A238 E Class Convertible Roof strings worn and snapped

[chyperie]

My headliner cords are frayed. I have contacted the Mercedes dealer that I purchased the car from and they have got Mercedes-Benz UK to agree to supply the headliner and cords FOC. However, the dealer insists on me paying the labour charges. Obviously I will go down the Ombudsman route if I have to but am building a case to persaude the dealer they should fit FOC.

I have a copy of Tony Patersons Ombudsmans decision (many thanks for posting that Tony) but would be grateful if other members would post there Ombudsmans decisions as well.

Interestingly my dealer says that Mercedes-Benz UK say the Ombudsman decision in Tony's case only refers to one car and not all cars!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Spro368]

My headliner cords are frayed. I have contacted the Mercedes dealer that I purchased the car from and they have got Mercedes-Benz UK to agree to supply the headliner and cords FOC. However, the dealer insists on me paying the labour charges. Obviously I will go down the Ombudsman route if I have to but am building a case to persaude the dealer they should fit FOC.

I have a copy of Tony Patersons Ombudsmans decision (many thanks for posting that Tony) but would be grateful if other members would post there Ombudsmans decisions as well.

Interestingly my dealer says that Mercedes-Benz UK say the Ombudsman decision in Tony's case only refers to one car and not all cars!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Spro368]

My car (2018 AMG C63 w205) had 3 cords replaced FOC by the dealer after threat of Ombudsman and a fight.They took 2.5 hours to do it but that seems a long time.There are specialists that do the lot for about £700.
I have the remaining cords if anyone wants to make an offer.

 

[peeaagh]

I was very interested in this thread as we have suffered the same worn/frayed hood string problem that many others have, and I thought it worth posting some things I found out from the Motor Ombudsman today.........
Ours is a Sep 2018 C63 W205 convertible bought just over a year ago in July 2023 from a local independent performance car specialist (ie not a Mercedes dealer) and the frayed strings were highlighted a coupe of months ago during an MOT 'health check' at our local Mercedes dealer. Initially they said they should be able to just replace the worn strings and do a small plastic weld on a broken clip. They denied they broke it during the 'health check' but it wasn't like that before the MOT, impossible to prove either way and the real problem was the frayed strings anyway. Mercedes refused to contribute but the Mercedes dealer offered to pay 50% of the cost themselves (£300) and I would pay the same. However when it went in to be done, they said that on further inspection the headliner and all strings would need to be replaced at a cost of approx £3500. I took the car back from them and after a few weeks the Mercedes dealer said that Mercedes had offered to pay one third of the cost and the dealer would pay another £300 themselves so I would pay just under £1800 in total (approx half the cost). I had already seen Tony Patterson's original post about his successful Motor Ombudsman case but decided to go ahead with the repair as it was August and summer might soon be over !!.........thinking that I would subsequently raise a case with the Motor Ombudsman to reclaim the £1800 or so that I had paid.
I emailed Mercedes Customer Services myself and asked if they would reimburse me as I believed the full repair should have been FOC but they replied last week declining to make any further contribution.
I called the Motor Ombudsman today and they said that they can only raise a case with a motor manufacturer (Mercedes in this case) if the vehicle is still within the manufacturers warranty period. Ours is just under 6 years old so out of manufacturers warranty so they could not raise a case against Mercedes.
They also checked whether the independent performance car dealer I bought it from was signed up to the Motor Ombudsman scheme as they could raise a case against them if they were.......but they weren't.
They say my only course of action would be private legal action against either Mercedes or the car dealer I bought it from. The car dealer may or may not have known about the fault but it would not seem 'right' taking them to court for something that is clearly a manufacturing defect and the responsibility of Mercedes.
I have not decided yet whether to try a small claims court action against a massive company like Mercedes so might just have to 'suck up' the £1800 cost.
The reason for this post is to make others aware of the Motor Ombudsman rules so unless your car is under 3 years old, or was bought from a used dealer that is signed up to the Motor Ombudsman scheme, you will almost certainly end up covering the cost yourself. The only positive for me is that I had a couple of quotes from Mercedes independent specialists to supply and fit a new headliner and strings and they were around £2200 so at least I ended up paying a bit less than that and a lot less than the full £3500 main dealer cost.

