Loss Of Central Locking and Radio Signal (Question)

[Oxy]

Evening All,

So it seems my W203 has suffered another issue, Replaced ECU and wiring harness back in november. And now i seem to have lost central locking and Radio signal near permanantly, Although it seems if the car is left for some time it does work once.

From my reading of the forum it seems to point toward the rear Antenna Amplifier / receiver built into the rear upper most portion of the coupe hatch, it seems to be a common problem after tinting of a rear window and although i have tints i had them done 2 / 3 years ago so would presume this is just coincidental.

Lots of post explain how to get to the part and ive played around with pressing on points to see if its just a sticking issue from the adhesive pads but with no joy.

After speaking with MB they have informed me that as many posts state i would have to replace the rear window at the same time as the faulty Amplifier, after spending a small fortune on this car via MB im a little reluctant to throw more hard earned cash at and unessessary repair and was wondering if the following is possible.

I have found multiple Salvage / sellers where i can buy a complete rear tailgate for a 10th of the cost of repairing my own, those of which i would presume contain the amplifier in question as its part of the wiring.

Is it possible for me to just replace mine with another brought this way from a W203 Coupe or would it likely be incompatible or need reprograming?

Kind regards

Colin

 

[Justin1600]

Does the car lock and unlock throught the Infa Red window in the drivers door handle ?
I so is a amplifier problem, have you checked the fuse in the Rear Sam. Can't remember the fuse number, think it is a 7.5 amp fuse

 

[Oxy]

Hi Justin,

Yea the car locks through the IF handle drivers side although to say this is useless is an understatement. Seems to work from completely random angles each time and only seems to work in the dark guess the sensor doesnt like sun reflection.

I havent checked a fuse mainly due to the central locking being intermittent and some days working if the cars not been driven and then later after being driven it fails again, the car also happily locks via the cabin button and once driving the doors auto lock past 5mph.

Didnt seem like the kind of behaviour a fuse blown would give, Ill check nether the less.

Thanks for your reply.


regards

Colin

 

[Justin1600]

Hi Colin,

The fuse in question is for the Aerial Antenna for the central locking. Your locking will work from the drivers side of the car with this blown, as the IR will normally pick up the signal.
Check the fuses in the Rear Sam, in the boot on the passenger side.

 

[Oxy]

Hi Justin,

Have pulled all fuses from the rear sam and none appear blown.
So i return to my original thoughts that the Amplifier is on its way out.

Any comments regarding original question or compatibility of another coupes tailgate for straight swap out?

Kind regards

Colin

 

[Oxy]

Bump*

Anyones opinion greatfully received.

 

[Oxy]

Any Suggestions?

To sum up, If i was to replace my W203 Coupes Tailgate with another from a Salvage yard. What is the likely hood that the Antenna amplifier will be compatible?
Is it likely that it would need some form of programming or possible that the antenna might not be compatible?

Thanks

 

[marv53]

Anyone find an answer for you?

 

[Oxy]

Hi Marv53,

Unfortunately no one was able to answer my question,
But in the end, I ordered another tailgate off Ebay, with the intention of swapping them over. When picked up it was apparent it was not in a great condition the wiring to the car had been Cut and not the colour advertised.
Having picked it up cheap i decided to cut out the rear screen and wire it up to my car to test.
Hey presto the central locking functioned as it should.

I then cut the rear screen out of my tailgate and fitted the replacement.

All in all a pain in the ****, but considering the horrendous quote id received from Mercedes to replace the Rear screen, Antenna Amplifier and fitting it was certainly the only option i had at the time.

The final conclusion was that the Antenna Amp must have been faulty intermittently as it was the only part attached to the new window when fitted.

Kind Regards

Oxy

 

[Stratman]

The heated rear window elements were also connected to the rear screen. Some of the elements aren't for heating, they form the FM aerial.

 

[marv53]

So even if I just buy the new antenna say from a stealer, can I just plug and play or does the new part have to be fixed to the window etc?

 

[Stratman]

I shouldn't think you can buy the aerial separately as it's part of the heated rear window. The elements are bonded to the glass. The point I was making in my post was that when you changed the rear window you also changed the aerial.

 

[BlackC55]

You can get them as a seperate part. They just stick to the screen with sticky pads

 

[richard]

The antenna are in the windscreen. The antenna amplifiers are in the pack at the top which is stuck to it. You can change the antenna amplifiers on a CLC, but to do it you have ro remove the rear windscreens.

There are loads of different antenna amplifiers in that pack, and lots of different versions of the pack optimised for the different central locking frequencies etc etc etc in different countries

Most of the other cars, the antenna amplifiers are not stuck to the windscreen in an un-accessible place and thus the amplifier packs can be changed quite easily

Richard

Richard

 

[Nallyb]

Hello, I have a similar problem with my c180 kompressor 2005. I tinted my windows a few months back and my central locking only works from IR when held close to the drivers door. I have now removed my tint that cost me £150 but my problem remains the same. All fuses were checked, any other help or suggestion?