I have never owned a car that has given me this much trouble in my life. Wife wanted a mercedes, I bought her one... A 1999 SL500 with low mileage.What a mistake that has been!!! My current problem with the car is the convertible top window cylinders that leak. These SOB!T(#es are like lights on a christmas tree, one goes out they all go out (one leaks, they all start leaking), worst part is there are 12 of these things in the car. If you start fixing one, better count on fixing them all sooner or later. Other problems have been the SRS light from the passenger seat sensor. If I want that fixed the whole damn passenger seat has to come out and the leather needs to be pulled off to replace the sensor... that's not happening! I'll let the SRS light burn out before I do that.

If anyone is looking to buy a used mercedes... DON'T!!! They are nothing but problems.[sm=rant.gif]

 

Scott,
Yes they can be problematic cars, no doubt!

Re your comment on the 'window cylinders' for your top. If you mean the cylinders over the windshield, I can point you to an easy and inexpensive fix. If, on the other hand, you mean something else, just clarify if you would and I'll try to give you a hand.

Bob

 

Hi Bob,

I had Dennis repair one, now I'm going to send him the other. However, for some reason now the top will not go through its full sequence. I resynchronized the windows, however, the top stops halfway during its closing operation. When I opporate the convertible top button to lower the soft top, the windows go down, roll bar goes down, rear deck lid raises, rear soft top latches unlock and the rear section of the soft top raises, front latches unlock by the visors and everything STOPS!!! All I hear is a motor sound in the rear passenger area cycling. Also, when I stop (the button stays red), a few minutes later I'm able to raise the top straight up, but when I activate the button again hoping the top will retract into the rear storage compartment, it falls forward instead like the switch is working in reverse. [:@] Very frustrating!!!

Scott

 

I thought I had it this morning. After hours of playing around with the battery, removing rear interior panel to check and make sure all the other hydro cylinders weren't leaking (everything looked fine), resynchronized the damn windows a dozen times, the top was going down automatically, however, when I was raising it, the top got all the way to latching and locking on the front window cylinders and stopped (red light started blinking). Also, the windows stopped working. Checked fuses, battery, manually locked the front latches to the window and the windows worked again... rear section of the top lowered and locked into place, but the roll bar doesn't raise (button stays solid red). I raise it with it's stand alone button on the dash and when I tried to finish the sequence with the softtop button, it causes the roll bar to lower and begins to buck up and down a few inches. I also hear motor noises in the windows. Also, I get a buzzing sound coming from the middle grey juction box at the top of the windshield where the two hydro cylinders connect to. This is a PITA!!!

Scott

 

Scott, the more you describe what your system is doing, the more you seem to need Bob Terry (bobterry99) who has written extensively on diagnosing the top controller. If you use the advanced search capability at this site, try a user search for posts from bobterry99. Sorry I can't be of more help to you-

Bob

 

Thanks Bob for your help. I've pretty much read all the links I found over at benzworld.org, so I'll do the search for bobterry99. Again, thanks and if anyone else has any insight into this problem, I'm all ears.

 

Scott. Sorry to hear you're having so many problems. I have a '94 SL500, and had trouble with the top. My windows worked fine, but neither the roll bar or top worked.My car is pre OBD11, so I made the tool to check by the flashes. I read all the error codes and erased them all. Lo and behold, everything works now. It seems the controller got out of syn.
In your case you can buy an OBD 11, and check the trouble codes.
The new tool is not that much, between $49 and $150.

 

How do you go about getting the controllerback in sync?