 

[Jimmcb]

Very interesting PA
Did they say why the headliner needed replacing?

The team I used said they hear that a lot and there is no real reason to do so unless it’s damaged or torn.
Jim

 

[peeaagh]

Very interesting PA
Did they say why the headliner needed replacing?

The team I used said they hear that a lot and there is no real reason to do so unless it’s damaged or torn.
Jim

Hi Jim, There are hard plastic flat parts on either side that are part of the headliner and they have one or more anchor points on them that the end of some of the strings attach to. It was one of those that they thought they could just plastic weld back on, but subsequently said the complete plastic anchor point(s) had broken and could only be replaced as part of a new headliner and not separately. One of the independent soft top specialists I spoke to also said that they used to just replace strings and had previously done plastic welds on broken clips, but they now only did full headliner & string replacements as it was a more permanent fix. Cheers, Paul.

 

[Jimmcb]

Hi Jim, There are hard plastic flat parts on either side that are part of the headliner and they have one or more anchor points on them that the end of some of the strings attach to. It was one of those that they thought they could just plastic weld back on, but subsequently said the complete plastic anchor point(s) had broken and could only be replaced as part of a new headliner and not separately. One of the independent soft top specialists I spoke to also said that they used to just replace strings and had previously done plastic welds on broken clips, but they now only did full headliner & string replacements as it was a more permanent fix. Cheers, Paul.

Great stuff Paul and thanks.

Makes me wonder why on earth we have 2 mercs in the family given their customer support!!

All the very best

Jim

 

[Finbob]

Thank you to everyone on this thread for your advice. I had this problem in July - when I tried to raise the convertible roof on my A238 E53, the deck would not close fully. My car is out of warranty, and I didn't like the idea of a four-figure bill from a Mercedes dealer so I contacted Tony at Soft Tops Convertible Repair Specialists in Coventry.

He asked for some pictures of the strings inside the roof and when he saw them he confirmed that my car had this problem. I took the car up to him and spent an excellent morning at the Coventry Transport Museum while he fixed the problem. I was back on my my way home by 2pm, and since then the roof has worked flawlessly.

I know that other people have posted about Tony, but I wanted to add my "+1" - he is knowledgeable and friendly and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.

The only thing I found tricky was getting the roof to stay open while I took pictures - a couple of times it nearly had my hand off as it closed on its own. I found that if I opened the roof halfway, switched off the engine and left the drivers door open, I was able to get a few snaps in.

 

[Gollom]

Thank you to everyone on this thread for your advice. I had this problem in July - when I tried to raise the convertible roof on my A238 E53, the deck would not close fully. My car is out of warranty, and I didn't like the idea of a four-figure bill from a Mercedes dealer so I contacted Tony at Soft Tops Convertible Repair Specialists in Coventry.

He asked for some pictures of the strings inside the roof and when he saw them he confirmed that my car had this problem. I took the car up to him and spent an excellent morning at the Coventry Transport Museum while he fixed the problem. I was back on my my way home by 2pm, and since then the roof has worked flawlessly.

I know that other people have posted about Tony, but I wanted to add my "+1" - he is knowledgeable and friendly and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.

The only thing I found tricky was getting the roof to stay open while I took pictures - a couple of times it nearly had my hand off as it closed on its own. I found that if I opened the roof halfway, switched off the engine and left the drivers door open, I was able to get a few snaps in.

Mind if we ask the approximate cost to maybe help others with the same issue? Thanks

 

[Finbob]

From what Tony said it depends on exactly what he needs to repair - having seen my photographs of the problem and then inspecting the roof himself, he quoted me a range of £500 to £550, and the final bill was £530.

 

[Andiee]

I’m going to replace some of the cords myself. Bought the kit w (hopefully) modified/improved cords from MB.
Can anyone advise me on how to put a half way open soft top in a sleeping mode /service position w ignition off?
Now I can only have the top sitting half way open for around 5 minutes & with the ignition on (which requires start battery charging after a while).
After some time w ignition on the chime starts to warn that the roof will close. Then I need to reset it and it will stay open for another five, ten minutes.
I would feel more secure if I knew that the roof will stay open until I want it to close.
I don’t have the 100 % keyless FOB ( which I have found an instruction for on this matter on YouTube). My car (2018 C-class Cabriolet) has no start button, the key needs to be inserted in the ignition lock to start the motor.
TIA

 

[Jimmcb]

The guys that did mine used a length of timber with soft stops either end. They said they’d learned over time. Two lengths to stop roof twisting.

