Wing King
Enthusiast
Hi guys. Many of us have an annoying little rattle in the convertible top latch. It is caused by one little spring that has no tension on it when the top is latched.
The factory fix is to simply insulate that little spring mount with 2 small pieces of Velcro padding, one underneath each side of where the spring clips to the latch bracket. The fantastic engineers at PVO sent me an entirely NEW top latch, with the little pieces of padding installed, so I could help others fix their’s along with my own. Yes, your Viper tech can do it when you eventually take the car in for service the next time, but if that’s going to be a while, OR, you don’t live very close to a servicing dealer, then here’s the info:
1. Either raise or lower the top about half way, such that you can see the front face of the top header. There are 11 little screws than hold the face plate on the top and they remove quite easily. Remove that plate entirely. NOTE: Both these screws and the latch bolts require “Torx” style screwdriver heads, so make sure you have a #20 and #27 available before you start.
2. This gives you access to the four #27 Torx bolts that fasten the entire, one piece latch assembly. Remove those and the complete latch pops right out the front. Inspect the latch assembly and place it in the same position it would be in if the top were supposedly latched. You will quickly see which little spring is the rattle culprit.
3. Once your latch is out, the two pictures below show where you need to cut two small pieces of the Velcro pad, about 1 inch long and .25 inches wide, and wrap then around the latch bracket in the two places where the spring clips to the bracket.
4. After you make sure the little spring clips now fit over the installed Velcro pads, just install everything in the reverse order of dis-assembly. Getting the latch back in and bolted down is a little trickier than taking it out. Install all four bolts loosely and make sure everything works smoothly before tightening things up. Putting the face plate back on is easy.
Rather than use the latch they sent me, I actually performed the fix on my own and am keeping the new one for future reference or teaching until this eventually becomes a non-issue as the first few cars with this problem get tweaked. Don’t be afraid to tackle this on your own...... it’s not that hard. Of course, it’s absolutely mandatory that you drop at least SEVERAL of those little screws down behind the seats, where they can hide for a while!!!!!!. #*&%@!
The factory fix is to simply insulate that little spring mount with 2 small pieces of Velcro padding, one underneath each side of where the spring clips to the latch bracket. The fantastic engineers at PVO sent me an entirely NEW top latch, with the little pieces of padding installed, so I could help others fix their’s along with my own. Yes, your Viper tech can do it when you eventually take the car in for service the next time, but if that’s going to be a while, OR, you don’t live very close to a servicing dealer, then here’s the info:
1. Either raise or lower the top about half way, such that you can see the front face of the top header. There are 11 little screws than hold the face plate on the top and they remove quite easily. Remove that plate entirely. NOTE: Both these screws and the latch bolts require “Torx” style screwdriver heads, so make sure you have a #20 and #27 available before you start.
2. This gives you access to the four #27 Torx bolts that fasten the entire, one piece latch assembly. Remove those and the complete latch pops right out the front. Inspect the latch assembly and place it in the same position it would be in if the top were supposedly latched. You will quickly see which little spring is the rattle culprit.
3. Once your latch is out, the two pictures below show where you need to cut two small pieces of the Velcro pad, about 1 inch long and .25 inches wide, and wrap then around the latch bracket in the two places where the spring clips to the bracket.
4. After you make sure the little spring clips now fit over the installed Velcro pads, just install everything in the reverse order of dis-assembly. Getting the latch back in and bolted down is a little trickier than taking it out. Install all four bolts loosely and make sure everything works smoothly before tightening things up. Putting the face plate back on is easy.
Rather than use the latch they sent me, I actually performed the fix on my own and am keeping the new one for future reference or teaching until this eventually becomes a non-issue as the first few cars with this problem get tweaked. Don’t be afraid to tackle this on your own...... it’s not that hard. Of course, it’s absolutely mandatory that you drop at least SEVERAL of those little screws down behind the seats, where they can hide for a while!!!!!!. #*&%@!
Thanks so much for the post...don't have mine yet but will make sure Keith catches it when it comes in.
