Given the earlier roofs are far more reliable, I’m not sure the tilting feature is really worth the effort.   The broken arms got all jammed up in the mechanism, and since the roof lining was already out for the roof racks, it was easier to drop the whole sunroof cassette.

Unlike on the W126, the genuine lifting arms were still available for the W124.  However, to get both sides would cost over USD$600, before GST and delivery.  While I prefer to use genuine parts where I can, I couldn’t justify it.  There are quite a few aftermarket options, of varying quality.  The ones from China were much cheaper, but I’ve not heard good things about them.  In the end I went with an AIN kit, that looks like it came from Turkey.  It cost about USD$200 including delivery and GST.

When it arrived it looked quite good quality and was made from metal.  Comparing it against the old one it seemed to fit quite well.   This didn’t solve the complete problem.  Even with the new lifting arms, the sunroof was still binding. In the end, the issue turned out to be a broken rivet in the rails.  This was causing one of the rails to sit a few mm higher than it should.  Its probably why the original lifting arms broke.

The final part was the bracket that holds the sunroof cable to the sunroof had broken.  This is part 126 782 01 40 and is still available new.  It was USD$16 before shipping and GST.   I was also missing a rubber insert for the bumper on the left side – part number 124 885 05 23 which was also $16.  I was lucky to be missing that side, as the right hand side seems to be NLA, although aftermarket parts seem to be available, but more expensive.

Those were the last parts required and from there it was re-assembly.  The repairer made sure to use lots of sealant for the rear windows so water couldn’t get in under the new seals. I’ve now collected the car and it looks great, better than ever.

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The car is booked in for the Shannons auction in May, so I wanted to get the Sunroof working.   I don’t use sunroofs a great deal, but they are not common on the W126 280, so its a valuable feature on my car to be working.   I had sourced what I thought was the right switch, so I figured a simple matter of just fitting it.

Removing the old switch was somewhat of a pain, as one of the tabs that holds the switch in place was bent out too far.   In the end I got it out, and promptly lost the plug in behind the dash.   I was able to reach it again by removing the demister switch and using a hook tool.

This was also required to get a finger in behind the plug, so push the switch on.    Straightaway, I had a problem.   The new switch was reversed from the old one.   I could open the roof with the close side of the switch, but not close it.  I’ll have to compare it, but I may have a C107 switch.

At that point, I figured I would have to persevere with my old switch.   I gently took it apart and found it quite dirty inside.   The old grease had become quite sticky.   The switch is quite simple, it pivots on two very small ball bearings, and pushing down makes a contact with a metal bridge and the body of the switch.    I didn’t take a photo as I didn’t want to drop the small parts out of the W116 sunroof switch.

I used some brake cleaner to clean the parts up.   Quite a lot of dirty gunk came out of the switch.   I didn’t re apply grease, as I didn’t have one suitable for electrical connections.     Once I plugged it all back in, the sunroof finally worked.

While I was there, I also wanted to fit the new SLS control rod that had arrived in the mail.   The old one had broken bushings and I temporarily held it on with some cable ties.   That hadn’t worked, as only the very inner pin of the each end of the rod was still present!   I’ve already covered setting the proper ride height of this system.    The system on the 280SE was working perfectly as the arm changed the ride height as it should.

Finally, there was some minor rust around a door drain hole.  I treated it with rust converter and painted it, to ensure it didn’t get any bigger.   Unusually for a W116, as far as I can tell this is pretty much a rust free car.   I didn’t want that to change.

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