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I understand, that it is also important to replace the "inner" seal. The one that is in the shaft/piston head inside the cylinder.. Does anyone know the type and measurements?
Because my cylinder is not dripping oil, but I think it is leaking internally. The roof shuts but fails to lock and I think the cylinder is too weak due to that internal leak.
(I hope it's ok that I borrowed your pic @White Spyder )
I understand, that it is also important to replace the "inner" seal. The one that is in the shaft/piston head inside the cylinder.
TopHydraulics would replace it -- they replace all seals -- but I only replace the rod seal in my rebuilds. That's also true of a local M-B shop near me.
Originally Posted by thias
Because my cylinder is not dripping oil, but I think it is leaking internally. The roof shuts but fails to lock and I think the cylinder is too weak due to that internal leak.
You can remove the little plastic plug in the headliner to expose a fitting on the lock which will allow you to operate it with a 6mm allen wrench. With that wrench inserted you can operate the roof and gauge the pressure developing within the cylinder.
Thanks. I'll try that.
The thing is, I can get the roof to fully close by having someone press the button down while I jump around the car any putting (my) weight on the roof in different places.
There are positive ways of identifying whether or not you have a cylinder with an internal leak.
If a cylinder is under pressure and it is not moving, then it should not return fluid to the pump reservoir. So by disconnecting a cylinder's return line and checking for the presence of fluid you can determine if a cylinder has an internal leak and gauge the severity. Twice I have posted that simple procedure, and maybe later I'll search an post a link.
You can also obtain an inexpensive pressure gauge, connect it to the pump, and measure the system pressure.
This thread was invaluable.
thanks to all who contributed.
My roof lining basically fell out as clips were unglued and in differing states of condition.
Getting the cylinder out was easy but needed my glasses to get the clips off the two pins with out them going "ping" into the ether.
All up about 70-80 minutes - straight forward and nil leaks
My question is...can someone help me with the part numbers for the roof clips. I have them all but believe that the roof has been out before as there was a 2nd hand cylinder in the roof as it had SL500 written on the side of it and trim clips are not standard MB kit.
I would like to make it "right" again and ensure no rattles this time.
Peter
Actually yes, not 160º (really, that hot there!? Dang!), but I used to live in San Clemente, CA where the weather would easily reach 115º outside where I had my car parked under a car cover while my garage was undergoing maintenance. Now I live in Humboldt, where the car has been in weather as low as 30º. Still no problems. One thing I did slightly different than the instruction said to do was actually DIP the entire cylinder piston with the newly installed O-ring assembly in the hydraulic fluid (instructions just said to coat). I think this really helped keep the O-ring balanced well during installation, and resulted in a much better seal.
Knocking on wood, but it's been over a year and I still haven't seen any of the rear cylinders leak either. I put the top down about every other day (literally as often as I can). Perhaps frequent usage also results in better sealing.
OK - good !!! I'm about to give it a try myself, but I got the replacement cylinder from Top Hydraulics, have to buzz out the fittings on the cylinder, but they say they have a good seal installed... we'll see...
Took around an hour. Took my time. Was much easier with the pictures on this post.Thanks! FYI, there is a slight adjustment in the locking assembly. My top was binding a bit when opening and the micro switch on the drivers side was releasing after closing so the dash was saying it wasn't closed. I loosened the screws and moved the assembly slightly to the passenger side and it cleared right up.
My passenger side window weather strip by the headliner is all stolen up and wrinkly from the oil. Does anyone know oc a cure for this or where to obtain a replacement? part #?
TIA
Last edited by Lee Sargent; 08-18-2020 at 01:14 PM.
Reason: add more
I did my ebay o-ring about 4 years ago and it is still good.
Next came the 3 lid lock cylinders in the trunk. In order, passenger side, driver side, then the rear.
Unless you have special tools, you'll have to send these off for repair.
Sorry but I'm not very familiar with messing with the roof. Are you saying open just enough to get these in there, and then when the top tries to auto-close back, these will keep it in place? Or, do I need to do something to "depressurize" like at the pump?
You can either do it manually - put trunk in service mode, release pump bypass, unlock roof manually, manually pull back roof, or automatically - open roof part way, turn off ignition, wait for roof to settle back down on the support. The roof does not try to power close on its own, it just depressurizes and settles forward or backwards depending on how far open it is. With that length of support, the roof is almost balanced. It will shift forward onto the support, but puts very little weight on it.
After reading this thread, I'm thinking the cabriolethydraulics remanuf. is the way to go...I really like the idea of those "speed connections."
I'd like to ask a question for ANYONE who wants to answer: Lately, I've been hearing a very high-pitch screech, almost like a chirp. At first I thought it was coming from a front-end part, but it doesn't seem to be affected by motion so much, but the car does have to be moving. Also, it does not seem like it is "muffled" like something under the hood or in the front end. It sounds very close, but hard to pinpoint exact location.
Is it possible this "chirp" is coming from the leaking lock cylinder OR from the latch? I realize when I get the cylinder fixed, I'll know for sure...but that's a week or more away. Has ANYONE else heard such a sound when you had this cylinder problem?
I've got no issues with cab. hyd., just had a trunk lift cylinder rebuilt by them. However, I don't like adding splices to a line when they are not necessary. I know it is less work, but you also add 4 potential leak points.
As far as your noise, that sounds more like brake drag or something along those lines. Does it change when you apply brakes?
White Spider, regular O rings are not designed to hold high hydraulic pressures, that is why the Cup ring is the right part for the job..! The issue here is that replacing that Cup ring is a pain in the neck..! Easier to put an O ring which can stretch around the piston....but I wonder how long will last till starts leaking again..!
I am in the middle of the job and looking for related posts...but no one is telling how to put in a cup seal...!
01-22-2020, 09:55 PM
