Some of you might have experienced, like me, that the roller shade in you SL doesn't stay where you put it. Well, in my case, one of the 4 plastic wheels were missing and other 2 was cracked. That prevented the lock from pressuring evenly on the guide rail for the shade.

Getting a new one is $1250 from the dealer so for obvious reasons I was somewhat hesitant do go get one since the one I had was not torn or ripped. Naturally the plastic rollers are not a separate P/N so it was the whole thing or nothing.

So this is where the technology comes into play. 3D printing! Luckily, one of the rollers was not broken and could be used as a template. With it and a CAD program I created the roller and had the new ones printed at the UPS store.

I needed 4 but the minimum is $10 so I ended up with 9 total. So $10, a little time and I saved $1240.

If anyone else have the same problem, I have attached the STL file that you can send to the UPS store (or somewhere else) and have some printed.

Whoa. Very nice, thank you.

Yes excellent !!!

Thanks for posting Im sure this will help many out now and in the future.

How to remove the roller shade from the roof?

Great job sgaar,
Would you be interested in selling 4 of your spares? I too have a 2007 SL55 and it's driving me nuts that the shade will not stay put. PM me thanks in advance. Earl

You remove the 5 screws on the leading edge of the roof, and then pry off the sides. When done, there are 5 clips on the trailing edge that comes off. After that you remove the 4 screws the holds the shade.

I think it would be easier just to have some printed at the local UPS shop that has a 3D printer. Send them the file attached through email, and you should be set.

I have had my 55 since '03 and I have no idea what this piece is or does! And I thought I knew these cars cold!

What the hell is it?

The shade has two rails (Green in the pic) where the bar with the cloth attached (red) glides. The way that the bar stays put, is by pushing against the rails. To make the bar glide smooth on the rails there are 4 wheels on the front left side (blue). When these wheels, which is made of plastic, gets brittle and break, the locking mechanism cannot reach the rail and the bar slides back.

M-B doesn't sell just the plastic wheels but the whole unit which is $$ at the dealer. The fix is to replace the plastic wheels and that is what the can be 3D printed using the attached STL file.

what holds the wheels on , are they screwed on , or have some kind of clip?

If you look at the middle picture of the 3 i originally attached, you can see that it is slightly rounded. The track is rounded as well so the lips of the wheel fits the track.

did you remove the sunshade assembly to make repair , or just taking off headliner you could remove and replace guide wheels
I already had my wheels made , and you are right. the cost for me was $9 but that was for 4. great deal

My SL65 is at the Mercedes dealer getting this shade replaced under warranty for this reason. I would however like to know what is this 3D printing that can make these rollers to repair this? Where would one go to have these parts made, as I must admit I have no idea about this new technology. Thanks Chris

Yes, I removed the whole thing. Getting the shade out is easy when you have the headliner out. If you don't take it out you run the risk of bending it.

I just had this problem with my SL65.
I sent the file to the UPS Store, but they said the dimensions were too large for them to 3D print.
They said it shows the dimensions to be 13.95"x13.95"x4.88", which are obviously not correct.
Can you let me know the actual dimensions?

Have someone else do the 3d job.
The file worked great for me.
I have not installed yet though.

Ace1,

Looks like they 'maybe' used inches instead of centimeters?????

PS: OOOOPS should have said milli meters!

I don't know why no one can just give me the dimensions.
I sent it to another 3D printer and he gave me the same info.
As far as it being centimeters, I know that would also be wrong as 13.95 centimeters would be about 5 1/2 inches. I'm guessing it's actually MM.
Can anyone verify that?

it is 14x5 mm (outside diameter x height). All that info is in the file. If the print shop cannot figure it out, they are idiots. Find someone else that know how this works.

do you know how to remove the sunshade roller blind for repair or replace? tks