U0507: Invalid Data Received From Folding Top Control Module
What to do
The car drives normally, but the roof may refuse to operate at all — and that refusal is deliberate.
A folding roof moves in a strict sequence, with each step checked before the next begins. When one of those checks returns something implausible, the module stops rather than risk tearing the fabric or bending the mechanism. A roof that will not move is usually the safety logic working, not the motor failing.
Find the manual override procedure in your handbook before you need it — ideally now, while the roof is closed. If it stops half-way, that procedure is how you get it shut, and forcing it by hand is how linkages get bent.
Worth mentioning: has the car been standing outside for long periods, and does the roof operate slowly? Both point at the usual culprits — the switches buried in the mechanism, and hydraulic pressure that has faded with age.
What this code means
The folding top control module is broadcasting data that cannot be accepted as true. See U0400 for what an invalid-data code is and why the module it names is usually the messenger rather than the culprit.
Before anything is diagnosed, establish that the vehicle actually has this equipment.
This is optional kit, and the commonest cause of a code naming it is a car that was told it has one when it does not. A body control module or gateway coded to a higher specification, a second-hand module carrying its donor vehicle's configuration, or a retrofit that was wired in but never coded — all three report equipment that is not there, and none of them is a fault in the vehicle.
Nothing is broken in that case and nothing needs replacing. The repair is a coding correction, and it is quick when somebody asks the question first.
Where the roof genuinely exists, this module is doing something unusually demanding: it refuses to move anything until it is certain of everything.
A convertible roof is a sequence, not a switch. Latches release, windows drop, a tonneau opens, the roof folds, the tonneau closes — each step gated on sensors confirming the last one finished. The module therefore publishes a great deal of position and status data, and any one implausible value stops the whole sequence, which is why the symptom is usually a roof that will not move at all rather than one that moves badly.
Two failure modes account for most of it. The roof's own microswitches and position sensors live in the folding mechanism itself, where they are rained on and repeatedly folded; and the hydraulic system, where fitted, drops pressure as seals age, so the module measures a movement that takes too long and rejects it.
Do not force a partly-opened roof, and do not leave it parked half-way. The manual override procedure exists in the handbook precisely because the electronics can stop mid-sequence, and using it is far cheaper than a bent linkage.
Likely causes
Start here
- Module not coded to the vehicle · specialist
- Second hand module locked to another vehicle · specialist
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
- Water ingress into module · moderate
Less common
- Damaged data bus wiring · moderate
- Incorrect module configuration after replacement · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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