kunzet

Car has been garaged and stationary for about two years. During that period I had the battery on tender and the hardtop fitted. Car started up no problem and drives fine. Removed hardtop and activated softtop to raise.

Softtop lid cover does not unlatch on passenger side. No apparent leakage of hydraulic cylinder, meaning no puddle underneath the car.

Any suggestions how to proceed are highly appreciated.

Plutoe

Once again the system is complicated, therefore the quickest way to determine what is faulty, find an Indy with a copy of DAS or a local with an equal. Remember the B and C faults are not readable with your handy dandy OBD.

SRHsl600

I would hand open the latches and raise the top. (thin wrench in the tool kit for my generation of the R 129 )
I have had the latches stuck as well as bent and once freed I could then deal with those problems.
Plutoe's advise is important because the controller is the brain and it needs proper diagnosis not a hammer!
Good luck and welcome back to the rolling Benz crowd.

kunzet

My suspicion about this being a controller problem is growing. Battery is fully charged and fluid level is fine. No leakage has been detected. Luckily I have a competent shop in my neighborhood. Looks like this is going to be my next step.

bobterry99

If you removed the hard top using the console switch and the system hydraulics the controller is probably fine, and it is far more likely that you simply have a lock out of position as SRH's post suggested.

kunzet

Closing the loop on my post:

My shop ran diagnostics and cleared error codes from the controller. After that was done the top functioned flawlessly again. The error codes must have come about while the car was sitting on the battery tender. I don't have any other explanation for the situation, but I am relieved that it was cheap to fix.