i have 99 ml 430. it has 66000 miles on the clock. i have found a leak in the sun roof. usually this happens when it goes through a car wash with high pressure water. it does not happen when it rains
are there any adjustments or maitenaince that can be done by a do - it yourselfer?
the car is out of warranty. I am usually pretty handy but i do not know where to start.
thanks.

Where on the sunroof is the leak; front/rear/left/right.......??

Gilly

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the leak looks like it is coming from the right front corner if you are looking up from the drivers seat.it would drip on the passenger front seat. i also get a whistling noise on the highway which would probably suggest an opening somewhere. the roof opens and closes fine.

The sunroof seal (on the glass part) can be spread out to allow a tighter fit, especially if the leak is just in a smaller area. It is done from underneath the seal, it can be spread out with something like a wooden or plastic wedge, or an old screwdriver.

Gilly

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gilly;
thanks for all your help. this is a great sight.
i went out and fooled around with the sunroof. i blew out any leaves . tried to adjust the front of the sunroof a little. i took it on the higway and i still got the whistling noise so i am assuming that the sunroof will still leak. i have a wind deflector also. could this be the cause of the whistling sound. i have not run it through the car wash yet.

also what type of grease does mb recomend for the sunroof?

A water leak you really need to do the water-testing, like with a friend using a water hose while you watch from inside.
On a wind leak, I am not really sure how you are getting the wind leak with a deflector installed, that's a new one on me. Can you try a roadtest with it removed and see if there is a change?
If it weren't for the deflector, my comment would be that you need to close the roof, and the FRONT of the sunroof should be below the surface of the front of the roof itself by maybe about 1/8" (few mm's), and the rear of the roof should be up above the roof surface by about the same amount. The adjust ment screws are visible by tilting the sunroof up and removing the rubber accordian "bellows", 2 screws on each side, uses a Torx bit to loosen, not too bad, plus there is some front/rear adjustment in those screws too.
One trick is to use a dollar bill (because it's tougher than normal paper), and just open and close the roof and see how much "drag" there is when trying to pull the bill out of the sunroof and roof opening "gap". If there is almost no drag at all, maybe it needs to be tightened up a bit, either a panel adjustment or the w/strip widened out a bit like I previously mentioned.
If things are really bad, the w/strip is available as a seperate part, the glass panel need to be removed to do that, but those 4 screws I mentioned are all the needs to be removed to pull the glass panel, so not a tough job. If you are going to pull those rubber bellows out, just be careful and real observant or you can tear the "accodian" part away from the plastic pieces that secure the bellows to the roof assembly. DON'T pull on the rubber part itself or it'll tear, and also maybe just practice on just one side doing the install and removal of the bellows so you can remember how to reinstall them, it's a bit tricky and I'm at a loss as far as how to explain the procedure. Not so tricky that you can't figure it out though......"it's just as easy as it looks"

Gilly

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gilly
thanks for your help. i tried the "dollar trick" after some adjustments and it seemed to work.the bellows all looked good. they looked like new.not brittle and very pliable it was just tight quarters to get in.it was pretty easy to figure. it has been raining hard up here in the northeast for the last 2 days . no water has leaked in. i will have to wait to test it out in the car wash.

You can have a new set of bellows and still tear them. The usual case is the rear of the bellows will tear, up on the top part (by the glass roof). If you just put your index finger on the outside of the bellows and pull it can tear the rubber, you have to pull on the hard plastic part, not just tug on the bellows.

Gilly

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