Jim A
New Member
Hello all, This is my first posting so bear with me. I was driving 45mph the radio started to go crazy, very loud, shut it off. I pulled over and could smell a very tell-tale burning electrical motor windings odor.
Being in the electrical construction business, burnt motor windings are very distinctive. I opened the hood and nothing, under the dash, seats, glove box =0
Went to open the trunk with the fob and nothing. put the key in the slot and and pulled the trunk lid open and whamo.
At this point I should mention that I drove about 2 miles after putting the top down. good weather, not hot.
I resumed driving and did not smell any more odor, went home and found that the top was inoperable.
After doing research and calling a few Caddy dealers, which none came across as being very knowledgeable with this problem I decided to open up the compartment
and have a look. (Rear drivers side in a lower compartment, after all how complicated could this be, it's just a XLR)
Reading this forum I saw an advertisement from TOP Hydraulics and I gave them a call, I spoke with Klaus, he had me watch a you-tube video that he does a pump removal from a XLR. I followed his step by step procedure, and this was not very difficult at all.
I boxed up the pump, prepaid $770.00 sent it to them to rebuild. I think they sent back a different one, but it was a clean and looked very good.
They got it Tuesday and I had it back by Saturday.
Sunday afternoon 13:15 all's quite in the kingdom, I decide to reinstall this rebuilt pump, And I must say it went back together without a lot of aggravation, to
my surprise, although much patience is required. Side note, when the pump is removed there is a hydraulic hose block that attaches to the pump. I Put it in a menards
bag, glad I did a couple of ounces 1-1/2? dripped out not leaking into the pump compartment.
So far so good! I went to reconnect the battery and the pump started to run. This can't be good, went back to the compartment to check connections, thinking that something was connected wrong, that's pretty much not possible. (****) for all of you that are offended by that it is was much worse.
Sat down on a plastic milk crate staring at the trunk space, having a couple of delicious Miller-Lites and contemplated my next move. I had nothing.
Monday afternoon I called Klaus and told him my situation, he said that I had stuck relay in the control mod that is attached to the pump. (P/N 15813086)
I had that suspicion although I had no idea where to even look for it. Klaus sent me a relay that he said if I was electrically handy I could it change out.
He sent it out to me, I got it a couple of days latter and it did not resemble anything on this board. I called Klaus back and he informed me that I was to
remove the failed contactor, solder wires to the pin holes and then to the relay. This was not happening!
So back to the inter-web looking for a new top control module. I do believe that this part is extinct, I looked all over.
This relay is a TB2-160 12V DC I was able to find them at an electronics co. in Florida. (new)
I dissembled this module from the case and was able to desolder all the connections on this relay (8), I replaced two of the four of them, clean out the pin holes and place the new relays in place, solder in the new relays on to the printed circuit board. This was very time consuming and required some special tools that my shop has.
Put everything back together, replaced the battery connection no motor noise, pulled the car out to the drive way pushed the top button and nothing. Now what!!
Pushed the top button again and the replace the cargo barrier warning indicator came on.
jump out, plugged in the barrier tried the top switch and the pump started. There was a momentary delay, thinking it had to clear any air in the lines, the top started
hesitated a bit and closed perfectly. I let it sit for a moment and put down, "perfecto" I have opened and closed the top about 8 times sense completing this task without any problems.
I would to thank Klaus for encouraging me to do this,
Hope this was not too long winded.
Jim A
Being in the electrical construction business, burnt motor windings are very distinctive. I opened the hood and nothing, under the dash, seats, glove box =0
Went to open the trunk with the fob and nothing. put the key in the slot and and pulled the trunk lid open and whamo.
At this point I should mention that I drove about 2 miles after putting the top down. good weather, not hot.
I resumed driving and did not smell any more odor, went home and found that the top was inoperable.
After doing research and calling a few Caddy dealers, which none came across as being very knowledgeable with this problem I decided to open up the compartment
and have a look. (Rear drivers side in a lower compartment, after all how complicated could this be, it's just a XLR)
Reading this forum I saw an advertisement from TOP Hydraulics and I gave them a call, I spoke with Klaus, he had me watch a you-tube video that he does a pump removal from a XLR. I followed his step by step procedure, and this was not very difficult at all.
I boxed up the pump, prepaid $770.00 sent it to them to rebuild. I think they sent back a different one, but it was a clean and looked very good.
They got it Tuesday and I had it back by Saturday.
Sunday afternoon 13:15 all's quite in the kingdom, I decide to reinstall this rebuilt pump, And I must say it went back together without a lot of aggravation, to
my surprise, although much patience is required. Side note, when the pump is removed there is a hydraulic hose block that attaches to the pump. I Put it in a menards
bag, glad I did a couple of ounces 1-1/2? dripped out not leaking into the pump compartment.
So far so good! I went to reconnect the battery and the pump started to run. This can't be good, went back to the compartment to check connections, thinking that something was connected wrong, that's pretty much not possible. (****) for all of you that are offended by that it is was much worse.
Sat down on a plastic milk crate staring at the trunk space, having a couple of delicious Miller-Lites and contemplated my next move. I had nothing.
Monday afternoon I called Klaus and told him my situation, he said that I had stuck relay in the control mod that is attached to the pump. (P/N 15813086)
I had that suspicion although I had no idea where to even look for it. Klaus sent me a relay that he said if I was electrically handy I could it change out.
He sent it out to me, I got it a couple of days latter and it did not resemble anything on this board. I called Klaus back and he informed me that I was to
remove the failed contactor, solder wires to the pin holes and then to the relay. This was not happening!
So back to the inter-web looking for a new top control module. I do believe that this part is extinct, I looked all over.
This relay is a TB2-160 12V DC I was able to find them at an electronics co. in Florida. (new)
I dissembled this module from the case and was able to desolder all the connections on this relay (8), I replaced two of the four of them, clean out the pin holes and place the new relays in place, solder in the new relays on to the printed circuit board. This was very time consuming and required some special tools that my shop has.
Put everything back together, replaced the battery connection no motor noise, pulled the car out to the drive way pushed the top button and nothing. Now what!!
Pushed the top button again and the replace the cargo barrier warning indicator came on.
jump out, plugged in the barrier tried the top switch and the pump started. There was a momentary delay, thinking it had to clear any air in the lines, the top started
hesitated a bit and closed perfectly. I let it sit for a moment and put down, "perfecto" I have opened and closed the top about 8 times sense completing this task without any problems.
I would to thank Klaus for encouraging me to do this,
Hope this was not too long winded.
Jim A
