burnout42

Anyway, I just got bought this car. It arrived today on a car hauler. It is a 1999 SL600. When the guy took it off of the truck, the battery was stone dead. We jumped that car and pulled it into the garage. Everything on this car is supposed to be in good working order per the seller, however once we got it in the garage we noticed several issues. The ABS light and the ESP light were on. We then took off the hard top and tried to raise the soft top. We started the car, put the E-brake on and pushed the button foward. The switch just blinks red and nothing happens. If we pull the switch back, it seems like the top "snugs" back down, so it seems like the motor is ok, but it doesn't want to come up. We played with the roll bar position, raising and lowering it, nothing. Same thing. The switch just blinks. WTF?

luda

There is a lot of opinions on jump starting.
There are also several things like windows and ESP/ABS that have to be reset if the batt. goes flat.

Do you have the owners manual?

Also read this:
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r129...d-battery.html

I really hope this did not cause any serious damage.

Regards.

pcviewer

For those warning lights, try turning the steering wheel all the way to the left then all the way to the right and then center the wheel.

You might also need to re sync the windows. To do so, hold the window up switch for about 5 seconds after the window is fully up. You should see the go down a bit during this wait.

As for the soft top issue, I don't have a solid suggestion. All I can say is that the soft top switch can only be used within the first 20 seconds (or even 10 or 30? I think I read this somewhere in the manual) after the key is set into position 2. The car doesn't have to be started.

Bigdot

i have a feeling that your battery issue has something to do with your SL acting like that. i wouldnt worry, and just reset it like pcviewer recomends
Mark

CWW

It was just a dead battery. There was nothing wrong with it, at least not before you jump started it.

NEVER EVER jump start that car again. The car is filled to the brim with sensitive electronic modules (ADS controller, ASR module, soft top controller, and on and on) that will fry during voltage surges. There are a dozen of them, and each one is $1k-$2k+. You can literally total the car without ever leaving the garage.

It's a crap-shoot though, you may have skated by this time. If so, then it's a matter of re-synching the windows, and resetting everything with the lock-to-lock routine, as others have suggested. Next time, call roadside assistance and have them put in another battery, or go get a new battery and charge and install it, and then start the car.

This is a well-known disaster, to the point where on my SL600's battery, I have placed a big piece of masking tape with magic marker saying "DO NOT JUMP START...CALL OWNER".

luda

Hi again.

I agree with the answers above.

How long was the car "sitting" before the battery got flat?
Check the age of the battery. It would probably be a good idea to replace it with a new good quality unit.
Would keep you going for some years without problems.

Regards.

bobterry99

A likely problem is the position of the catches for the two top latches at the windshield and the two at the rear: they all need to be in the "open" position. If you have a look at these you may spot an obvious problem.