Took my 1996 car in to get a scratch repainted. Before hand the soft top/hard top was working fine. After they did their work on the small scratch and replaced the antenna and fixed a problem with the window (was dropping an inch every time you opened the door and wasn't sealing correctly) the hard top/soft top no longer works.
The paintshop sent it off to the local merc garage who have informed them that the soft top controller has gone. Noy the rollbar is up and the soft top button is constantly lit with the warning beeps for 20 seconds or so. The merc garage have quoted £1500 to replace soft top controller.
My questions are:
1. Do you think this £1500 to fix the soft top should come from the paintshop's insurance (as the problem was not there beforehand)? Could the paintshop have done anything to cause this problem in particular or was it just going to happen anyway?
2. Is there anything to try that might reset the soft top (ie should I manually reset the soft top and do the window reset etc as per other posts here) or should I just take the word of the merc garage that the control module has gone?
3. Is there anywhere I can buy a control module (apart from the one on ebay in US for $849)?
Hope you can help. In particular your opinions on the likely cause of the problem and where the blame (if any) lies.
The worst part is that the initial scratch was no fault of my own and is on someone else's insurance. So I may end up having to pay out through nothing of my doing!
Take your car somewhere else to have codes pulled for the top.
A good shop will have a scanner that will activate the soft top controls.
Also, the door handle plays a part in the soft top as well. I bet you will find your problem in the door handle.
I have seen this before at my shop.
Remember a body shop is for body work!
Kenneth
So I went into the bodyshop today and they had the soft top working but without the windows going back up at the end of the cycle. I did the window reset and that fixed that. So the soft top works fine. They said they just tried it this morning and it worked first time.
However, the rollbar has a problem:
When the rollbar is down, there is a warning yellow light on the rollbar on the dash. The rollbar button on the centre console flashes on both lights.
The red light for the soft top button is illuminated constantly.
When the rollbar is up, there is still the yellow light on the dash, but there is no flashing double light on the rollbar switch in the centre console. Again the big red light in the soft top button is illuminated.
I tried the holding down the rollbar button for 10 seconds until the "click" as per other posts but this does not change anything.
The original Merc Garage diagnostic came back as a problem with memory defaults 128 Calculator N52, 136 Calculator N52. (The calculator bit might mean "control module" as the garage is in France).
Is there anything I can try or is it still that the soft top command module is faulty?
It just seems weird that the soft top now works fine.
The merc garage say the fault code is still coming up as a problem with the soft top control module. They are unable to clear the code and fix the problem with the rollbar light.
It seems that it is now such a small problem (the light for the rollbar) which they are saying requires a really expensive fix (swap out of the control module) even though the soft top mechanism works perfectly and the rollbar goes up and down fine.
Sent the soft top contol unit to a company that remanufactures them. They say it is showing no faults at all on their test bed.
So I have 2 merc dealer garages saying it needs replacing and a remanufacturer saying there is nothing wrong with it.
The roof mechanism works, leading me to believe there is nothing major wrong with it, only that the warning lights on the rollbar flash and that awful binging when I start the car.
Is there any wiring that is linked to this unit to check that would lead to error code N52 Control Unit showing up, but with no problem with the controller.
I would have to go with the diagnosis of the shop. Both of those codes 128 and 136 indicate a problem with your soft top controller which, incidentally, controls the roll bar on '96 and newer cars as well as the top.
I suspect that your roll bar may not automatically deploy in a roll over. This is why the arrows on the switch flash with the bar down -- they are admonishing you to manually raise the bar and leave it up.
The only options I see are to get a different controller or disable the LEDs in the roll bar switch.
During the replacement of my soft top, I had a simular problem with my SL500. The soft top light was flashing, the windows wouldn't roll up and the roll bar wouldn't go down. I found under the soft top lid, on the driver's side, there is a sensor switch which needs to be in the down postion. I was able to put a spacer in to keep it in the down position while working on the soft top. This seemed to take care of the other problems too. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.
Linear Mode
