SL500 roof module - help needed

[merc300e]

hello - I am selling my SL500 1997, last sunday a buyer showed interest and asked me to take the car for an inspection. I took the car to a garage, it came out with nearly £3k damage. The problem is with the roof system. Prior to this I had no problems, including demonstrating it to the buyer 3 days before, and refitting it the night before with a neighbours help. The roof system is electronically monitored and flashes the red roof switch/sounds a chime if there is a fault. When I got in the car, after the inspection, at the garage it was doing both. I watched the technicians working on the car. One had a fault code reader plugged into the engine, engine running and was having dificulty getting it to work, in fact he stalled the engine at one point. The other tried to remove the hardtop by pressing the switch - again with engine running. It did not lift. He immediately got the manual emercency release tool from the boot kit and removed the hardtop manually, still with the engine running. After he replaced the hardtop the warning light was lit. Other possibly useful info: he had the front wheels jacked off the ground - I am told they have a switch that detects this and activates the roolbar. A number of Merc technicans I have spoken to say they would never attempt to manually remove the roof whilst the engine is running as this is known to cause problems with the system. Can anyone out there offer me any advice please - does anyone have access to the merc workshop advice on removing the hardtop with this tool or can confirnm that it is known practice to use this tool only with the engine stopped.. Could a fault code reader cause damage to this electronic module if it was faulty/wrong type/misused? The new roof module is £2300 from Merc and they want £93 per hour to sort it? Does anyone have a roof module- Part no:129-820-3126? The garage says it just happened to fail at that point in time. I say it worked for 7 years and its a bit of a coincidence it failed in the 20 mins they were working on it. Also were do I stand in that when the technicial found the roof was not lifting why did he not just simply report the fault and leave it at that? He was not being paid to work on the car. I would be grateful for any help. Thanks

 

[peterchurch]

really sorry to hear this. I think you need to get to the Trading Standards office and quick. I would tell them whats happened and get some legal advice.
Did you know the garage that did the checks?
It does sound like they have damaged your car. You have two witnesses that have seen the roof working without a hitch that must count...
But you need to get this official before the buggers try and weasle out of it.
I would go back and talk to the garage about what has happened and record the conversation. Ask them the technical questions you ask here. Do not get confrontational with them, and NEVER let them know that you are recording it. Just look dumb and ask them to dig their own hole.
I'm a little vague on this... Can you tell me what happend when you pressed the button? did you press it while the car was jacked up? Could that of damaged the roof do you think?

From there take it to the Trading Standards or Mercedes get them to listen to the conversation and then ask them for a comment. You now have someone else that has whitnessed the conversation. (I don't think you could use it in court but at least you can play the tape and other people involved will hear what was really said) That way if it gets nasty, if they try and change the story as to what they did you can say thats funny but when we spoke the other day this is what you said on the matter, would you like a copy?

Hope you can work this out :-(

 

[merc300e]

All now sorted thanks peter

Today the Mercedes main dealer 'phoned me to say that after 6 days they had found that it was not the control module after all but a microswitch on the windscreen header-rail. This will cost me £400 which of course is good news compared to over £2000for the module. Thanks Peter for your advice.

 

[peterchurch]

Thats great news!