Mazda MX-5 Club of Queensland, Inc. - MX5 Club Qld

· Roof operation only
requires a single press of the
‘up’ or ‘down’ button, it no
longer requires holding.
· Roof operation is
permitted whilst driving at
speeds up to 60km/h.
For safety, once a button has been
pressed to raise or lower the roof,
the operation can be stopped by
a single press of either button. As
a programmable option, the roof
lowering can be triggered by release of
the roof catch only. Also, the maximum
speed of the car for operation of the
roof may be programmed from 0
to 60km/h in 10km/h increments.
Unfortunately, unlike some other
SmartTop modules, the MX-5
module does not include raising of the
side windows to their former position,
since the windows are controlled
from a separate location within the
MX-5 wiring loom. Other SmartTop
modules also permit operation of the
roof via your remote key switch, but
again, the configuration of the MX-5
wiring does not permit this. Finally,
the SmartTop can be switched off to
revert to standard operation, useful for
example if your car goes in for service.
So are there any disadvantages?
One is the cost which is about US$300,
although the current exchange rate
permits delivery to Australia for about
AU$300, and once received it is clearly
a quality item that includes the wiring
loom and a USB connection to hook
it up to your PC. I wonder about the
load on the roof motor and mechanism
too if you were to operate the roof at
60km/h or in windy conditions, or over
an uneven surface that could lead to
early wear or failure of the roof motor
or mechanism. However, it is up to the
owner to use it wisely to avoid such
problems.
This is what
you get, with the MX-5 keys to show
its size – the SmartTop module, wiring
loom and USB lead.
We have fitted one. It is easy to fit. The
only difficulties are simply reaching
into the small spaces in an MX-5,
in common with all MX-5 jobs. It
certainly makes use of the roof much
easier and quicker whenever you want
to raise or lower it.
The SmartTop is available from www.
motivemods.com , also on www.
amazon.com. The instructions for
fitting the SmartTop to the MX-5 are
included on the motivemods website
and are very good, so there is no
need to repeat them here in detail. In
essence, the procedure is as follows.
The first stage could be regarded
as optional. This is to connect the
SmartTop to a PC with the USB
lead supplied to check that the
SmartTop has the latest version of the
software loaded, which it should do
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