I own a MItsubishi eclipse spyder...the top has a safety device that keeps the top from being lowered or raised when the car is in motion. I want to disable the safety feature. I posted ot an eclipse forum but to no avail.

My trip into the world of forums made me appreciate the bbs all the more.

Anyway has anyone done anything like this?

I do not have an answer to your question, but I was curious as to why you want to rip your top off.

The safety feature keeps the top from moving at ANY speed... It assumes your not bright enough to not use it at 80 mph. This is annoying for two reasons: There is no reason that I shouldn't be able to put the top up and down while I travel from the garage to the curb and vice versa. Secondly, basically anything that assumes stupidity on the users part annoys me.

Do you have any idea of which mechanism is used to detect the fact that the car is in motion? Connected to speedometer, gearbox (ie only when in "Park" for an automatc tranny) etc etc...

/Michael

I used to own an eclipse spyder.... I thought that safety feature only kicked in after 5mph?

I can be in gear I just can't be moving, as mentioned it may be 5 miles per hour but it feels like it kicks in way before that. I've never actually watched the speedometer. I was hoping it would be a simple wire snip. Regardless, I want to disengage the feature. I guess I'll need to find the wiring harness for the contv. motor and see what I'm dealing with.

Of course, it's difficult to find 5mph on a speedometer

The thing I would be worried about is if you or someone accidently hits the roof button while on the road.

I have seen this mod on a boxster where the speed sense was disabled, but the emergency brake requirement was left intact. The idea is to make sure it was a conscious effort to open the roof by click in the emergency brake on one notch.

http://www.iq.dynip.com/~gary/hacks/cabrio/cabrio.html

YMMV...

Maybe there's a way to adjust its speed sensitivity by hacking at the electronics. Perhaps up to 15mph instead of 5mph.

The fear of opening the top on accident, at least on my car, is unwarranted. The spyder has two manual locks to release before the top is mobile. (I'd like to go to auto releases, but I can't find a kit.)

Hacking the electronics is both interesting and way out of my league. Of course if it a matter of snipping a wire and someone figures out how to hack it I can always repair it.

very cool... thanks.