Two Electrical Faults In C32

[as400]

Just bought a bargain price C32 and am playing with it to see what faults I can find.

Just found two small ones so far, the drivers electrically operated headrest button doesn't seem to work....should I be able to manually adjust the headrest or will this cause problems?

Also my folding wing mirrors button, only the drivers side mirror folds the other stays very still and quiet, though the mirror element can still be moved electronically.

Any ideas on why and potential £££'s to sort?

 

[alexander patie]

right, the driver's headrest. it is usually a dry joint on the tiny pcb in the motor housing. it is a diy job for those that can solder and do not break things . otherwise i expect to take around 1/2 hr to fix these, assuming it is as i say.

folding mirror is less obvious to me, not likely to be the wiring as the wires do not have to bend for the folding mirror, just for the indicator and mirror adjustment.

 

[aka$h]

The mirror issue is quite common on the w211, the wires the go from the door control module to the mirror break up due to being folded too many times. Again simple enough to fix.

 

[marty359]

Also my folding wing mirrors button, only the drivers side mirror folds the other stays very still and quiet, though the mirror element can still be moved electronically.

Any ideas on why and potential £££'s to sort?

I only use my car weekends and sometimes my nearside mirror will stick in the open or closed position,a gentle little push while pressing the button sorts it out then it will go for weeks without it happening again.

Marty

 

[alexander patie]

The mirror issue is quite common on the w211, the wires the go from the door control module to the mirror break up due to being folded too many times. Again simple enough to fix.

the wires for the mirror folding motor do not bend when mirror is folded and do not need repairing when the others do, as i said. the reason why? the folding motor is mounted on the part of the housing that is bolted to the door, and not subject to movement.

although the w211 wiring is easy to fix, it is hard to do it neatly enough to ensure the fault is not repeated 12 months later. 0/10 for mb on this one! the w203 mirrors are not prone to this problem.

 

[alexander patie]

just remembered, we have seen these mechanisms with seized pivot pins, as marty has reminded me. although it is a simple problem, i have to report that freeing them off is not so easy...

 

[Wully]

the wires for the mirror folding motor do not bend when mirror is folded and do not need repairing when the others do, as i said. the reason why? the folding motor is mounted on the part of the housing that is bolted to the door, and not subject to movement.

although the w211 wiring is easy to fix, it is hard to do it neatly enough to ensure the fault is not repeated 12 months later. 0/10 for mb on this one! the w203 mirrors are not prone to this problem.

Think you may be wrong on this one, heard about a few and here's mine, has happened on both mirrors:-

Over the last two days I'd been getting intermittent warning in the display that i had a problem with the nearside indicator.

As for the last month or two my auto dip mirror had not been working i was beginning to suspect the door module however after a poke about yesterday i discovered that i had a few cut cables inside the mirror housing.

So to try and beat the darkness tonight i came home from work and dismantled the door card and to revel the wiring harness and then set about dismantling the mirror assembly.

Mistake! No need to remove the door card, there is a connector inside the mirror fixing bracket.

Anyway into the house i go and strip the mirror down and low and behold there were four cables in total cut cleanly. See below:

The cause of said cut, the scissor mechanism. The cable clip on the left hand side had somehow came loose:-

So what do i do, get a replacement harness if one is even available or dig out the soldering iron. So out came the soldering iron and some insulation tape :bannana:

Put it all back together by torchlight and everything works as it should even the auto dip.

Therefore guys if you have folding mirrors check the cable harness, it's an easy check slip off the mirror housing and have a peek.

 

[alexander patie]

i said the w203 was not prone to the problem, i have repaired around 20x w211 ones, and none on the w203. it seems however from your experience that i will have to do a few in the future! time will tell.

also, you will notice in the picture that the motor is mounted to the stationary side of the mechanism as i said, the wiring for the motor is not pictured as it is contained behind the motor and is definately, absolutely, certainly NOT subject to bending or being trapped. presumably yours did still fold?

sadly the last time i checked mercedes do not have a harness listed - you have to buy the whole assembly! shame on them.