today i wired auto lights on/off with central locking in my W163 ML

[dpbayly]

Well as the title really, ive done this a few times to other cars and thought what the hell ill do it to my ML its done in this case by using my interior light to switch a standard automotive 4 pin relay which in turn runs through a standard automotive 5 pin relay to activate my side light circuit, i used 3 relays a 4 and 2 x 5 pin so that i could isolate the interior light circuit from the side light circuit once the ignition is switched on so there are no feed back issues when the car is running.

Things i had to wire in too to carry out this mod.
I had to tap into the foot well light (drivers side) a switched live off the ignition (which i fused) i had to find an earth point and i then used a power probe to find what wires that come out the light switch to turn the side lights on (there are 2 a left and right) this meant i had to use 2 5 pin relays to keep the circuits separate.

Here's a couple of videos of them in action:

My headlights are not on its the reflection of the light off my camera.
wired lights to come on and go off with unlock/lock Merc ML W163 - YouTube

and the rears:

wired lights to come on and go off with unlock/lock Merc ML W163 - YouTube

 

[dokalj]

That looks pretty good! How long did it take all in?

Also, I saw a video of a repaired throttle? How did you repair it, by putting a bolt through it?

dokalj

 

[dpbayly]

That looks pretty good! How long did it take all in?

Also, I saw a video of a repaired throttle? How did you repair it, by putting a bolt through it?

dokalj

Thanks,

Took about an hour so not to bad.

Throttle pedal repair was done by removing the naff plastic peg that MB fitted as standard and fitting this much more solid shoulder bolt, it was done to take out the terrible amount of play in the pedal, it was so bad that sometimes when booting it and pushing the pedal to the floor it would miss the drop down switch.

did you see the before video as well as the after:

Before:
Mercedes ML W163 knackered throttle pedal pivot pin (crappy plastic) - YouTube

after:
Mercedes ML w163 throttle pedal repaired - YouTube

 

[dokalj]

Yes thank you,

Has it helped performance without booting it?

Is it a standard shoulder bolt from anyu DIY store? Or is it a specific bolt for the hole?

dokalj

Thanks,

Took about an hour so not to bad.

Throttle pedal repair was done by removing the naff plastic peg that MB fitted as standard and fitting this much more solid shoulder bolt, it was done to take out the terrible amount of play in the pedal, it was so bad that sometimes when booting it and pushing the pedal to the floor it would miss the drop down switch.

did you see the before video as well as the after:

Before:
Mercedes ML W163 knackered throttle pedal pivot pin (crappy plastic) - YouTube

after:
Mercedes ML w163 throttle pedal repaired - YouTube

 

[horgantrevor]

looks great could you draw a schematic for me pls

 

[dpbayly]

Yes thank you,

Has it helped performance without booting it?

Is it a standard shoulder bolt from anyu DIY store? Or is it a specific bolt for the hole?

dokalj

it has made a difference to the feel of the pedal as before it was terribly notchy and now its silky smooth , and when i boot it it shifts now that it drops through the gears.

the bolt i used was actually one i had kicking about at work its from an exhaust system off a honda civic front pipe to middle section bolt it was also used on some rovers with the honda lump it was a perfect fit:

heres a pic of the bolt i used next to the stock plastic pin:

 

[dpbayly]

looks great could you draw a schematic for me pls

I shall in deed give me a few mins

 

[Mobb]

Love it.. Similar to "follow me home lights" on more modern cars..

Feel like doing this for me on my CLK?

