elite_504
Active Member
My 2001 W203 C32 has an intermittent rear right parking sensor.
STAR tells me this, but it is also pretty easy to diagnose by getting an assistant to walk around the car and verify each sensor. The car was giving me all bars rear-right when it was playing up.
After popping the rear wheel off and pulling the wheel arch liner, I took a peer inside and verified that the trim strip that holds the sensor DIDN'T have and mechanical fasteners (i.e "nuts") in place as some posts have suggested for other models.
I used some low-tack tape on the bumper top and bottom to protect the paintwork, and eased the snapfit off, lower edge first, with a wide blade driver and a stiff spatula. The snapfits are every few inches, bottom first, then top, alternating.
Some pics I used for reference are in the post here:
E Class (W211) Parking sensor removal - How I did it. - Mercedes-Benz Owners' Forums
Getting as far as the sensor, it was pretty wet, so I pulled it off.
I hung it up on a bent spoke above my hot-air gun set to about 90° for about 20 mins. This dried it out.
Reference info here:
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/elec...0-cdi-estate-rear-parking-sensor-problem.html
I used a water displacer in the loom connector (i.e WD-40 or similar). In the absence of dielectric grease, I popped the assembly back together with vaseline. On reassembly, I noticed the orange water seal on the connector was slightly scrunched and didn't seal properly. I'm guessing this let water in. Liberal vaseline I'm hoping will help.
For ref, vaseline is compositionally the same as many dielectric greases, just thicker. There is more info on dielectric grease in the bottom post of the link above.
Tangs of bumper infill were cleaned and vaselined, and then snapped back together. job done. If it plays up again, I'll just change the sensor. It's just a bit of a faff as they need painting to match the bumper. Hopefully, I won't be needing to do that !
Hopefully this will help someone with an earlier 203 estate!
STAR tells me this, but it is also pretty easy to diagnose by getting an assistant to walk around the car and verify each sensor. The car was giving me all bars rear-right when it was playing up.
After popping the rear wheel off and pulling the wheel arch liner, I took a peer inside and verified that the trim strip that holds the sensor DIDN'T have and mechanical fasteners (i.e "nuts") in place as some posts have suggested for other models.
I used some low-tack tape on the bumper top and bottom to protect the paintwork, and eased the snapfit off, lower edge first, with a wide blade driver and a stiff spatula. The snapfits are every few inches, bottom first, then top, alternating.
Some pics I used for reference are in the post here:
E Class (W211) Parking sensor removal - How I did it. - Mercedes-Benz Owners' Forums
Getting as far as the sensor, it was pretty wet, so I pulled it off.
I hung it up on a bent spoke above my hot-air gun set to about 90° for about 20 mins. This dried it out.
Reference info here:
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/elec...0-cdi-estate-rear-parking-sensor-problem.html
I used a water displacer in the loom connector (i.e WD-40 or similar). In the absence of dielectric grease, I popped the assembly back together with vaseline. On reassembly, I noticed the orange water seal on the connector was slightly scrunched and didn't seal properly. I'm guessing this let water in. Liberal vaseline I'm hoping will help.
For ref, vaseline is compositionally the same as many dielectric greases, just thicker. There is more info on dielectric grease in the bottom post of the link above.
Tangs of bumper infill were cleaned and vaselined, and then snapped back together. job done. If it plays up again, I'll just change the sensor. It's just a bit of a faff as they need painting to match the bumper. Hopefully, I won't be needing to do that !
Hopefully this will help someone with an earlier 203 estate!
