stays had some kind of plastic cover, which got jammed into the car. Turns out it was a protective cover for when the soft top was shipped, and wasn't supposed to be there when installed on the car.
 
I have the plastic tips on the rods and when I lost one, the top had issues popping loose on that corner. Wrapped it with tape for a little while (which worked and made it stay seated), and then the service center was able to replace it when I had the car in for something else.
 
Not quite sure here, but are you folks referring to the plastic "inserts" that mount in the holes that the roof supports reside in? (located in the face of the roll bar, and in the top rail of the windshield frame)...if so, you can order them from your service center...one of mine was missing a while back...the service center had no problem locating a replacement.
 
It sounds to me like the question was about the black plastic covers that are supposed to be on the metal pins that tick out of the two soft top side supports (over the doors). Mine lost one of the plastic covers a few years ago and the SC replaced it.