Droptop Benzo

Hello, newbie here. I have a 2002 CLK 430 W208 that has a soft top that suddenly stopped working.

It is currently stuck in the up (covered) position. The top will not go up or down, makes no sounds like it’s attempting to.

The roll bar headrests are controllable with the dash switch.

The windows go down when the top is popped open.

All fuses and relays have been checked.

When attempting to operate the opening and closing of the top, the switch to do so located by the shifter’s red light variates between being solid, flashing fast, and flashing slow with no rhyme or reason as to which that I can discern. I only attempt to do this with the trunk closed and the luggage thing pulled out.

I’ve had a guy looking at it for me, retired mechanic, and he has taken apart and put back together many of the components in the trunk. Last night he trickle charged the battery of see if that was the the issue as the car isn’t driven much (67,000 miles in 15 years all driven joyfully with the top down with a few dreary exceptions).

We have not yet tried to manually open then close the top to resequence as the windows going down seems to suggest that it knows the first part of said sequence. The roll bar headrests Do Not do anything unless engaged from the dash switch though so that could prove me wrong.

Today my mechanic friend comes to me and exclaims “I found the problem!” And was holding a small part. It was the actual switch used to open and close the top, the one that was flashing and staying solid at different times. (Part A 208 820 28 10) He believed something got spilled near there and had messed up the little switch. I don’t remember spilling anything, but took his word for it and ordered a new part for $79 from the Stealership.

Now my question is: Could this really be the case? Could that switch render the raising and lowering of the top impossible? Any advice or theories would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Plutoe

If you can follow this you will be able to confirm Biff's diagnostic ability.


You have an electrical circuit that includes an on\off wall switch and a 5000 USD bulb.----The bulb does not actuate when the switch is paced in the on position----how would Biff diagnose and fix the problem.

Droptop Benzo

Hi Plutoe,

Thank you for reading my post. Unfortunately I guess I am too thick to understand the lightbulb metaphor and how it pertains to the switch in my car. I see that you are a fanatic member so I'm guessing you know your stuff. I'm a newbie and am unsure who Biff even is! Could you please have mercy on me and let me know what you think? Is a simple switch the root of a problem like the top not going up or down, what seems to be a complex issue?

Thank you in advance for your time.

Droptop Benzo

I get it. It's like hazing. Ask a question, get a riddle. It's cool how an expert starts an answer with "If you can follow this..." regarding someone's diagnostic ability when the question was about someones diagnostic abilities and not being able to follow them.

Where there was once darkness, you brought the light plutoe. You brought the $5000 light.

Shine on, you beautiful diamond. Shine on.

davidjohnbamber

If your mechanic doesn't have M-B Star to diagnose your problem, find someone who does.

Plutoe

Dear Benzo, I described a high school electrical circuit and asked for your understanding. You had much difficulty in providing a correct answer and I do not have the time to bring you up to speed-----follow the advice in the previous post as doing so will save you getting a second job to repair you car.

GatorMB

The blinking light means there is a fault. This is a good thing.

Someone with STAR C3 or C4 can retrieve the fault.

Don't let too many fiddle about when a hard fault is stored. Make sure the luggage protector is closed.

Cheers, Gator

Droptop Benzo

After doing tons of research on this forum and others I have finally after 3 months fixed the ability for my soft top to open and close automatically with the switch as meant to when it was new from the factory.

The fix was simple and of course the last thing I tried.

I checked the relay it was fine.

All fuses were fine.

The switch to operate the soft top was replaced as it turns out, for no reason.

There were no leaks or issues with the hydrolic systems.

It was baffling, yet I didn’t have the means to have it looked at by the dealer who had a WDS diagnostic machine. (They wanted $375 just to hook it up).

I referred to page 288 in my owners manual about manually raising and lowering the top. People in the forums stated that doing so could “reset the sequence” of the tops operation. I had a friend help me with the medium difficulty task of taking the top down to the “convertible” position and then back up to the closed (depressing) position.

This did the trick. The top now opens and closes with no problems.

I now have a working convertible with a little time left in summer.

tjanoski

Well my convertible top issue is back among other not working stuff. This is a backup car I do not use that much so that helps a little. In the spring I but a new relay in the trunk by the hydraulic unit after testing by switching with the fuel pump relay and that seemed to fix the issue. I am back after some extended travel and back to square one.

Condition:
Top is up.
Roll bar light and convertible top switches are illuminated red. Nothing happens when I try to put the top down.

Windows do not work from inside car but do work with remote.

Side mirrors do not work but do move when using the stored 123 positions.

Trunk release on key and from inside car do not work now. This is new. I can open the trunk with the key.

I have disassemble the trunk down to the metal box where the hydraulic stuff is located.

Star diagnostic was done and the mechanic said he didn't see anything with the top. I think I may need to go do this again.


Looking for guidance on the following:


1. Is the top, rollbar, windows, side mirrors and trunk release all on the same circuit or something?

2. Other posts talk about common frayed electrical wires that mess up the top. I have looked in the trunk around battery and don't see any issues. Are there other places to check.

3. I looked at the lock mechanism in the trunk and noticed that the plastic casing it fits in is cracked (just a small crack). Could this impact the system so that somehow the top controller doesn't know that the trunk is closed? When I hit the remote trunk release I do here a motor sounding noise on the battery side of car but it doesn't open the trunk.

I am going to take off the covering of the trunk around the lock today and see if anything appears damaged there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.