Question for vert owners: lowering and hardtop attachment issues

[MC Hammered]

When I was on my 16x8 with 225/45/16 tires the hardtop latches interlocked very easily.

Now with my 16x9 with 215/40/16 tires and a lot more lowering the latches no longer engage smoothly and take a lot of force to lock them in place.

So would have lowering the car have flexed the chassis that much that it would effect how the hardtop locks in place?

[IminDiegoTriick]

I am REALLY sure.. dropping your car has nothing to do with how the hard top attaches on.

Im assuming that from the period that you took out the hard top you lowered it.. and then procceeded to put the hard top back on.

It has something to do with the lock and key for sure not chassis.

[CorvallisBMW]

Lowering/wheels wont have any effect on the 'square-ness' of your chassis, i.e. it won't affect the alignment or fitment of your hardtop. Your latches or brackets probably just need to be adjusted.

[MC Hammered]

The two front latches used to engage smoothly before, now after lowering they are very hard to lock into place and the only thing that changed was I lowered the car quite a bit so that is what I suspected.

I know the front isn't sealing 100% as I do have a tiny leak where the latches are.

[Mike325]

Try jacking the car in the front or rear while trying to latch the top to see if that helps at all.

How long was the top off the car for and how long was the new suspension/wheels on the car before you tried to install the hard top again?

[MC Hammered]

Took the top off around March 2010, lowered the car in September and put the top back on in December.

[Cabriolet]

Ok, this could be the issue. Vert chassis are more flexible than the hardtop counterparts. Every time I jack up my car the alignment of even my soft top moves. if you jack/lift a vert from the middle where the weight is 50/50 it will cause the top of the car to flex apart by about 8-10mm. if the car has been jacked at the corners it will flex closer at the top by about 5mm. *note I have no strut braces or xbrace.* my doors also align differently every time the car is raised...

[Wh33lhop]

Well all E30s doors align differently (hard to get my 4dr's doors open when it's half in the air) but the convertible chassis just exacerbates the issue. That said, it doesn't seem like just lowering the car would have an effect on chassis loading.