SL500 R230 Roof Hydraulic Leaking/Inop.
 

My hardtop wont open and the hydraulics are leaking. I'm trying to have my roof hydraulics serviced by Top Hydraulics but cant get to the actual hydraulics. Should I replace just the main ones? Who has experience?

I believe that the R230’s have 11 different roof and roll bar cylinders. Have you determined which one/ones are leaking? Were you going to have them all rebuilt? The one that locks the roof to the windshield is usually the first to go. Do you have much mechanical ability? The front one that I mentioned can be rebuilt without removing it all the way to the pump if you do it yourself. You would get to the others by removing the liners in the trunk.

Where are you located? Maybe someone local could give you some guidance.

Tim

You can get to them, you have to manually raise the roof. That's the only way to access them to replace them anyway, might as well open it up and confirm which ones are leaking. The common culprits are the locking cylinders for the trunk lid on each side, and the large single one that lifts the trunk lid/frame backwards. But they all leak, and if you replace one or two, you will often find another one or two leaking now that they are getting full pressure.

Thanks guys. Im in San Antonio. Up to this point i've removed the headliner and got to the front lock hydraulic which obviously needs fixing. I'll send that one off to get rebuilt. I'm going to double check the ones in the trunk mentioned. I dont see any other ones that are leaking. Right now my headliners off, the rear roll bar area is taken apart, as well as the trunk area near the pump. Its a pain to get to all of them but I'll get it done and post an update.

If you use the repair kit for the top one it's not that bad, if not, you have to remove a ton of stuff to route the lines properly. Had to do one a couple months ago, wasn't fun.

After spending all day taking apart everything I was finally able to remove the front lock cylinder with the entire line. I just sent it over to Top Hydraulics to get rebuilt. I inspected all of the hydraulics/lines and it looks like that was the only one leaking. I hope I didnt miss anything that needs to get replaced/rebuilt. Which ones did you end up replacing? I just bought this car and the top wasnt working at all. Hopefully that fixes the issue. 2005 SL500.

The car I did the top one on got a rear trunk lift cyl and one of the side latches, then the top one. I'm a dealer tech so I've done them on a couple different cars. Always sucks, just have to be super careful not to break any of the old plastic parts.

I had the same experience as Italian Joe. If you don’t have fluid at the bottom of the spare tire well, your’s probably aren’t leaking...... yet.

tim

I have oil leaking behind the right kick panel. I noticed oil on the connectors of the CAN gateway module on the inside A pillar. Is this where the closing cylinder oil Pools?
Thanks

Not typically. It normally ends up in the headliner of the roof. If it gets into the A-pillar then you see signs of it on seals at the side window and windshield header.

Thats good info

Rodney, Today I put roof up and noticed passenger side leakage on roof coming down dripping on wife in passenger seat, the weather stripping top forward area of passenger window is wrinkling, so it is the locking cylinder you think? Do the lines ever go?
This site say's all I do is cut line? But will it not leak all the fluid while I wait for cylinder?

http://www.cabriolethydraulics.com/p...-roof-lock.php

slow A230 roof after topping up reservoir
 

Yesterday I had the reservoir of my hydraulic pump topped up by an MB dealer. The fluid had been sitting stable at the minimum marker since I bought the car (for months, that is). I did buy a bottle of original MB hydraulic fluid, but never got round to topping up. Was there to sort out another issue, and it was a good moment to let them do the trick with their syringe. Fluid now sits at the max indicator. Since then, the roof is painstakingly slow in both opening and closing. All seems normal, except for being slow - both cycles now take 32 seconds. Any ideas?

The level varies based on the position of the roof and load assist (and the trunk lid, if you have the hydraulic open/close feature for it). I found that the highest level was with the roof open and load assist and trunk closed (Mine does have the hydraulic trunk lid). The lowest level seemed to be with the roof closed, and both load assist and the trunk open. If that was the state when you checked and added fluid, then it might be overfilled. BTW, in case anyone is wondering, to check the level with the trunk lid closed, I used my camera placed inside with a 10 second delay shutter. :)

One of my posts from a dozen or so years ago here or on Benzworld refers to a Mercedes dealer bulletin on this issue. It mentions eliminating an air bubble from within the roof hydraulic pump by unbolting the pump frame from the chassis, propping-up one end, and running the roof through a cycle or two. I don't recall which end to prop, so if you wish to try the procedure, locate my old post.

It's my experience that the level of fluid in the reservoir does not affect the speed of roof operation, provided the pump is not starved for fluid, of course.

I recently had a car with a very, very slow roof. Once the roll bar was completely raised and lowered, speed of operation was restored. Perhaps an air bubble had been purged.

An Inop Top
 

Hi All!! Newbie here.

I have an '04 with 63k, the worked sluggish at first. Thanks to this site I was able to locate and refill the pump. Shortly afterwards, the pump completely failed. I sent it off to TopHydraulics who did a great job and fantastic turnaround. Again thanks to all who previously posted and highly recommended TH.
OK, new problem, and I may have bit off more than I wanted. I had a failure at which this time I heard a cylinder (literally) spewing fluid. I have removed the pump and fuse, and now trying to remove the trunk liner. Is there a process to put it in "assembly mode" to raise the rear to make the liner removal easier? Thank you very much in advance!!!

You can simply put a stick of appropriate length between the leading edge of the roof and the top of the windshield.

If you raise the trunk lid and then unlatch the locks at the front, you can pivot the whole frame up with the trunk still up, so it's like a Z above the rear of the car, and it gives you much more space to work.

bobterry 99 and ItalianJoe1 thank you both for your responses!! I apologize for my slow response, had to finish the better half's list first. I did fail to unlock the front lock, I'm back on track now. It was the locking cylinders that blew their seals, at this point I'm planning to remove them all for rebuilding. Another question: Pentosin or MB fluid? I have just enough Pentosin to refill, but I want to consider future "top offs". Thanks again!!
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...c8237c6023.jpg

What is this part called?
 

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...c6599072a.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...ae4ed6007.jpeg
I have a 2005 SL500. The spring on One of these flaps Has broken...anyone know what this part is called and suggestions where to order replacement?

don't know what it is called, but i have the same problem. had a professional mechanic friend take a look and he said you would probably have to buy the whole top panel which holds it. i had a good close look, and i agree...it's part of the whole

Yikes...that sounds expensive. I think I will try gorilla glue or duct tape /:)