2007 C55 Estate, laundry list

[AMGeed]

Also, where is the best place to get the mechanism from to replace the borked one on the passenger side?

That was unfortunate

I would Google "Mercedes Breakers" and ring round to see if anyone can supply another n/s mirror motor or complete mirror and swap out the motor.
Give them the Part# that appears in your first photo and ensure the replacement is a power fold version.

 

[Dammit]

I bought a mechanism on eBay that insists it is OEM for £55, will see what it is when it turns up. I also ordered some of the five-lobe security Torx bits, which arrived yesterday.

All the YouTube videos I found said to push the mirrors back to remove the housing - that broke one mirror and the other one was so stiff that I won't try it.

Something wrong with my mirrors, or are all the guides out there wrong?

 

[AltonAnt]

I bought a mechanism on eBay that insists it is OEM for £55, will see what it is when it turns up. I also ordered some of the five-lobe security Torx bits, which arrived yesterday.

All the YouTube videos I found said to push the mirrors back to remove the housing - that broke one mirror and the other one was so stiff that I won't try it.

Something wrong with my mirrors, or are all the guides out there wrong?

I can just push my mirrors back by hand to remove the covers.

 

[Dammit]

Interesting, maybe both my motors were/are close to death.

I fixed some more wires yesterday (found the break, re-soldered and heat-shrunk), put everything back together. I'd buy new looms for each side, but you have to pull the door cards to replace them it appears, so soldering seems easier at this point.

If I push "mirror up" on the dash, with the right hand mirror selected, the mirror moves down, in a short burst. Once, it went smoothly upwards, going through the entire range of motion available. From that I conclude that the wire is unbroken, but that there may be a fault in the switch, or the motor.

When my new passenger side assembly arrives I'll install that and can then check the switch - if the passenger side moves upwards then it's the drivers side motor, and vice versa.

 

[AltonAnt]

Interesting, maybe both my motors were/are close to death.

Do the hinges look OK? They do have a habit of working loose.

 

[Dammit]

Hinges seem fine. Drivers side wing mirror indicators not working this evening on the quick trip to Saino, so clearly I didn't re-seat the mirror body correctly, which is annoying but there you go.

I have an intermittent "left parking light out" warning coming up on the dash as well, which I need to attend to - it's clearly the season for minor electrical niggles.

 

[a111r]

Are 203 mirrors the same as face lift 210 mirrors?

If so, I've got a working, folding, complete, silver pair, going spare.
IIRC, near side has a relatively new £50 MB glass fitted but the auto dimmer driver's side has gone cloudy.

 

[Dammit]

I do not know I'm afraid, they'd be very convenient if so.

I bought what I thought to be the correct replacement mirror on eBay, turns out it was for 2000-2004 "pre-facelift", and didn't have a motor to move the mirror in and out. I've fitted it for now as the old mirror was jammed in the folded position, but it's very much a kludge.

Interestingly the mirror, no matter what direction you press on the control button, just goes downward until it's pointing at the floor.

I think the control switch might be banjaxed, but I've also run out of time to spend fiddling with this, so it's booked into my local Mercedes garage next week to have the correct wing mirror frame fitted, and they can tell me what's not happy in the setup once they've put that on. This is proving to be an expensive mistake!

 

[Dammit]

Got the car back from Mercedes, they told me that they had got the estimate wrong and that the bill should be one hour, at £202, but they’d stick to the original quote of £86. I did get two cups of coffee and two small biscuits.

I suspect that they pulled the drivers side wing mirror cover off, found that one was ok, then went to the passenger side. Why do I suspect this? Because the drivers side mirror indicators no longer work- I expect they didn’t reseat the plug properly, something I will check tomorrow.

Anyway, the mirror mechanism is new/replaced with OEM Mercedes and I can say, I think conclusively, that something (likely the switch?) is borked.

Both mirrors can be adjusted left, right and down- but press up and they both go down. Hence me thinking that the switch is bust. I’ll order a new one, unless anyone knows of a more likely culprit?

I’m also now the proud owner of a video of the underside of my car telling me that everything is fine.

 

[Dammit]

Ordered a light/mirror switch panel from a breaker, will see if that resolves the control/mirror/up issue when it arrives next week.

I took the mirror housing off this morning and confirmed that Mercedes simply didn’t re-seat the indicator connector, and discovered that they’d knackered the retaining spring whilst not doing so. I pulled a replacement spring out of the now un-needed mirror mechanism Id bought in error and replaced the knackered one, and now everything works/went together nicely with a firm click.

I am, shall we say, unimpressed with Mercedes service- it’s unlikely I’ll choose to use them again.

 

[Dammit]

I had an intermittent "parking bulb failure" warning, so set out to fix that when I got back from Bedgebury.

It was odd, first time I turned the N/S parking light on the bulb came on absolutely fine, but the second and subsequent times it didn't, and the car illuminated the N/S front foglight instead. I changed both bulbs, which once I'd removed the horn was a piece of cake - if anyone reading this has owned a Volvo 850 then they'll have the context here for how relived I was to discover that W203 bulbs can be changed without dismantling the front of the car.

 

[Dammit]

I thought about it for a while, then sent MB a note about my experience of using their dealer network for a small task - and getting the car back in a lower state of functionality than when I gave it to them. They've said they'll investigate, I'll report back on what (if anything) happens.

In other news, I have fully-functional wing mirrors again, which is nice.

I ordered a mirror/light switch module:

£21 delivered from a chap on eBay.

Pull out the parking brake release, and using a Torx T20 driver remove the screw:

Pull the side panel off to expose the spring-clip that holds the module in place:

Pull the unit out, remove the cable:

My replacement is three years older than the original unit:

Done!

But did it work? Yes, I can now adjust the mirrors on both sides, in all directions. So I've ended up with my five minute job taking over a month and costing close to £400, but I did get two cups of coffee (and associated small biscuit) from Mercedes, so alls well that ends well.

 

[AltonAnt]

Not that it matters but they are different colours. Have you thought about transferring your black front panel onto the replacement or is it not noticeable?

 

[Will]

Yes looks as thought one is Schwartz (black) and the other is anthracite?

Maybe practice taking the faulty one apart - unless of course it can be fixed

 

[Dammit]

Hah, I hadn't noticed that there were different colours! I had intended on swapping the front panel and knob over at some point as the replacement has clearly been used by someone who has very sharp fingernails. That it will make the colours match is another reason to do so - thanks for the observation.

 

[Dammit]

Actually I've just noticed that the new one doesn't have the mirror-fold buttons either, clearly I ordered that whilst not paying much attention.

I'll get another one ordered that has the correct buttons. D'oh!

 

[Will]

If it makes you feel any better, I saw the pictures earlier and I didn’t notice until it was pointed out!

 

[AltonAnt]

Actually I've just noticed that the new one doesn't have the mirror-fold buttons either, clearly I ordered that whilst not paying much attention.

I'll get another one ordered that has the correct buttons. D'oh!

It is probably better not to have them tbh unless you like repairing cables.

 

[350_Coupe]

It is probably better not to have them tbh unless you like repairing cables.

hahahaha, he is so right with that, and reminds me i really should get the how-to thread constructed for re-looming the mirror frames to avoid that breakage!

 

[350_Coupe]

I took the mirror housing off this morning and confirmed that Mercedes simply didn’t re-seat the indicator connector, and discovered that they’d knackered the retaining spring whilst not doing so.

Those are not uncommon problems, on one of mine the mounted connector had at some point been misaligned and wasn't seating correctly in the indicator module, and i also knackered one of those springs too trying to get the housing to release