I've put up with a gremlin infested top for 2yrs now. It's not that I've been too cheap to take it in to have it repaired, cause I have. It usuallystarts workingwhen they get it. Then when I get her back maybe three tries later it will stop or only partially work, then not work at all. Then three weeks later it will work a couple of times, then quit. repeat this scenario month after month. [X(] wella fewmonths agoI see hydraulic fluid behind my drivers side rear wheel. I trace the leak up to the bow top cylinder, after thinking it was the main cylinder and replaced it first. The bow top cylinder leaked down on top of the main cylinder, so don't make the same mistake. Five hundred for one andseven for the other.[X(]anyway, so wouldn't you know,the topstarted working again, but only to lift the bow top and then stopped. at this point, I give up. called my oem parts guy and asked him who he thought was their best technician. I JUST WANT THE THING FIXED [:-]Set up a few days for him to check her out. Drove 250 miles, got a room for three nights close by. Took the old beast in. They were to check out some intermittant surging too high then idling too low problem. and sometimes drop so low the car would just up and die. Still not 100% but better, had a few vacuum leaks. Back to the problem at hand. When Ihad installedbow top cylinder I bent the micro switch holder so when the bow came up it didn't signal that it was up. My fault. So be very careful. I fastened it on at the piston end first and then lowered it down connected to the top and guided the bottom of the cylinder with a hooked hangerwire into the connection point on the body.It must not touch any place on the body other than where it connects or you will bend the switch holder on the cylinder. that switch triggers the next sequence in the ballet. the guy at the dealership couldn't do anything more to diagnose the problem until that was fixed and that, maybe, for what we knew at the time may have been the problem. Instead of spending another 700 we decided that I take the car back home and I take the switch off my old cylinder. Which I did and ended up bending it too. I was able to straighten it out though. simple switch set up. OK! yes it worked like a charm. twotimes [X(].... going back in time to the dealership... at the time, he by-passed the switch and showed that the top would work if you held down the top switch long enough. 10 seconds or so. He couldn't explain why the delay (maybe a bad power connection?)and I needed to fix thecylinder switchproblem before we could continue....I get the cylinderswitch fixed andwindows would go down and the roll bar would go down, then nothing. all of a sudden roll bar quit too.[X(]starting at the basics I checked the fuse, looked good, but still wasn't getting power to the pump. upon closer inspection found a melt-down behind the screw that holds that stupid metal strip they use for a fuse. I wired in a much better type of fuse.Got the roll bar working again. Sometimes, I've had to push the top switch to close beforetheroll barwould work, but it works. I can't see how a partial power problem like thiscould begoodfor anything on that circuit and that fuse also feeds the control module. with that power problem repaired I was hoping that would do it for the top too. Nope. then my thinking was, if the roll bar was coming down and the sequence stopped it was the roll bar retracted switch. so I replaced that and the top switch just in case.Now the new top switch just flashes when trying to either to open or close. I checked the new retracted switch, it's ok. Then I found a Bob Terry postat benzworld that showed a way of getting a fault code by connecting #10 to #1 at the testing port. wow! I said, maybe I'll finally get an answer to my problem. for anyone else maybe. I connect 10 and 1, the switch lights up, I counted to three. disconnected,waited for my code flashes. repeated many times and no codes.[X(] there goes Bob Terry's steak dinner. Only thing I can think, is the poor power supply burned out the top portion of the 129 820 00 97. any thoughts out there before a replaced the control module.Mr.Despair

 

or maybe that new top switch is bad. how can you add a new switch and a sensor and make it worse? maybe I really do need an exorcism ......It's not the top switch. I put the old one back in and I does the same thing.

 

I would check power to the controller with the ignition key on. There should be 12-volts on both sockets X12 and Z11. If thatis fine, next Iwould check the status of all of the limit switch inputs to the controller.That is explained here: http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=763445&postcount=4.

By the way,I guy in Kansas named Dennis Fickenwill replace the leaking seal in any hydraulic cylinder for $30. You can find his contact information over at Benzworld.

 

you would have to rub salt in the wound on the cylinders. I found that site of ficken's a couple weeks after I spent the 1,200 bucks. well at least I have the old onesin-case I need them. anyway, I sure appreciate the education on sl tops. I checked the power feeds X12 and Z11 and they are ok. I followed your top up and top down checkof all switches including Y1 and Y2 and all of the switches are good. so I assume it's the controller. Everything seems to point in that direction.Would that explain thelack of fault codes whenthe #10 and #1 are shorted together at the testingport X11/4? have you heard anything about BBA-Reman for rebuilt controllers? Thanks again.

 

I think you have a faulty controller, and that could explain why it can't diagnose itself. If you do a search for BBA over at Benzworld, I think you will find that the results have been mixed, but overall, positive.