r129 1999 roof stuck half way

[wub]

So, to do some body repairs, i stopped my soft top halfway, so with the cover flap down, but the rear of the roof up in the air. (in hindsight i should have just folded the roof away) It was like this for a few days whilst i did what i had to do. I then went to put it all the way down and realised after i pressed the button that the battery had flattened, so not enough power. I stopped, recharged the battery (with trickle charger) and tried again and nothing happens and i cant move the windows up. When you hold the roof button it flashed red and stays solid red when not being touched.

It worked before this. I tried disconnecting battery and reconnecting, no change. I tried doing it with car running. I cant fold the roof back as the front is still half locked, not tight, but not completely released.

I have been reading a few things online, so checked the fuse and its ok.

Any other tips before i start testing all the micro switches? Seems odd that it worked the day before and now stuck after i stopped it half way and battery flattened.

 

[Wearsafoxhat]

You say the front is half locked... have you tried releasing the locks with the Allen key, release tool, access under the sun visor.
Perhaps moving the roof manually up and down might reset the switches.. and have you reset the windows and roll bar ??


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[LostKiwi]

Your front windows need re-teaching but you can't do that till the roof is closed (it may work fully open but not sure).
You should have a manual roof operating tool.
It looks like this:


The spanner end operates the rear latches (usually behind clip in covers near the boot hinges) and the other end operates the top rail latches (under two circular covers behind the sun visor - swing the sun visor out the way).
If the tonneau cover is closed push the rear bow down and latch it. Then re-teach the windows but pushing each switch down and holding 5 seconds after they reach the bottom, then repeat for the window closed position. Once both are reset the roof should operate.

 

[wub]

Thanks Lostkiwi. i have got that spanner and have looked at a few youtube clips about how to use it. Hopefully that plan works, as it does sound like something has got out of sync rather than a failure of a component. I'll give it a go tomorrow

 

[wub]

Tried that yesterday and it dident work. I unlocked the front catchs with the spanner folded the roof back and forward a few time, then folded it down, put the read cover flap down and reset the windows and roll bar by holding switch up and down for the 5 seconds. I then tried the roof and nothing seemed to happen, but i think the rear cover flat did lock it self in place as i cant lift it now. so i think i will try disconnecting the battery and resetting the windows agin and try that. if that does not work, manually release the rear cover flap and try closing the roof manually and then trying the system. Am i assuming correctly that this system does not have an ecu controller and is just micro switchs etc, so no problems with fault codes in any ecu causing it to not work?

 

[LostKiwi]

It does have an ECU (roof controller).

You can tell when the windows are set correctly - the one touch raise and lower will work (mine doesn't have that feature - only one touch lower which simply uses a microswitch in the bottom of the door to tell if the windows are at the bottom).

From memory the roof ECU is pin 10 on the 38 pin connector (called RST in MB parlance).

When you operate the roof switch does it flash? On some 129s the flashing will give an error code. It will flash a number of times, pause then flash, pause etc. The number of flashes are the fault code. Early cars definitely work that way.

 

[Flyinspanner]

Is there hydraulic oil in the pump reservoir?
Does it try to run?

if not it sounds like a stuck micros

anyone nearby with an MB code reader - maybe you can reset?

run to an indie/star? (Once the rain stops )

 

[wub]

Got there in the end. manually lifted the roof up and down a few time, reset windows again and after 3 or 4 times of back and forth with bits happening and then stopping again, it suddenly went the whole way and completed the cycle. So must have just got itself in a tizzy. Fingers crossed, its ok now. At least i know my way around the roof now. Thanks