Hi Everyone.

My experience replacing the front and rear rubber seals of the W126 Gen 1 non-tilting sunroof. URO seals were used. Be sure to enter the correct year when ordering. Gen 1 and Gen 2 seals are completely different. If your seal looks entirely different from your OEM seal, double check, it could be the wrong seal.

Front Seal:

Let's open the sunroof. Spray some silicone on the old seal to loosen it. Remove the old seal. Obviously, my original seals were cracked and brittle.

URO seals are virtually identical to OEM seals. URO seals are softer and made from new rubber.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
Theseus

Instragram: doss_project
1984 300SD - 930 Blue, OM 617
Murfreesboro, TN

Theseus owned a ship in Greek mythology, and when a part of the ship needed replacing, it was replaced. Eventually, everything was replaced. Is it the same ship? (I own the car of Theseus. )

Clean out the channel, then apply Loctite rust neutralizer spray and POR15 to treat rust.

Once you are ready, spray silicone into the channel so you can fit the new seal in. Don't forget to be patient as it will take a while to force it in. In the previous photos, you can see how the top part of the seal folds into the bottom part. Make sure you maintain this as you force the seal into place. As shown in the photos, it will fit snugly once it is in place.

Sunroofs may need to be adjusted in terms of close height and tilt, which is standard. I did not have to do that as the URO seal fit perfectly.

I later had the "luxury" of removing the sunroof pan and rebuilding the entire sunroof. It was much faster to install the seal on the pan and then bolt it back up. If you have the roof interior panels removed already, I would do this.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
Theseus

Instragram: doss_project
1984 300SD - 930 Blue, OM 617
Murfreesboro, TN

Theseus owned a ship in Greek mythology, and when a part of the ship needed replacing, it was replaced. Eventually, everything was replaced. Is it the same ship? (I own the car of Theseus. )

Rear Seal:

You will need to remove the sunroof to install the rear seal. Carefully follow the instructions in your service manual. Discard the old OEM rubber seal. Those photos show my OEM seal completely deteriorated. I'm surprised it was able to seal water at all!

I chose the URO rear seal for this application as well. The rubber looks the same as OEM, without the permanant "squish" from the deteriorated old rubber. It should fit without silicone. To keep it in place, I used a little 3M trim adhesive. Trim off any excess at the ends.

You may have to adjust the tilt and lift of the sunroof, just as with the front seal. I did not have to do this as this also fit perfectly.

(NOTE: As shown in the last photo, this is the time to treat for rust prior to seal installation.)

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
Theseus

Instragram: doss_project
1984 300SD - 930 Blue, OM 617
Murfreesboro, TN

Theseus owned a ship in Greek mythology, and when a part of the ship needed replacing, it was replaced. Eventually, everything was replaced. Is it the same ship? (I own the car of Theseus. )

I found a solution for replacing the side brush seals with a DIY solution:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/415532-w126-gen-1-w123-non-tilting-sunroof-diy-side-seals.html

__________________
Theseus

Instragram: doss_project
1984 300SD - 930 Blue, OM 617
Murfreesboro, TN

Theseus owned a ship in Greek mythology, and when a part of the ship needed replacing, it was replaced. Eventually, everything was replaced. Is it the same ship? (I own the car of Theseus. )