Help!

[stephenleak]

OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here. Once again, Mercedes-Benz have managed to make the simplest of jobs difficult.

I need to remove both ends of one of the flexible cable conduits between the bodyshell and the tailgate, in order to run a new cable through it.

The bodyshell end came off without too much of a fight. The other end? No.

My wife has tried and she can’t remove it either. I’ve always been cursed with weak wrists. She’s the one that opens jars for me.

It moves slightly, so it isn’t glued in place. Why would it be so different to the other end?

We've even tried putting the bodyshell end back in and trying to remove the tailgate end first. We were getting that desperate.

PS. My new car is a 2019 B220d W247. Can I change this and, if so, how?

 

[stephenleak]

Update ...

Those rubber conduits are different at each end. The tailgate ends are reinforced. There’s a rectangle of metal in them. You can’t compress it like the bodyshell end . You’re not going to get them out without dangerous levels of unreasonable force. I reckon that it was designed to be put in by a robot when the tailgate was assembled. The bodyshell end was designed to be put in by a human.

So, plan B. My trusty cable pull-through, made from a wire coated coiled steel net curtain wire with screweyes at each end. It’s flexible and goes around corners, but then it straightens itself out again. It’s paid for itself on countless wiring jobs since my Mk.1 Escort. Then I partly unclipped the trim panel at the top of the rear window and used a straightened out wire coat hanger, with a hook on the end, to retrieve the end of the pull-through from inside the tailgate frame. Then I attached the camera cable and gently pushed and pulled it through.

The camera is now installed & working. Failure was not an option.

PS. And I found where to update my car. Not quite, "at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard.", but close.

 

[stephenleak]

Oops. My car's details were correct all along. Now all I have to do is remember how to update it back.