Embarassing Horn!

[carnut]

First may I ask everyone to keep it clean!

My " Audible warning device" otherwise know as the Horn is getting overly sensitive and goes of at the slightest touch of any of the left side command buttons on the wheel boss.It even has taken to going off as I turn the wheel which has caused me great embarrassment when parking in a less than salubrious part of North london today

How do I take off the centre boss to see if the contacts are OK and reset the boss at a level that stops the horn sounding at the slighted touch of the buttons?

The car is a 2003 R230 SL

I dont want to pull at the centre and set the airbag off!!!

Im happy to take it to my Dealer but if its just a question of pulling at the centre pad and cleaning then Id rather do it myself and get a quick fix before it gets me ito road rage from someone when all Im doing is changing the Comand features!!

 

[grober]

My Physio had this problem on her CLK. It required a new steering column part from MB to fix it!

 

[carnut]

Is it possible to easily remove the centre pad on the steering wheel to inspect the contacts etc?

 

[grober]

Most airbags are secured by rear facing screws from the back. Since you probably need to disable the airbag before doing work in this area I would recommend leaving this to your dealer. They should also be able to check the fault codes to assist in locating the fault.

 

[Wezzel]

Must be a bit worrying when following a large group of Hell's Angels down the motorway

 

[carnut]

My MB dealer has said that to fix this problem I need a complete airbag assembly at a cost of nearly £700 even though there no actual fault with the airbag itself, just the contacts on the assembly!

Has anyone any knowledge of this problem and come up with a lower cost fix?

MB wont give any goodwill. clearly its a design fault as Ive never heard of any problem like this after only 45k miles