I have a 1996 500sl and that is the first year of the new top design. I had a dead battery over the winter. When I got the new battery in, the hard top came off easy and the soft top went up but the rear bow would not lock down but after being left up over night it stretched out enough to lock. The new battery went dead again in 1 weak (needed a prolonged low charge). The battery is OK now but all I get out of the soft top when I try to lower it is a blinking top switch (no solenoid or relay clicks or pump motor whine). I checked the fuses and the relays and hooked up the OBDII and cleared the codes (there were none). The top still does not respond to the switch. Tomorrow, I will manually unlock the top bow and disconnect the control unit and reconnect it. I hope that will fix it. Other than that I am fresh out of ideas.