The pump sounds like it's going when I press the button down. The light goes solid red and roof seems to get tighter.

Trying to open it by lifting the button and the light just flashes. What is the car looking for? Why is it not even trying to open the top? Please don't assume I know anything because I have no owners manual and have only had the car a week!

I'm not sure about the SLK, but for my cabriolet the latches by the windshield visors must be open for the top to operate (up and down). Perhaps the same logic applies to your top. Don't fret, even after a year of owning my car I sometimes forget this bit of protocol and find myself staring at the blinking red light.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K

How do you do the SLK latches? I didn't know there were any.

On a car like this, you really need the owners manual.
Call 1 800 FOR-MERCedes and they will sell you one over the phone, probably the fastest way to get it.
When attempting to lower the top, the first thing I believe happens is the windows all roll down, including those little rear ones (the little wedge shaped ones). Are the windows rolling down or not? Will the door windows roll down using the window switches?
The previous posters comments don't pertain to your SLK, the latches are all hydraulically operated on the SLK, on his cabriolet, there is a manual latch you use to unlatch the front latches.
Will the windows roll down in the express or "toll booth" mode (the one touch down feature)? If the wondows have lost synchronization, like if the battery went dead or was disconnected) this possibly may keep the top from operating.
Be very careful about this top, it is very sophisticated and if you can't figure it out, consult a repair shop, you can really mess it up if your aren't careful.

Gilly

I bought a flood damaged SLK 320, 2001 off of Ebay. Salvage title for about 10k less than a mint one would have gone for. Every single electrical component in the car was wasted. Took me a week just to get the thing started. Every circuit board had to come out, every electric motor had to be rebuilt, including the hydraulic motor. Pretty simple stuff for us at Tech Edge but time consuming. The problem has mainly been buying new tools for the Mercedes, not having an owners manual (it got water damaged as well), and not having a shop manual. We got the electircal schematics and that helps but it's nice to learn about the normal operations of the car here.

Anyway the windows work fine up and down via the switches. They also work with one touch lowering. The red button still just flashes when I try to lower the top though. I'm sure the car is wanting some condition to be met but I'm just not sure what it is. Do the doors have to be closed? Parking brake on? anything else?

Open the trunck and you should see a sliding black cloth, luggage cover or what ever you want to call it. It must be pulled back to its rear most position against its lockout switches to work. If that is not in place the top will not lower. You need an owners manual for this car to really understand what I'm talking about, but hopefully you'll see what I'm trying to describe.

I found that out just before you posted and it's working. Thanks guys.