1994 Mercedes C280 Elegance Tinkering and Rusty bits

[rusty998]

Well the sun's shining so more Merc fun in the sun today,  while the Vactan is doing it's thing in the boot I thought it would be a good idea to remove the sunroof panel,

I know that even just speaking about sunroofs on here can strike fear into the hearts of even the most robust of Shiters so I will explain in this post why I'm doing what I'm doing and the theory   behind it to perhaps shed some light on the black art that is sunroofs !

To give you some background, 

I used to fit aftermarket sunroofs and also service and repairs of factory fit and aftermarket sunroofs through the 90's,

I have also fitted windscreens and windows to every kind of transportation plus window tinting,  for this post it's going to be a easy service, by service I mean a strip down of the parts, clean, lubricate and refit where needed,

the seal around the edge of the apeture was covered in dirt, moss and grim detritus, some gentle washing with some hot water, fairy liquid and a cloth got it back to the flock, what I do is leave it to dry fully and then soak with silicon spray and leave it, 

On strip down I found dirty old grease as suspected,  this was all removed and new grease was applied, 

the edge of the sunroof panel was filthy so some fast cut polish was used to clean it up, this has two purposes,  one to get rid of the dirt and two it smoothes the paintwork which should help reduce any sliding resistance, 

with the factory fit sunroof on this Merc the seal is mostly there to help reduce wind noise and to stop a torrent of water, water does go past the seal and then runs to which corner or end of the car that's the lowest, on a ff sunroof you will find one drain on each corner,  a rubber pipe then tracks downwards to either a corner or inside a sill panel,  the Merc has pipes that go all the way to the bottom of the the car and out to a gland on the end, the gland is to stop mud and bugs getting up yer pipe !

If you have these on your car it's good to make sure they are cleaned out as part of your service, blockages can cause water ingress and expensive repairs, 

A good test of the drainage system on ff is to open the sunroof and pour some water into the side drain and see what comes out the bottom,  warning pour the water slowly or you will flood the drainage system with water and end up with it cascading into your car, 

If all is good your car will have a little wee

turns out that I've been lucky with the front drains on the Merc, the car was facing downwards on the driveway so I will test the rear ones tomorrow but I'm sure they are okay, 

The drainage system can get filled up with all sorts of deadfall if the sunroof has been left open a lot, pine needles I think are the worst for causing havoc in sunroofs, the problem with most sunroofs is poor maintenance and neglect,

in my old job we had never not been able to get a sunroof working and draining properly but by eck did it cost a lot, spares were readily available then but now they cost a fortune if you can even get them?

That's why I had to sort this one out on the Merc,  it was functioning but rather slow and I could hear the motor straining a bit, I cleaned everything, greased parts that needed it and sprayed all of the side mechanisms with silicone then put it all back together,  the panel itself simply bolts onto the mechanisms, access to the mechanisms is gained by sliding the inner trim panel back out of the way, 

three 8mm nuts and one screw each side then the panel can be taken away, it's really quite simple, it also helps that this era Merc has decent quality fixings, 

The sunroof now slides freely and is quieter so I'm happy with the results of today's work, plus I properly topped up my Vitamin D levels,

It even looks better although the paintwork is in dire need of some care, more to follow 

 

[rusty998]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Looks like it will be great when you have sorted it.

Thank you, I'm hoping to get it looking a lot better in the paintwork department but leave it standard and enjoy it

[Peter C]

I found a photo of my C180 Sport. It looked nice enough but it really wasn't a nice car to drive with the 5 speed manual 'box.

[chompy_snake]

On 4/12/2020 at 2:00 PM, Peter C said:

I found a photo of my C180 Sport. It looked nice enough but it really wasn't a nice car to drive with the 5 speed manual 'box.

Does the manual still have the foot operated parking brake like the auto?

Can imagine if it does it can be entertaining to drive 

[Conan]

2 minutes ago, chompy_snake said:

Does the manual still have the foot operated parking brake like the auto?

Can imagine if it does it can be entertaining to drive 

Of course they still had the foot parking brake. Never tried one meself but apparently it's just fine. Mind you, I never use handbrake while driving manual either.

[Peter C]

My 200E has a manual ‘box and four pedals.