If the car has a regular bladed key (regular key slot for the key to go in to to start the car) then it is not a 1998. 1998 was the first year for the smartkey. Would look generally like this:
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So need to get this part straightened out first as far as what you have for a car and key.
1.The window switches and mirror switches are in the center console, when you were detailing if you got a bit too much cleaner in the switches you might have a situation where it might work when it dries out or you may have fried it. The electrical panel in the lower center console is a 1 piece unit. An eBay part would work fine, no special programming required.
Is the motor noise possiby under the back seat on the passengers side? Unsure about this, one of those things that needs to be heard I guess. The PSE pump is under the rear seat cushion is the reason I ask about the location. I am also a bit uncertain on what you mean when you mention programming the key and hearing this noise, what were you trying to program??
2. Yeah wiring or a part
. On the defective bulb warning, lots of common "overlooks", would be the running lights as I call them, those are minor intensity bulbs which are on the inner (high beam) lenses, they should always be on with the car running. Other ones are the front side marker lights, and the license plate light bulbs, also check the center brake light.
3. Functions are called Summer opening and convenience closing. Convenience closing; if the windows are down, you get out of the car, point the remote at the outside door handle area, and press and hold the "lock" button on the remote, the windows will close as long as you hold the button, it will also close the sunroof if opened.
Summer opening: When approaching the car to enter it, same thing, you point the remote at the door handle, and press and hold the "unlock" button, as long as you hold that down the windows will all open. I can't remember if the sunroof opens as well, I think it depends on if it was opened or not when the car was locked. I think it had to be opened and then closed using the convenience closing feature when the car was last locked, again not 100% on that. HAS to have the remote pointed at the receiver in the door handle though for sure, as this is done using IR, not RF, as MB wants you to have line of sight to the car when this is all happening to avoid injuries to others.
4. Probably needs new cables, easy to check if you know what to look for, would need to unclip the inner sunroof panel (the trim panel that looks like the headliner material) which is easy to do, then slide that panel back so you can see the cable guides. Usually the roof has gone without lube for so long that it eventually gets so hard to move that the cable pops out of it's guides. Once it does that, you can lube the sunroof but really won't work reliably. Once it pops out the cable will continue to want to pop out again, it is sort of "bent" at that point in the cable and will continue to fail. So if this is what happened, the roof panel needs to come off, the guides all lube, along with all the other junk that needs lube (sliding shoes, etc) and the cables replaced. Happy news is that other than the roof panel being removed, the sunroof itself can stay in place, won't need to remove the headliner or like that, so happy happy. There is a small part on each side that comes off to pull the cables, which is where the cable will bend and pop out, those small parts usually need to be replaced as well but are dirt cheap, even from MB. Shame people just don't want to maintain these cars, all it takes is 5 or 10 minutes a year to lube the slides and they will operate for years, it's easy to do when the ROOF WILL OPEN (dah!!). Beyatch to fix it once it gets to this stage.
Gilly