Circuit 129
Your car

Fuses

Three boxes. One of them is why the radio is dark.

Photograph the card in your lid — numbering drifted, and lettered slots A–F are named on that card, not always on the plastic. Maps below are the common 1992–1998 R129 layout. Radio is fuse 9 plus letter A, not a 16 A red named B.

Engine bayTrunkBattery
116A216A316A48A68A730A

Tap a slot. Colours: white 8 A, red 16 A, blue 25 A, green 30 A.

Trunk / rear fuse box

Fuse 7 · 30 A green

Hydraulic pump — soft top and roll bar

The noisy pump in the trunk foam. No whir when you hold the roof switch: this fuse, pump ground, or the pump itself. Pump whirrs but the top stalls: fluid, cylinders, or a limit switch — not this fuse.

roof pumphydraulicsoft topno pumproll bar
Where
Boot, passenger side (right on LHD), behind the carpet near the lid hinge. Often under a metal cover with several 8 mm nuts. Early cars use aluminium ‘bullet’ fuses; later cars mix blade fuses.
How to open
Peel the side carpet, undo the metal cover, and read the card on the back of it. These are the first fuses to pull for roof, windows, roll bar, and PSE / central locking.
Notes
Roof won’t move? Start here — fuse 3 (soft-top control and valves) and the 30 A hydraulic-pump fuse. Left window dead? Fuse 1. Right window? Fuse 2. Roll bar? Fuse 4.