60,000 mile blues - '90 R129 - ragtop problem - search n/g - 2nd request

[tony s]

Help,

I’ve got the 60,000 miles blues. I’ve tried a search under all sorts of combos with no luck, so at the risk of being redundant I need to ask for help. (posted a few day's ago in tech forum)

My ’90 R129 is due for it’s 60,000 service and has been operating faultlessly untill tonight. When I lowered the ragtop (all original) the rear deck was very slow to raise and the roof was equally slow to store. This was with the engine running. When I was done the roof almost didn’t close. Once again the deck was slow to rise and the roof barely made it of the hump of the halfway mark.

It’s closed now or at least appears to be, however the light is on the alarm sounds when the car is in drive. The top looks closed from the outside but I can’t be sure. If you try to open the roof it only seems to unlock from the rear and nothing more, however you can hear the motor running while the switch is engaged.

Is this easy to fix? I’m fairly mechanical if I can find the time, or is there a fuse I can pull to silence the f__king thing while driving it to the dealership.

Oh ya, one more thing I had the rollbar up the last time I shut the roof so it may be related. I lowered the rollbar using the switch since the roof was having such a hard time. The rollbar is also not operative.

thanks
tony

I'll look in the trunk Saterday for the hydro. res.

[MBenzNL]

Sounds to me like you have a hydraulic problem. Check the oil level and if that is still OK, you might have problems with a leaking hose or hydraulic valve. I had a problem with one of the valves/solenoids as well and brought it to the dealer to have it repaired since I figured that it would take too long for me to find what was wrong (this was about 1,5 year ago and I didn't know a thing about the R129 back then).
The beeping sound and flickering switch means that the top is not closed. You probably have to use the top-emergency-tool to close the top manual (locking the second part of the lock, since the top managed to lock the top partly).

The hydraulic system of the top and roll bar is very complex; the rear part of the car is filled with hydraulic lines, valves, switches, solenoids and such. It is not something I would just start trying to repair...

greetingz,

I also have a 1990 SL. Softtop is very slow to move up/down when it is hot (over 25 C, 80 F) weather. Mechanic states that the motor that runs the hydraulic system for the roof needs replacing. Only $1800 USD!!!
In the meantime, I use the wrench that came in the toolkit to manually latch the roof when the red light doesn't go out. Refer to the owner's manual for instructions for manual roof latching. My problem is with the front latches. Swing sun visors out of the way, remove small plugs in the cross pillar, and insert wrench and turn one or two clicks. If the rear pins aren't latching either, you get at them from the trunk. Hope this helps.