190E electric sunroof

[jwilliams]

We've got a 190E with a broken electric sunroof.

According to the previous owner, it wouldn't shut so he pulled it closed, and in doing so half the mechanism fell out

Looking in the Haynes manual:

Electric Sunroof
1. Don't.

Is it really that bad? We're not too upset about it, but it would be nice for this weather

 

[type49]

You wind the sunroof shut via a 17mm nut from the NS in the boot. It sounds like the previous has forced the roof & broken it. Always read your handbook. Even 15 year old Mercs have things the owners don't know.

 

[Hibbo]

If he has damaged the mechanism and the sunroof is closed and sealed, DON'T touch it! You may never get it closed again!

What does it do when you press the switch?

 

[anyweb]

i had a 190d which had a non working sunroof when i got it. When i pressed the sunroof open/close switch i could hear the sunroof motor in the back left side of the boot making noise but no movement in the sunroof itself

so i investigated the boot option, after locating the sunroof motor and cranking it back and forth the sunroof worked again, it was a simple fix and perhaps i was lucky, but maybe you should be looking at the motor if your symptoms of failure or similar to mine were.

cheers
anyweb

 

[jwilliams]

Thanks all.

The motor makes a noise when the button is pressed, but nothing else happens. As there are bits of mechanism currently in a plastic bag, we'll leave it as is!

 

[wireman]

I was daft enough to mend one. here's what I did,
remove the door pillar trims, rear seat squab and back rest, rear side trims, rear view mirror, roof visor bit at the front, front pillar trims, grab handles, roof lining (arghh),
and last but not least:-

big shallow tin bath with sun roof assy inside it.

The drive cable was detached from the operating bail which left the motor unable to shift the panel, two M5 x 8mm bolts were found loose in the tin bath. you can see the holes with a mirror and feel them with a finger, you just can't put the bolts in with a finger! After some strugling with lolly stick supports one bolt was fitted and after about twice as much extra fiddling both bolts were in place and tightened and the roof would move under power.
As Mr Haynes says reassembly is the reverse of the above proceedure.
It took 12 hours.
There is a small knob on the motor near the 17mm hand actuation shaft which sets the stop positions for tilt up and slide closed which needed to be tweaked until the roof stopped at the closed position.
Other faults I have heard about (but not dealt with) are the operating bail becoming detacted at one or both ends and the cable breaking.
You are best to leave it broken if you dont want to take the interior out of the car.
Hows about a photo of the bits that fell out?

 

[frank133]

sunroof

hi Wireman,you will have to form a club for people daft anough to remove the whole sunroof,I replaced the inner cable years ago,went the hard way around that time,(headlining out)it once again started sticking a bit a few months ago.So having bought a J reg 190 for spares,with a manual sunroof,decided to swap them over,wasnt realy happy with it.So a trip to the car breakers,(whom I am on first name terms with the time I spend there)bought a complete tilt and slide,removed everything carefully,motor cables the lot.only charged me 25 quid,its now fitted and works great.I drove around for a while with the headling rolled to the back window,one thing I found that if you tie two ropes through the windows under the sunroof pan,when you undo the last nut the sunroof cant fall onto the seat,handy for refitting as well.Oh one thing I did find, I had fitted the motor upside down years ago it worked okay but you cant get to the manual nut on the motor,A thing that had me puzzeld for ages,Just need the sun now so I can use it cheers frank