Convertible E220 Somerset ECU help

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C

ChristophK

Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2018
Messages
38
Location
England
Car
E220 Carbriolet L Reg
Hello,

first of all I hope everyone is keeping safe these days. One bit of social distancing is that I got some time to look at my E220 and it's roof problem/headrest problem. I tried and checked a few things but I had no luck so far with its intermittent fault. I took out the ECU and it looks from the outside ok and opening the lid looks ok too but who knows. I was just wondering if anyone new a local club or owner who might be prepared once the Covid crisis is over to meet and let me use their ECU to see if that is the problem as I did not want to pay £300+ not knowing if that is the problem? I live in TA13 but happy to travel.
Keep safe
Christoph
 
Theres no point guessing what's wrong. It needs to go on Star Diagnosis and be carefully fully tested to find out what is wrong or you're likely to waste a lot of money. Theres loads of switches and sensors involved in roof operation and its likely one of those has become sticky. The tricky bit is it really needs to be tested when its not working. Where in the cycle doe sit get stuck? This may help determine which switch should be operating for it to continue. And what's the 1st 6 digits of the VIN please.

>I live in TA13 but happy to travel.
>Keep safe

Those two statements are incompatible with each other :-(

Richard.
 
richard said:
Theres no point guessing what's wrong. It needs to go on Star Diagnosis and be carefully fully tested to find out what is wrong or you're likely to waste a lot of money. Theres loads of switches and sensors involved in roof operation and its likely one of those has become sticky. The tricky bit is it really needs to be tested when its not working. Where in the cycle doe sit get stuck? This may help determine which switch should be operating for it to continue. And what's the 1st 6 digits of the VIN please.

>I live in TA13 but happy to travel.
>Keep safe

Those two statements are incompatible with each other :-(

Richard.
Click to expand...

Thanks Richard,
Sorry I am new to this but whe you say star diagnosis do you mean reading kit the code from the 16 pins in the motor block? I thought the roof was only showing using the ports under the passenger footwell which I tried but No real answer. I took it to Haynes motor museum which said they check the micro switches but they were ok. Not sure what else they did but could not identify anything else.
What I meant is I am happy to travel to someone's house but some people might not want me to rock up at their doorstep and might want to meet somewhere else so I put my postcode done. Obviously all AFTER social distancing..
Christoph
 
richard said:
Theres no point guessing what's wrong. It needs to go on Star Diagnosis and be carefully fully tested to find out what is wrong or you're likely to waste a lot of money. Theres loads of switches and sensors involved in roof operation and its likely one of those has become sticky. The tricky bit is it really needs to be tested when its not working. Where in the cycle doe sit get stuck? This may help determine which switch should be operating for it to continue. And what's the 1st 6 digits of the VIN please.

>I live in TA13 but happy to travel.
>Keep safe

Those two statements are incompatible with each other :-(

Richard.
Click to expand...


Sorry forgot vin wdb124062
 
I have an E220 Convertible which drives perfectly but developed a fault with the roof opening/closing.
It started one day when the rear headrest would not lower, either with the roof switch nor the headrest switch and therefore the roof did not close. Slightly concerned as it was in October and I really did not want any rain I thought I take it to the garage next day. The next day all worked fine again as soon as I got in the car. Since then it keeps doing it. I can not other roof or close roof and this might last few a few hours, days or week and then all of a sudden in works again. Initially I flashed out the codes from the unit behind passenger footwell and only got some random codes mainly low voltage (2 flashes) and a few others which never repeated over the months I have tried it. This did not get me much further. I checked the fuses, the specific roof one separate from fuse box and the one in the fuse box with a multimeter and they all seem to working find. I asked 2 garages to check but the first could not find anything and the second one (Haynes Motor museum in the UK) checked the microswitches as I did not know how to do that and they could not find a problem there either. They topped up the hydraulic fluid just to make sure. Still no success. To mention when the roof works the mechanics are top like boot opening and roof opening and closing mechanism.
I personally think it has something to do with the headrest as they seem to be the sticking point. If they move the roof opens no problem but as you would expect if they dont move the room is not moving and when pulling the button I just get a flashing. I changed the switch in the dashboard for the rear headrest to make sure it was not the switch but still no luck. The last thing I did now is to take the ECU from under the bench and from the outside it looked good and not corroded and I opened the lid and it looks fine from the top. No corrosion or damp as far as I could see but I did not want to take apart in case I damage it.

