Oh boy, tough call. I'm a different kind of DIYer. This car was down for the winter, so I took my time and was very meticulous. I was never rushed and stopped anytime I felt tired or frustrated. This broke the job up into many chunks of time. I'd give this job 10-20 hours. Naturally, there will be a pause in the job to send the pistons out for rebuilding.

You may luck out and not have to take the top out of the car. I couldn't get one of the fasteners off, so the top came out. It was a clevis-type fastener at the top of one of the hydraulic pistons. Once the top was out, the fastener was easily pursuaded.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

Hello everybody I hate to 'revive' a old dead thread but this thread most closely resembles the problem I am running into. I have a 95 e320 convertable whose top canvas was just changed out by a local upholstery shop, now the top is acting weird. It will move up and down ,given enough time, and the windows and roll bars are going up and down as they should. I guess my first question is should the roll bar switch on the dash flash when the top is all the way up and the front latches at windsheild latched? Could some one possibly point me towards the top diagnostic socket and a list of codes?

I feel that a micro switch or two is not sitting right, I know the upholstery guys didn't index and reattach the small painted flaps correctly because one broke off on them and the other keeps getting hit while working the top. I guess i'll be fixing those two things too.

Thanks for any help

Try this for the codes W124 soft top manual operation 1994 E320 Cabriolet - Page 6 - Mercedes-Benz Forum

If your switch blinks during operation it's telling you there is a code. The microswitch on the drivers side rear in the storage compartment may need adjusting.

O lol its funny that you sent me that particular link I found it last night and was able to get some codes. There were several different codes I think I may have caused a couple in my messing around with the top when the car came back from the upholstery shop. I haven't been able to get the codes to clear. I tried two things one was to hold the switch on my tester until the top switch lit up keep holding until it goes out then cut off the ignition switch. the second was to just unplug the battery all night. The codes are still present. I was hoping to clear all these codes work the top untill in malfunctioned again and then get the codes and figure out where to go from there. Thanks for your time and help I greatly appreciate it.

Hello Kestas,

Hope you are still around on this forum!
If anyone else has any idea what that “electric lead to microswitch hidden under the trim” is all about, please let me know!

I upgraded all my cylinders, reassembled back and am stopping at this same place. The rear bow raises but the tonneau cover doesnt close when doing a raising of the soft top and get stuck in that position.

When I do a top down operation, though, the bow goes inside the compartment, and the tonneau cover closes properly. Has to be some switch or connection that I cant find and its driving me nuts!!! Im an inch away from taking a sledgehammer to the whole car :/

Please help!

I can't remember which microswitch it was. Did you check the codes for faults?

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

No, I dont know how and i think thats because i dont have the equipment.
Thanks for the reply though. My issue was exactly as you described so i was hoping you’d still be around .

I'm working from memory, but it may have been the switch that is hidden behind one of the interior panels near the back set.

If you search my posts, you may find information on how to read codes for the top using a homemade code reader. The electrical ports to plug in the code reader is in the passenger side footwell.

The code reader itself is easy to build using a momentary switch and LED light. I used an old 35mm film canister to hold everything together. The plans to build it and how to use it are also somewhere in these threads. This is the same code reader used for reading codes from the engine.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

Thank you, Kestas. Yeah, that homemade stuff isn’t me. Not nearly enough technical know how for it. If i knew what reader I have to buy and how to clear codes, I’d be on it instantly.

This has got to be a code or switch issue because the tonneau cover closes in the top down operation just fine, and gets stuck in the top up operation when the bow is raised waiting for tonneau to close.