W163/ML Door Panel Clips

[miggit]

Hi all, has anyone found a source of door panel clips that will work with a W163?

The original clips are a two part affair, which tend to self destruct on removal of the door card and leave you needing to replace them... only Mercedes would appear to be the only source, and they aren't cheap... fleabay prices are around £3 ea and there are 8 to a door card.. that adds up to a lot of dosh if you have to remove the card for any reason.

I've had the cards off my doors several times.. speaker upgrade, new window regulator, etc. and have tried the industry standard 1 piece clip.. but the door panel is such a good fit, they give up the ghost after a while and I'm left with flapping door cards.. which have lead to doors not opening.

A previous owner had put long screws in the lower corners of the door cards to hold them on.. I initially ditched these thinking that they were a bodge... but I've been forced to reinstate them at the moment as they seem to be the only alternative that work. But it ain't right and it annoys me.. there has got to be something out there that works! I hope!!

 

[optimusprime]

Picture will help i have lots of plastic clips and i may be able to help you .

 

[miggit]

Well that isn't going to happen as I have not the foggiest on how to upload a pic!

However.... trawling the net for a suitable pic, I stumbled on a pic of said clip from Russia, with a Chrysler part number! fueled by that I then searched for the clip from Chrysler and got 20 for £4 on fleabay.... RESULT!!

The Mercedes number is A163881678, and superseded 2 previous clips, which turned out to be one piece clips or the type that I tried without too much success... I get the feeling that door panels were popping off all over the world and Chrysler had the fix in their parts bins, so Mercedes helped themselves!

For future reference A163881678 is the same as Chrysler 55350747AB