Damn, it never ends. Now the convertible top mechanism is acting up. Ideas please?

[Doug427]

My car is a 2002 Boxster S with 106,000 miles on it. The seemingly non-stop tidal wave of things going wrong continues. Now it's the convertible top. I never drive the car with the top up. Here in Houston, it's almost always warm enough to have it down. In the chilly months it's down with the heater on. In the really hot months it's down with the A/C on. The other 6 months it's just down.

A few weeks ago I was out driving and it started to rain. I raised the top, and it went up normally. However, the red dash light with the depiction of the top in it stayed on, along with a dash warning saying the top was not fully in the up position. I didn't bother much with it at that point, as honestly the only time I raise the top is to wash the car.

Today is a whole 'nother story. I washed the car and went to lower the top. The motor ran but sounded more labored than usual and the top wouldn't lower. I gave it a push to help it off the windshield top rail and it started to retract.. It sounded labored and hesitant, but it finally lowered. I usually hold the down button until the motor stops running. As the top reached the bottom I heard all sorts of crunching type noises over the drivers left shoulder. With the top now down, I have the round red dash idiot light on, as well as a message saying something to the effect that the top is not completely down. I used my finger and poked the top center microswitch.. It seems to be responding in that the door windows rise and fall when I activate the switch with my finger.

I raised and lowered is a couple of times. It sounds like hell, it's not operating smoothly at all. It's slow jerky, and there's a bunch of crunchy sounds coming from the drivers lower shoulder area. The dash idiot light and warning stay on regardless of if it's up or down. I'm guessing there's something bad going on in the area of the driver side top transmission. Is there a microswitch in there too? It seems to be two issues, I'm hoping they're related. The top is just not operating correctly and also the lights staying on with the top up or down.

One other thing, hopefully this is simple. The front of the headliner is hanging down. How do I attach the plastic strip at the front of the headliner to the plastic attach point on the top itself? Does the headliner hook to the front of the attach point or what? Sounds dumb, I know, but I just can't seem to figure it out. Thanks all, any help with this mess is appreciated. This car is a blast to drive, I just wish the major issues would just take a rest for a while.