Now I am looking for suggestions. My only thought was I could send the ECU away and get it checked and repaired but I read a few posts where that did not seem to make a difference and not sure if that would be the problem if I can't lower the headrest even with their specific switch? The other option was to look for another car electritican to see if he could find something. One other thing that has recently happened and certaiinly not from the start is that the something drains the battery and even when the battery is full by the next day it is dead again.IF not connected it keeps the charge. Not sure if anyone can help me how to find what is draining the battery but as I mentioned that is more a recent issue and was not there when the roof problems started.

Many thanks for any help

Christoph
 
Hi

Ah, thanks for full description - older than I'd expected :) I''ll try and take a look at the very limited service info and work out what may be not operating.

Cheers

Richard
 
When it fails to open from the roof switch, does the light on the switch illuminate ? Does it flash ?
R
 
And do you have a way of reading the error codes. Its the connector in passenger footwell where the pulses are read from, pin 2 (There are a few there just to cause confusion and I dont know what the different ones look like)
Firstly, you need to make it store the error code. To do that you need to keep holding the open roof switch until the indicator lamp starts blinking (or the roll bar indicator link starts blinking which will happen if the fault relates to that)

R
 
Mercedes Cylinders W124 E-Class 1993- 1995 - Top Hydraulics, Inc
and
Mercedes-Benz W124 E-Class DIY Instructions and Interactive Diagram - Top Hydraulics, Inc
this diagram may help with any switch location mentioned in the fault code list?

W124%20Diagram.jpg
 
Ok, thanks for all the help. Just went outside and thought I try it again. And sods law it worked perfectly after not having worked for a while. Headrest came down, perhaps a little slowly if that helps and the rest worked fine.
Went on to read error code and the only one stored is 2 flashes. Once removed only one flash.
In answer to previous comment when it fails to open the roof opening switch light still comes on and flashes when I pull the switch up.
The thing that puzzles me is that it is intermittent. If it works all great if not head rests don't come down.

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The other issue is this that something is draining battery when parked, any idea how I can identify this?
 
Sounds like a micro switch clearance issue. As you know much of the system is hydraulic, but associated with the hydraulics are limit switches which serve to inform the control ECU of the travel and position of the rams/ cover/ roll bar -This is to ensure the different parts of the mechanism don't interfere with each other. If a micro switch was intermittantly failing to operate [ electrical fault] or the unit it was monitoring was worn [mechanical] it may not be travelling far enough to hit the limit switch so the ECU sensing a potential "clash" holds any further action. repair could be microswitch replacement /repositioning or cleaning /replacement of a hydraulic assembly. I posted some details on the roll bar [headrest]mechanism on here some time back so do a search?
found it
http://w124-zone.com/downloads/MB CD/W124/w124CD2/Program/Chassis/91-800.pdf
see this thread on rear suspension arm limit switches also
W124 rear seat roll bars
 
Last edited:
Thanks again. I finally had some time to take the mercedes out on way to work and back. Roof opened fine and headrest moved. Now back home I can't move the head rests up or down and the roof does not close. I read the error for the roof in passenger foot well and I only get one flash so no fault found. Looked at the document you kindly posted about headrest/ rollbar. Perhaps a bit over my head but I checked the switch in the middle of console s83 e30 and the lights go off when motor starts so I would think that means no fault found? Looked at the sensors at the rear wheels photo attached but not really sure what I am looking for but arm seems to move and switch in function position. Visual inspection of the control unit under rear seat looks good. I don't know how to remove the rear backrest to check the y57. Not sure if that would be helpful to check? And what to check? It says 20200421_123116.pngsomewhere in the document I can flash the codes but where do I need to check. I know where the roof control point is in foot well.20200421_123015.jpg

Many thanks for any suggestions. Luckily no rain forecasted.


Christoph
 
Hi Christoph,

Have you read the codes from the Roll Bar Controller? (Pin 9 on the 16 pin block under the bonnet)

Kind regards,
Andy
 
Just a thought but the roof on my Boxster will only operate if the parking brake is on, not sure if the same applies to your car ? I got caught out when I stopped the car to raise the hood and couldn`t get it to operate , then realised I hadn`t put the brake on. Easy done particularly as yours is an auto and you may just put it in park without using the brake?
 
Last edited:
Andy_C said:
Hi Christoph,

Have you read the codes from the Roll Bar Controller? (Pin 9 on the 16 pin block under the bonnet)

Kind regards,
Andy
Click to expand...
Tried to read it but perhaps I build the code reader wrong as when I press the switch the led illuminates but No flashes happen. In case you know. I connected the red cable to plus and the black to "no" and the yellow tester to "c" and negative pole at the same time.15877345180794061148643470614518.jpg
 
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