[R129 SL] Soft Top and Roll Bar Indicator Lights On - Soft Top Control Unit

Rob Vonderhaar rob at robvonder.com
Thu Apr 9 00:31:44 EDT 2009


Jody,
With all due respect, even the $925 seems like a lot of $$ to me. Have you considered getting a replacement unit through either eBay and/or a junkyard?

Just out of curiosity, I hopped on eBay and did a quick search for 'Mercedes soft top control' and instantly got 4 hits. One is an auction for a unit taken from a wrecked 2002 SL - it's at $200 with 2 days remaining and only one bid. One is a used unit with a buy-it-now price of $375. The two other listings are from BBA Remanufacturing in Massachusetts: For the same $375, you send them your control unit. They rebuild it and send it back, including a lifetime warranty. They say they've been remanufacturing automotive electronics since 1998 and operate in six countries.

So whichever way you go, looks like you could save yourself about $550 with either a used or remanufactured part. Sure sounds better to me than paying $975 for a similar remanufactured unit with only a 1-yr warranty! And this was just from a quick eBay search; you might well find something even better if you look a bit further.

Best regards,
Rob Vonderhaar
Leesburg, VA
1995 SL500, 85k
2005 SL500, 7k

-----Original Message-----
From: r129list-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:r129list-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of Jody Techlin
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:24 PM
To: Deneal S; Rolfe; SL LIST; jimc at windwireless.net; mercedes at mercedesmailinglist.com; simssj at gmail.com
Subject: [R129 SL] Soft Top and Roll Bar Indicator Lights On - Soft Top Control Unit

Hello All,
The mechanic called this afternoon with the reason why my 1996 SL320's roll bar light and soft top activation button light are lighted. In my case itr is the soft top control unit which has failed. This just so happend to coincide with when I had the car detailed but the detailer had nothing to do with the units failure. The trusted shop I use shopped for the part, if we purchase the replacement part from the MB dealer network it is $2100; if purchasing a remanufactured unit with the same 1 year unlimited mileage warrenty the price is $925 so needless to say we are using the remanufactured unit. I am surprised the original unit failed with so few miles on the car but age is age I guess. I would like to thank the many people (Daneal, Jim, Rolfe, SJS and others) for their assistance and advice. I was hoping the problem would be much less costly but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Thanks again one and all.
Best regards,
Jody
1996 SL320, 29k
Punta Gorda, FL


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