gottspd

Hi there.

I'm excited to have purchased a low mileage 2002 CLK55 cab. It's in great shape, however it does have an issue that I could use your help with. The issue is that the tonneau cover doesn't go up quite high enough when the top is going up or down, so the leading edge of the top ends up snagging on the latch on the tonneau cover. If I let go of the button and get out of the car and nudge the cover back, everything is fine, but that's not terribly convenient!

I am really new to this car and power convertible tops in general (my previous convertible was a miata and it had a manual top). I spoke with someone from TopHydraulics, but he wasn't feeling well, so the conversation ended before I got to understand what he was suggesting could be wrong. The gist of what he said was that I might need to bend something, but I wasn't sure what to bend.

In any event, can you help me with this?

Serndipity

Top-Hydraulics has been both a tremendous forum sponsor and resource to the MB community. In addition his rebuilding services in the hydraulic area, Klaus has unselflessly provided guidance and helped numerous individuals with unrelated matters, to his core business.

The MB power roof system is very complex and sooner or later, something will fail on these 10 - 15 year old models.

Besides a controller, one or more of the 7 hydraulic cylinder develops a leak, or one of the more than a dozen position/limit switches fail. Other common issues have been the pump relay, tensioner cables and broken or frayed wiring. Additionally, the power window and roll-bar systems must be 100% functional.

It's not a question of 'if' but 'when' it will fail to operate.

The MB STAR DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM (a.k.a. SDS) usually can pin point the condition the controller fails at. Note: this may not be possible with your condition.

The good news is that there are many threads here and at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/ chock full of troubleshooting and DIY repair help.

While it has not been a common isue, I do recall recently reading about someone that had and repaired the same issue you have (e.g. soft top bow hits the soft top cover lid).

Using the forum search feature is you friend.

A couple of search hints:

1. I read about this issue recently (in the last 3 or 6 months) and time can be selected using advanced search.

2. Most forums use Google search, where 1st keyword has the highest weight, the 2nd keyword the next highest etc.

FWIW: My prior ride was a BMW 3 series cabrio (E36) with manually operated roof....great joy. Unfortunately, the MB CLK styling made my heart throb.

PS: Next ride likely to be a Miata (if they can be had with a manually operated roof).

gottspd

Perhaps someone can point me to the thread referenced above. I've been looking for an hour and went back to last summer in this forum looking for it with no success. Anyone familiar with this tonneau cover issue?

Serndipity

gootspd.......unfortunately, with so many newbies buying 10- 15 year old MB convertibles, today there many fragments/dead ends etc., it's going to take more than one hour of searching to find the post I referred to.

You won't find it as a specific topic (e.g. description) of you issue.....it was as a part of a much longer thread, regarding power top roof problems.

That said, there is a current thread at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w208...-problems.html

This thread does suggest your issue might be related to tensioner cables.

However, IMHO, that post is somewhat ambiguous.

If your expecting a more specific / magical reply to your post, you'll be disappointed.

On the other hand if your have good trouble shooting / diagnostic, DIY skills you'll be very rewarded after more than one hour of searching.

Serndipity

gootspd.......unfortunately, with so many newbies buying 10- 15 year old MB convertibles, today there many fragments/dead ends etc., it's going to take more than one hour of searching to find the post I referred to.

You won't find it as a specific topic (e.g. description) of you issue.....it was as a part of a much longer thread, regarding power top roof problems.

That said, there is a current thread at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w208...-problems.html

This thread does suggest your issue might be related to tensioner cables.

However, IMHO, that post is somewhat ambiguous.

If your expecting a more specific / magical reply to your post, you'll be disappointed.

On the other hand if your have good trouble shooting / diagnostic, DIY skills you'll be very rewarded after more than one hour of searching.

Andy11UK

Hi There,

I had the same issue - the next time the lid is up stop it and see if the bottom ball joint on the ram is loose, there's a captive nut that come loose and allows movement, only a little but enough to cause the roof to hit, easy fix, when you assist the cover your see the movement at the bottom

https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...ml#post6015437

gottspd

Andy, thanks for your reply. I ended up doing the same thing. Reading your post was very re-assuring that I wasn't missing something because I couldn't believe that there is no access to that nut (what a remarkably odd design!). So, I decided to do what you did, I drilled a hole to access it (I went from the cabin side (as opposed to the trunk side, which did you do?). I am still having a bit of trouble getting a wrench on the side with the nut because of where my hole is, so well it's better, it's not as tight as it should be. I am going to go after it again in the coming days. Thanks again for your post because I was feeling a bit unsure of what I'd done, so it felt good to read that you'd done the same thing.

Andy11UK

No probs at all , I too went in via the cabin about 10cm to the left of the ball joint, I can't remember what spanner\socket we used but have a feeling used a mini mirror and light to shine in, I think once you have the nut held the ball joint can be tightened,

I know its an odd design it must be tack welded before the box section is completed, I looked for hours and could see no way inside it,