forbiddenapple

I will shortly be replacing the lift cylinders on my 2002 CLK55AMG. Hoping someone may have the WIS on the soft top lift and rear top bow cylinders on the W208 convertible.
Just finished installing Klaus replacement case lock and rear bow lock cylinders. Klaus Top Hydraulics DIY instructions made the job a piece of cake, not to mention his excellent service and ultra fast shipping.
Seems these Mercedes models get right at 10-12 yrs on the old seals in the cylinders before they fail.
WIS and hints from anyone would be highly appreciated

Top Hydraulics

forbiddenapple,

Thanks for asking. Yep, the life expectancy of the original cylinder seals is some 10-15 years, depending on climate. Sorry, we do not have DIYs for the black cylinders on our website yet. Would you be interested in sharing some pics of the process with the forum, or possibly even creating some DIYs?

Attached below are the WIS directions for bow cylinders 2088000172, and lift cylinders 2088000072. The tonneau cover lift cylinder 2088000272 is really easy to remove, and does not really require directions (pull up retaining clips on ball mounts, pull ball mounts off the *****, remove hydraulic lines).

When removing the hydraulic lines, be gentle with the black clips and don't lose them. They may need to be wiggled loose before they come off the lines. Small vise grips normally work well for that. Be careful not to bend the tubular port that the hydraulic lines go into.

In some cases (usually near the ocean), the chromed shafts on the black cylinders can have rust under the chrome. The majority of the black cylinders 2088000072, 2088000172 and 2088000272 that we get in for rebuild do NOT have rust under the chrome. If there are rust pits where the shaft slides through the upper seal in the cylinder, then the shaft needs to be replaced. We manufacture our own replacement shafts out of hardened stainless steel at Top Hydraulics. If such a shaft replacement is needed, then there is a surcharge (or the core refund is reduced). Even in this worst case, you still get parts that are better than brand new ones for a fraction of the dealer price.

Just to fill in future readers: the W208 CLK (model years 1998-2003) has seven cylinders in the cabriolet hydraulics:
129 800 16 72 Rear Bow Lock Cylinder mounted in the rear bow lock 124 770 04 26
129 800 00 72 Case Cover Lock Cylinder mounted in case cover lock 124 750 0684 (model years 98-00) or in case cover lock 124 750 09 84 (model years 01-03).
208 800 02 72 Case Cover Cylinder (lifts the storage cover)
208 800 00 72 Main Lift Cylinders (lift the top out of storage compartment onto windshield and back)
208 800 01 72 Bow Cylinders (lift the rear bow (rear window section)

forbiddenapple has already used Top Hydraulics' core exchange for the two lock cylinders mounted in their latches (http://www.tophydraulicsinc.com/en/w...-assembly.html or http://www.tophydraulicsinc.com/en/w...-assembly.html, depending on model year), and replaced them using "joetwa"s awesome instructions http://www.tophydraulicsinc.com/W208...eplacement.pdf.

Bummer that forbiddenapple didn't notice the leaks on the black cylinders sooner, because the package deal on the full set would have been cheaper.

Klaus

www.tophydraulicsinc.com

Al Johnson

Awesome - thanks for the info. just started on this site and was happy to find you posting tis info. I just purchased a 1999 320 CLK Convertible and it is reassuring to see your post. Thank You!

burgca

Purchased the full set from Klaus to replace on 03 CLK430, quick turnaround and fair assessment on core rust. I went for the full set as I wanted a clean start and didn't want to fix 2 and then have the others fail. The cars are over 10 years so cylinder failures should come as no surprise.

forbiddenapple

I should have purchased the full set also, LOL. My thoughts at first were , they looked good and I'll only have to replace the deck and lock cylinders, as they were free flowing hyd fluid. Nada...
Once replaced and the system came up to operating pressures, the bow lift and toplift cylinders started leaking on the passenger side. The telltale puddle on Hyd fluid on the garage floor gave it away, so time to replace those and all the rest and solve the problem. I have no further issues with the top operating, fortunately.