Spyder mods: covertible top up/down at any speed
Finally got myself a 98 Spyder after way too many years of DSMs. One thing I love to play with is wiring.
Spyder tops will only go up and down while the car is not moving. Some convertibles out there will let you do it at any speed, or some will have a regulator at a certain speed (below 15mph, for example). The day I bought the car I was lowering the top at a light, and the friggin thing turned green while I was in the middle of it and the top wouldnt move just from the car rolling foward when I got off the brake (hill). So that has to go.
Also if you push the top open or close button, all 4 windows will go down (the convertible ECU always tries to roll all the windows down before it puts the top up or down). Now with this mod if you are driving the car (at any speed) you can simply tap the "top up" or "top down" button and all four windows will go all the way down without you having to touch the window buttons.
Only bad thing about this mod: obviously if you try and raise or lower the top at even a medium speed (40mph+ I'd guess) you will rip the top off the car. If you're stupid enough to do that, dont do the mod.
This is the simplest mod you can do to a DSM. The convertible ECU is behind the rear seat where the top goes into when its down. You cut the wire for the speed sensor going into the ECU, and now the convertible ECU will always think the car is not moving. This doesnt effect anything else in the car.
If you're smart enough to do it yourself, go do it and dont read any further. The rest of this is step by step.
Remove rear seat bottom part:
If there were people sitting in your back seats, right between where their legs would be where the leather/cloth bottom of the seat meet the car is a plastic ring. There is one on each side (where each back seat is). If you pull both rings toward the front seats at the same time, the back seat bottom is released. The rear of the seat bottom has two hooks holding it in, so if you lift the front part up the whole seat bottom will come up and out.
Remove the rear seat back part:
If you look under the rear seat backs, were the rear seat bottom used to be, there are two steel rings sticking down from the seat back with two bolts holding them onto the bottom of the car. Remove those two bolts, they are 12mm or 14mm. The top of the rear seat back is held on simply with two hooks facing down. So if you push the rear seat back straight up, its off.
You will see two to three boxes attached to the rear seat bracing (depending on if you have factory alarm or not). The convertible ECU should be the one closest to the drivers side, with three harnesses plugged into it. On the harness with 10 pins that looks like this:
12##34
567890 (## is where the harness clip is)
...you want the wire going into pin #1, its yellow with a white stripe. Thats from the speed sensor. Cut it. Thats it. You dont even need to unplug the harness. Put the seat back in.
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