My sunroof has been out of comission for nearly 2 years now due to a broken track on the driver side, and I'm curious how involved the repair procedure will be. My uncle quoted me $1200 (parts and labor), which is a little on the obscene side in my book, so I let it slide, but now it's getting to be a problem. At high speeds, the driver side rear corner of the sunroof lifts about 2", which scared the living crap out of me, but it also arouses some concern about how well the roof is sealing without being properly secured by the track. Has anyone ever done this? If so, am I biting off more than I can chew? Please let me know if this is something I should even attempt. Thanks in advance.

Hmm... Anyone?

I get the feeling it's just a broken lifter, but my uncle informed me that there are a few parts that should be replaced while I'm in there due to updated designs (some parts of the sliding roof have already been updated in my car, but not all apparently... I'm glad my uncle did all the service on this car before the owner sold it to me, detailed history is nice). Regardless, is the headliner removal process terribly difficult or tricky? And once I'm into the sunroof itself, how finicky are the components? I don't want to get in there and have a hundred small parts shoot out at me (I already did that trying to repair my passenger seat adjustment unit... luckily, I only lost one of the ball bearings and ended up finding a Copperhead BB as a suitable replacement, so it works like a champ again). Please let me know. Thanks!

PS - I already asked my uncle how difficult he thought it was, and he made it out to be pretty tricky... However, he has made a lot of the projects I've embarked upon with my car sound far more difficult than they really were, so I'd like to get a 2nd opinion. I don't want this to be the first time he undershoots the complexity of the situation

It is hard to say whether it is hard to do without knowing your abilities but .... if you have some tech ability (sounds like it) and you understand how to do it, and you take your time, it isn't too bad a job.

I ventured into the sunroof on my wagon and 190e. Here is the link to the wagon: 95 e320 Wagon Sunroof: It must be possessed

Try searching using a few key words such as: 300e sunroof tilt

Let us know if we can help,

Haasman

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'03 E320 Wagon-Sold
'95 E320 Wagon-Went to Ex
'93 190E 2.6-Wrecked
'91 300E-Went to Ex
'65 911 Coupe (#302580)

I am not sure that the sunroof on your car is similar to mine but I just spent a couple of hours going over mine (replace cable) and it was actually less complicated than I thought. I have an 83 300cd and because of the age of the car the lubrication had dried up in the cable housing to the motor in the trunk and the motor chewed up the cable. I replaced the cable after cleaning the tube with some Brake Clean fluid and running the old cable in it back and forth with a small bucket under the trunk end of the cable housing. I disassembled the sunroof with the help of the CD available for our cars and it was suprisingly simple (great design). The headliner releases simply if done correctly and with the new cable it now opens and closes like it was new. I would go for it if I were you and just make sure to set aside some time to not be rushed....

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83 300CDTurbo 307,000
2005 Honda Element 266,000
56 Nash Ambassador Country Club Special 34,000(under restoration presently)

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/car-audio-multimedia/125099-123-install-extreme-dynamat.html

I just had the two angle lifts replaced on my 1989 300e and each angle lift was $125.00 and it took about 2 hours to put them both in. The job was done by a Mercedes mechanic in my area and my total cost was 400.00 + tax.

Thanks for the info guys.

One concern I have... What are the most common items to break in the sunroof assembly? The cable is fine, and the right side seems fine... I just need to know if I should purchase the triangular lifting brackets or the entire lifting units ($8.50 vs. $125), and I don't want to pull off the headliner before I make the actual repair. What do you guys think?

It seems that the angle lifts are the ones that will give out before anything else, and if one goes the other will follow soon. I would replace both of them.

When I asked my mechanic about the roof on the 300e’s he mentioned that most if not all roof issues he has seen were the result of the broken angle lifts and rarely has he seen the cable break or the motor stop working.

If you are mechanically "ept" and you can get the roof to move back at least part way, this will take you about 4 hours. Not hard, but fiddlesome.

I just posted bried instructions for someone else.

$1200 is way out of line, this is a couple hours when you've done it a couple times, and parts are around $125 (mine were about $100 four years ago).

Only one real caveat: once you have the roof panel off, you cannot leave the car outside until you get it back on!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Yeah, I can caress it into moving partway back... I've just gotta plug the unit back in and get someone to push it down and back as I use the switch. Does this make the job easier? I've never seen the roof taken apart on any level, so a basic description of why this would make things faster/easier would help me visualize the whole project a lot easier. I'm going to replace the seal as well when I'm in there.

It is MUCH easier to get the headliner on the sunroof loose with the sunroof partway retracted. You need to slip a putty knife between the headliner and the sunroof to pry the four plastic clips off, and this works MUCH better with the thing open! It goes out the TOP, it's larger than the hole on the inside, and you are very likely to ruin it getting in down inside.

You will also need to remove the chrome rails that the panel rides on the get the lift angles out, this is also much easier if you can open the sunroof.

Once you get the headliner out of the way, you can disconnect the cable and lift angles from the translation bridge and move things around as needed.

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!