Was told that the trunk matting needed to come off in order to remove the old gas springs. I decided to tackle it myself and ended up saving time and money. I used a small needle nose pry bar to remove the metal hooks on the shock heads. It was tricky but not impossible. I then put the new ones in and snapped them back on! It now works like new. Total cost was $63.00! This a a diy job and there is no need to take it to a shop. Good luck!

The partition struts can easily be replaced without removing the trunk paneling. Open the soft top part of the way so that the cover and rear glass are up, and you can access them from the top.

The plastic piece in between one of the rear hinges broke (passenger side). The deck lid will not sit flush. It is slightly popped/raised up. This prevents the top from closing or opening all the way. IE: the top will retract all the way but deck lid remains slightly open or when I close the top comes up but back piece with glass will not go down because deck lid is slightly raised. In both cases deck lid remains only a half inch or so open.

Any info on replacing or fixing is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Here are photos of where my deck lid will not close.

Are you talking about this part (below)? If so, that plastic "arm" is only used as a safety lock to hold the cover open when servicing the hydraulics. Take a pair of pliers or snips and remove as much of it as you can. (And thanks to my friend Adrian over at BW for that pic).

Yes. That is almost as disturbing as it is a relief. Now I have to figure out what is keeping the desk lid from closing.

Thanks!

That plastic piece can interfere with the hinge closing - try snipping it off and then see how it works.

hi, hope all is well.i wanted to know, if you did get your top to open. i am experiencing a similar issue to yours's, after replacing the gas struts?

thanks

First, thank you all for the helpful information posted within.

I have a 2008 CLK 550 and had been getting the "Trunk Partition Open" warning for some time but was able to correct it after resetting the partition down, in its place.
I take c-r-a-p in and out of the trunk often.

Now it will not stay fully seated, depressing the switch, and it seems as though it is as simple as replacing the struts but I have to first ask: Does the trunk lid need to be closed for the top to operate?

(Note that I have depressed the switch, where the partition seats, on the drivers side, w/lid up, to try and lower the top but I continue to get the same error msg.)

Thank you for any additional help and best regards,
L

On my 2005 CLK350 the trunk must be closed to operate the top. If it were not, physical damage would result :-(

Thank you.
I going to tape, or whatever, the switch closed to see if that works in hope to eliminate one of the "flies in the ointment".

Best, L

So, I used a small piece of Gorilla tape to close the switch, closed the trunk, and the top operated properly.
Thank you RussWhite/all.

Then I tried the link http://www.spdhardware.com/ but get the error code 403 - Forbidden: Access is denied."

A google search of the part number given gave an Amazon link to the following:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UC1B2C...I1LLD8Y5M8L9TX

Look about right?

Best, L

Does anyone know where to order the 2 struts for the partition? Mine need to be replaced also. The spdhardware thread is no longer in existance. Thanks

I found these on ebay but they are expensive for 2 from Germany:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-STABILUS-...Gia7#vi-ilComp

Here is another Ebay post but they ship from USA:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Mercedes...1UrT2v&vxp=mtr

Here is an Amazon post for 2 struts and the best price I found for 2 including free S&H:

https://www.amazon.com/Partition-STA...rtition+strut#

Perhaps...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UC1B2C...SIN=B002UC1B2C

Parts.com has the OEM strut $34.22 each + S&H (This is the Stabilus OEM strut 2096900059) Ebay is about the same price but free S&H

Using bungy chord to hold my trunk partition open until I found this thread.
Got the strut number off the original strut and googled it. Several parts house had in stock for half the MB price. Ordered from Autohausaz.com they matched my clk part.
Will install next week. This strut hold both the partition open and closed.
Thank you MB world.

Hello folks, I have recently become attached to the topics and threads here, it is great to see all the technical acumen and advise from all of you.

I have come across many threads that solve convertible top problems for CLK - eg boot lid closing problem and gas cylinders to hold the switch to close the top and others, however my problem is alittle different.

The top is actually now open, and I receive "top visit workshop" message and fails to close. Last year I had a complete overhaul of the hydraulic system which costed close to a fortune!

Thinking #1:
I thought there would be a problem in the boot partition lid as I have received messages before to close it even though I made sure it was, I tried to tape the switch (small switch left hand top corner on boot partition) and keep it pressed, did not work.

Thinking #2: I read in owners manual how you can reset the top operation by removing and reconnecting the fuse / jumper #28 (side fuse box), did not work.

Thinking #3: I disconnected the battery for some long time hoping it would reset any system faults and then I will be able to operate the top, failed.

Thinking #4: I disconnected the battery, removed the convertible top fuse, connnected the battery after some long time, connected the fuse again, failed.
Ps, During this I switched the car on before reconnecting the fuse, and I had a red warning message - Please release the rollover bar...

Thinking #5: I thought I would try to manually close the top as per the owners manual (removing the panel behind the center top indoor lights then use the allen key placed inside the owners manual case etc..) I could not remove that panel..



Hence, my top is still up and I really appreciate any advise or sharing previous experiences to help me close the top again.

Thanks and regards...

OK, I'm confused. At the beginning you say the top is open, and at the end you say it is "up" but needs to be closed. You also say you could not get the panel off by the rear view mirror. But if your top is down, then that panel would be in the trunk, not by the rear view mirror. So let's start at the beginning. Is your top up/closed or down/open? If down, then try the manual method to raise it. When you say you could not remove the panel, what are you talking about? All you have to remove is a little round plug about the size of a 50 cent piece. But it is not by the mirror if your top is in the trunk. That piece is attached to the top.

Thank you Yidney, I am afraid I was writing the post late night and I got you confused

What I meant was the roof is down = open.

Now the panel, please forget about what I wrote, I was actually looking at the mechanism to slide open the sunroof (which I do not have) again, drowsy mistake!

I saw the video below which suggests another way to manually close the top..
http://benzbits.com/w209/soft_top/ManualClose.wmv
[Thanks to Rudeney who posted this earlier]

I will try to close the top manually and see if this would reset the switches back to normal state.
do you think this could work? any suggestions on the error message I have "top visit workshop" and how to erase it?

Thanks again.

If it resets things, then the light ought to go out on its own. You don't say if you hear any noises or anything happens when you try to raise it. But keep in mind that absent a fluid leak, the main issues is that some limit switch is not working. So don't expect that some "reset" procedure is necessarily going to work.

I see, thanks for your response.
Will try the manual close and the diagnosis and will post an update soon.

And put it all in one thread so that you don't have Rodney responding in one thread and me responding in another to the same questions.