 

[dpbayly]

well i had a go at drawing it up on the computer and it didn't go well so i hand drew it (badly) and took pic was a much quicker way of doing it:

Forgive me hopefully you can follow it i will sit down some time and make a decent job of it but this will give you the details you need to know:

right basically how it works, the interior light is feed by a constant live and the other wire shows live till the light is activated when it switches negative this is why i need the 1st 4 pin relay if it was switched live it would have been easier, so the 4 pin relay is wire so when the interior light comes on it activates the 4 pin relay and sends power out of pin 30 and it goes straight through pin 87a and out pin 30 on the pair of 5 pin relays sending the power to the switched power wires at the back of the light switch switching them on (on my 2000 ml430 the wires i needed at the back of the switch were light blue and light green) when the ignition is switched on power goes to pin 85 on both the 5 pin relays activating the relay and switching the terminal from pin 87a to 87 which has nothing wired to it, so now when switching the lights on a back feed of power comes up pin 30 and to pin 87 where it ends so there is no worry of interior lights coming on when there not wanted and vice versa using the interior lights have no effect on the sidelights when ignition is on.

Hope people understand it is actually quite simple once you get your head round it

 

[CKLclive]

Could it be possible also to rig up the same trick for retracting mirrors
of the elec retracting sort operated normaly by a switch ?

 

[jaymanek]

Yes you would just need to plumb in a timer so it doesnt juice it for too long. Should be fairly simple on the pre facelift ML.


dpbayly - why didnt u just use one relay for both lamps? to avoid feedback i guess?

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
Excellent post, thanks for sharing the info.
I think I will be doing this on my AMG at some point in the near future.
Regarding modifing the circuit for folding mirrors, I think the manual folding switch in circuit would cause issues, time wise you could use the courtesy delay as the O/P is but you would have to be able to swap the polarity of the folding motors to get them to fold/unfold so it would,nt be that easy to do, though possible, thought about doing this myself but to be honest I don,t think its worth the hassle to be honest.

 

[CKLclive]

Hi,
Excellent post, thanks for sharing the info.
I think I will be doing this on my AMG at some point in the near future.
Regarding modifing the circuit for folding mirrors, I think the manual folding switch in circuit would cause issues, time wise you could use the courtesy delay as the O/P is but you would have to be able to swap the polarity of the folding motors to get them to fold/unfold so it would,nt be that easy to do, though possible, thought about doing this myself but to be honest I don,t think its worth the hassle to be honest.

Hi Andy,

was thinking of removing the switch it would no longer be needed
it the mirrors were then wired up to central locking ?

 

[dpbayly]

Yes you would just need to plumb in a timer so it doesnt juice it for too long. Should be fairly simple on the pre facelift ML.


dpbayly - why didnt u just use one relay for both lamps? to avoid feedback i guess?

I had to wire them separately trough separate relays because it would have ment i would have been joining the 2 side light circuits together if i use just 1 relay and i didn't know if that would cause any problems as i assumed there separate for a reason. It would have been such a simple job if MB had wired there interior lights switched positive and made it so both side lights were activated on the same wire.

 

[dpbayly]

Could it be possible also to rig up the same trick for retracting mirrors
of the elec retracting sort operated normaly by a switch ?

You would be able to do this in a similar way i did it to my last car M5 with the power fold mirrors, on the M5 the mirrors are fitted with auto cut out for the power so you could feed them a constant power with no problems IF the ML is fitted with a similar system it would be dead easy but with the M5 i wired them to the ignition so they folded up when shut off and back out on start up as the wiring to the mirrors switches the polarity down the wires to fold in and out this needs to done by using a DPDT relay.

Here's the relays i use:

and how i wired them up (again forgive the the bad drawing) this has to be done with 2 relays one per mirror:

I will check the wiring in the ML tomorrow to see if it can be done the same and if so ill do it and post a better how too.

 

[Mobb]

This is exactly what I want for my CLK! Glad to see it can be done. Especially after being told it was Impossible!

 

[dpbayly]

Here's it working on the M5 mirrors after wiring it up like the diagram:

M5 mirrors wired to ignition auto open-close - YouTube

 

[CKLclive]

dpbayly can it be done via the remote ?

 

[dpbayly]

dpbayly can it be done via the remote ?

Yes i'll look into it and get back to you, If anyone knows where the central looking interface/control unit is it will make my job easier.

 

[CKLclive]

ok if you can give me a shout via email [email protected]
I have WIS/EPC so can give details