 

[Andiee]

The guys that did mine used a length of timber with soft stops either end. They said they’d learned over time. Two lengths to stop roof twisting.

Okay tnx! What year and model is your car? And do you have the keyless FOB?

 

[Jimmcb]

E53 2019. Good luck!

 

[fazcab]

Hi my 2018 E Class convertible roof would not open fully, when I have investigated it the strings (for a better word) have frayed and one side has snapped. I eventually got the roof to close properly and contacted my Mercedes branch to get them to take a look at it.

In the meantime i did some digging and found a technical bulletin issued by Daimler in 2019 stating cars produced between 2016 & 2019 may get this fault due to possible high tensile stress on the cords during the soft top sequence.

I passed all this info onto the Mercedes branch and they said they would pass this onto Mercedes as its out of warranty for a good will gesture. Got a reply yesterday from Mercedes who basically refused to do anything and the cost is £2000 to repair the dealer has been great but I'm not happy with Mercedes.

Anybody else had this issue? either way i would advise you check the strings regularly and if you see any signs to fraying get it booked in if its still under warranty.

Technical bulletin attached

Hello, please can you help share the technical bulletin from Daimler . I am currently In the same situation as the rest on this thread and although I have extended warranty I recon MB won't accept liability for a part /item purposely build/manufactured for the type of car its in and therefore I will need to challenge further via motor ombudsman

 

[Andiee]

You’ll find the bulletin in post #1 in this thread!

 

[chyperie]

Hello, please can you help share the technical bulletin from Daimler . I am currently In the same situation as the rest on this thread and although I have extended warranty I recon MB won't accept liability for a part /item purposely build/manufactured for the type of car its in and therefore I will need to challenge further via motor ombudsman

Unfortunately the soft top is not covered by the extended warranty. I have just had my cords and roof lining replaced free of charge by the Mercedes dealer I purchased the used car from. Mercedes agreed to provide the parts FOC but dealer wanted paying for labour. After some discussion they eventually agreed to cover the cost as a goodwill gesture.

 

[fazcab]

Unfortunately the soft top is not covered by the extended warranty. I have just had my cords and roof lining replaced free of charge by the Mercedes dealer I purchased the used car from. Mercedes agreed to provide the parts FOC but dealer wanted paying for labour. After some discussion they eventually agreed to cover the cost as a goodwill gesture.

Thank you for your response.
I can tell understand how they would not cover it as it sa manufactured part/items and surely been created but not fit for purpose.
I am the second owener, low milage and full service history.

wonder if I have a leg to stand on if I challenge with the Franchise dealer or via motor ombudsman

 

[chyperie]

Thank you for your response.
I can tell understand how they would not cover it as it sa manufactured part/items and surely been created but not fit for purpose.
I am the second owener, low milage and full service history.

wonder if I have a leg to stand on if I challenge with the Franchise dealer or via motor ombudsman

I initially emailed the MB dealer I bought the car off and enclosed the Tony Paterson Ombudsman decision. They contacted Mercedes who agreed to supply the parts. Dealer offered free loan car while work was being done but wanted payment for their labour. I got the car booked in for the work then made an official complaint to the dealer saying I was unhappy having to pay the labour charges but if they insisted I would pay when the car was repaired and then go to the Motoring Ombudsman. They then agreed to cover the cost. I think you have to be determined but polite and ideally correspond by email then you have everything recorded if you do end up at the Ombudsman. Good luck.
Oh yes, Mercedes told my dealer that the Tony Paterson case only referred to his particularly car! I pointed out I was aware of at least two other people who had made successful claims!

 

[Andiee]

”Oh yes, Mercedes told my dealer that the Tony Paterson case only referred to his particularly car!!”

What a laughable and ridiculous standpoint!
When it comes to the cords Mr Patersons Mercedes is built to the same specification as yours …and mine…and many others…