Tilting Sunroof help - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

w123fanman · #1 05-17-2016, 12:36 AM

I finally got my 190E to not idle at 450 rpm by replacing the fuel distributor assembly because the air flow meter potentiometer on the fuel distributor that had been on the car was shot and the mixture was hopelessly out of adjustment. The fuel distributor from my parts car had an unmolested mixture adjustment and an unknown potentiometer but that car ran better than my daily driver ever had. Car now idles at 850 in park and normal in gear but I'm not too worried about that anymore since it doesn't stall out and the system is going to be replaced by megasquirt at some point anyway.

Since that was fixed, I decided I needed to tackle an issue the car had when I first bought it: the sunroof didn't open. This had become more of an issue lately as when I was trying to have a look at what was wrong, it shifted something in the sunroof and it would just flap up and down while driving which was entirely too loud to listen to my audio books while driving on the interstate.

The headliner panel had been zip tied in place in the rear so I knew something was wrong. I was able to force the roof back so I could totally remove that panel and look for anything that looked broken. I didn't see anything broken but I thought it looked odd anyway so I went and pulled the sunroof out of my parts car and discovered that the lift mechanisms had been totally missing in my driver. I pulled all of the bits from my parts car but discovered that one of the lift arms was broken so I went out to the parts yard and pulled another assembly. I also picked up some of the Mercedes sunroof grease from Johnathan at Blue Ridge Mercedes (only place I know of that sells it in small sizes in Atlanta after Rusty's place changed owners).

I cleaned and lubed everything I could, even replaced the cable with the one I pulled at the yard out of a car that had smooth operation. Once I got it back together, I could not get the sunroof to sit down all the way in the front so it doesn't seal. Also, the fully closed position does not correspond to the switch, as holding the switch forward to put the roof forward tilts it up most of the way.

After a few times of the sunroof opening and closing, I had one of the felt pads disintegrate and the roof didn't want to close. I got it to close but I think I need to replace all of the pads as I saw that some of them were missing anyway when I checked the parts diagrams. I read another thread about a W126 where someone said they used nylon to make the sliding pads instead of buying all new ones from the dealer (an expensive proposition).

So does anyone have any ideas of how to fix these issues? I think for the height of the sunroof in the front, there are screws that adjust the height of the rail but I don't know if those are what I want to touch. There is an adjustment on the cable motor but I don't know how to operate that. Nylon seems to be a more durable replacement for felt pads but I don't know how to work with it as I have never used it before.

renaissanceman · #2 05-17-2016, 01:09 PM

That person was me -- I provided plastic sliders to another member for testing. I'm playing with the idea of developing plastic replacements that don't need the expensive grease and last longer.

Are you interested in some for testing? The ones I have designed are for a non-tilting roof, but they may be the same.

Let me know.

mikeyfev1 · #3 05-17-2016, 08:59 PM

Yea, I can't imagine that Teflon or some other material won't last at least as long and slide better. Keep us informed of any progress please.