SL/R230 Vario Roof Removal of Open/Close and Raise/Lower Hydraulic Cylinders

May 31, 2025 | 11:05 AM

RCBr230

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Joined: Nov 2024

Posts: 124

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From: Charleston, South Carolina USA

2004 SL500 Aegean Blue Metallic

Vario Roof Removal of Open/Close and Raise/Lower Hydraulic Cylinders

Greetings all,

I am still troubling shooting various Vario Roof problems. It appears, as typical, that rebuilding some cylinders causes other cylinders to fail. I had rebuilt (by Cabrio) both tubular frame lock cylinders as well as the trunk lift cylinder (these are Numbers 4, 5, and 8, respectfully, in the attached diagram. At that point the roof was functioning fine except that I was loosing fluid. I narrowed that down to the driver's/left lock pawl unit. So I had both sides rebuilt.

Now I a getting my roof to only raise to a certain point on the driver's/left side. This is noted on both the raise roof and trunk load assist modes. In other words, the roof only raises about 6 inches on the left before it stalls (and the roof won't move up to the next phase). On that left side I can manually move the roof up or down about 3 inches. The right side has solid pressure so that I cannot move it up or down at all; so I suspect that the hydraulic integrity is fine on the right side. I have talked with Zig, the main technician at Cabriolet Hydraulics, and he confirms that my suspension of either the right Vario roof open/close cylinder (#6) or load assist raise/lower (#9) is the problem. I have also included photos to show how at the stall point the right side edge is higher than the left side edge.

So my questions are: Has anyone removed cylinders #6 and #9? Is there a guide? Or any links/comments that would benefit me before just attacking this procedure? Also, any comments about any of this would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance.

Left Side stall height:

Right side height:

Jun 9, 2025 | 09:39 AM