W205 water leak seat rail?

[Jigglyjohnson]

If i was you i would remove the drivers seat and then remove the front and rear carpet sections and get a good electrician to check the wiring as there are spare parts available for the loom pins plugs etc from mb with out the need for replacing the whole loom. Which would save a few pounds. They should be able to trace the source of the leak quite easily if you have that much of a bad leak into the cabin. Ive seen a few 205 with water ingress and 8k for repair seems high take it they are quoting for a whole loom replace not a repair ?. Main causes of leaks on these models are a/c drain under the heater box middle of the transmission tunnel not fitted correctly but will only over fill when a/c being used and yours was parked up. The windscreen bonding has failed and allowing water into the car have you had a windscreen fitted last 12 to 18 months ? Takes a while to notice any electrical issue sometimes. This was a comman with rush fitters. Then the main loom grommet under the drivers dash area can be seen with the carpet out this wasnt fitted correctly and water build up in heavy rain and it trickles in behind the sound deadening and into the o/s of the car and sits in the osr area get these checked out

 

[MrGreedy]

I agree about getting the carpets out to a certain degree.
To be honest, for £8k, I'd have no problem just sucking it up and doing this whole thing myself out of necessity.

Battery needs to be disconnected and seats need to be removed to get the carpets lifted of course. Don't want any seat airbags going off.
However, I suspect the carpet is trapped under the centre arm rest, and getting that out will be an additional pile of work and effort. If you can get the seats out, you could at least lift the carpets up at the edges.
I'd recomment investing in an electric dehumidifier rather than just a heater to get the moisture out; sell on ebay after if you don't want it. They create a bit of warmth whilst running anyway. And masking tape a robust polythene sheet over any power supply entry point if that creates a rainwater risk.

I'm sure once the carpets are out/lifted they can be dried, and if really necessary, cleaned by you. No need for a new carpet unless it's obviously ruined. Crazy talk from MB there.

And also agree about the loom. That can definitely be repaired, and again for £8k, I'd be buying myself a quality soldering iron, heat shrink, correct gauge wiring, connectors, crimps, multimeter and a decent £1k fault reader to get through it. But I also don't have £8k to spend and I can just about tolerate crawling around in the car doing this sort of unpleasant rubbish. Your situation might well be different, and some people (e.g. my wife) would rather spend £8k than spending a single hour doing this sort of thing.

Of course, all this is pretty futile until you are sure you've found and sorted the leak.
I don't envy you having to do this/make your choice. It's either paying with a chunk of money, or paying with your time. No easy answers I'm afraid.

 

[DocDick]

Well, in the past I may have rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in. However, I have to reluctantly acknowledge that any skills or knowledge I had in that direction have not kept up with the evolution of automotive tech over the years. My only choice in that direction is to pay someone with more expertise to do the job for me.

Looking at the economic arguments on the basis that this is a task beyond my (very limited) abilities, so I have a pile of metal that I cannot use at the moment. A breaker has already said that they would give me £4k for it sight unseen (c.f. a probable max value of £8k from an on-line car buyer IF it was fixed). It's pretty likely to cost upwards of £8k to fix anyway as the leak also has to be repaired, and MB have said they wouldn't take it as a trade in if it were fixed, and only allow £2k if they had it 'as is' at the moment - that is, to my mind, derisory as they can then take it round the corner to the breakers for an easy £2k themselves.

MB nationally have considered the matter and are declining to assist (gee, thanks!)
Insurers won't touch it.
To get it to a useable state I'm going to have to spend as much as the car is then likely to be worth at the end, which is like two sides of the equation cancelling each other out.
Dealer might consider offering to pay for the parts to fix the leak (max £1k) if I choose to go down that route...

I may just as well spend that £8k+ (plus the £4k from the breaker) and get a car 'worth' £12k+.

 

[Tezz]

My A class leaked water like a sieve :-( from rear lights, tailgate handle, bumper vents, from drains as rear tailgate seal, lol I think I got them all.

The one that cause the most issues was the front drain, it allowed water to filter down inside of heater box each side of consul to floor, when I changed my heater regulator it was rusted to the connector

I read 100s and 100s of threads on water leaks into MBs took forever to find them all.

Down side is without stripping out all electrics I have no idea what other connectors it has gotten into :-( and as this car seams sensitive to the slightest electrical issue its always at back of my mind, not if but when will the next issue arise.

Yes can just scrap car but then will replacement be any better?

Still find it hard to believe MB will quote to fix loom but not find leak first ?

Good luck, hope you can find a local friendly electrician to sort it, but all pointless unless you find leaks

Tezz

 

[C220DLondon]

Well, in the past I may have rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in. However, I have to reluctantly acknowledge that any skills or knowledge I had in that direction have not kept up with the evolution of automotive tech over the years. My only choice in that direction is to pay someone with more expertise to do the job for me.

Looking at the economic arguments on the basis that this is a task beyond my (very limited) abilities, so I have a pile of metal that I cannot use at the moment. A breaker has already said that they would give me £4k for it sight unseen (c.f. a probable max value of £8k from an on-line car buyer IF it was fixed). It's pretty likely to cost upwards of £8k to fix anyway as the leak also has to be repaired, and MB have said they wouldn't take it as a trade in if it were fixed, and only allow £2k if they had it 'as is' at the moment - that is, to my mind, derisory as they can then take it round the corner to the breakers for an easy £2k themselves.

MB nationally have considered the matter and are declining to assist (gee, thanks!)
Insurers won't touch it.
To get it to a useable state I'm going to have to spend as much as the car is then likely to be worth at the end, which is like two sides of the equation cancelling each other out.
Dealer might consider offering to pay for the parts to fix the leak (max £1k) if I choose to go down that route...

I may just as well spend that £8k+ (plus the £4k from the breaker) and get a car 'worth' £12k+.

This is really shocking. I know that there may be more to all this than you can write in a forum post but Mercedes really aren't doing themselves any favours here at all. Surely the solution is for MB UK to contribute a little for your time and hassle and sort out getting your 'old' motor scrapped. You've demonstrated remarkable loyalty (I can't help thinking why?) having bought your last two cars from them and had it serviced with them throughout.

Really poor customer service. I'd like to know which dealership this is as I'd like to ensure I never go there...

 

[Jigglyjohnson]

Do you have use of another vehicle ? If so id be going through it and stripping it bit at a time seats are 4 bolts and seat belt slides out and once the throttle pedal is removed and carpets out id say approx 2.5 hours to remove then you can see the extent of the repair. Better still if mb have the car and it has been partially stripped then get it back and then some of the work is done. Only downside i can see to what you are saying is on the 205 model series the connectors for the exhaust nox sensors are in the os floor and when the water gets in it generally fills the connector in the floor causing the connector to rot out but these are availabe to replace not expensive at all and the pins are availabe. The expensive part is the nox sensors themselves at apprx 350 quid each but if the water hasnt got that far you will be okay. I did a water leak on a 205 a few months back and it took approx 15 hours to strip out access the loom and strip back the bad wiring and repair. Are they saying the park brake is down to the water leak ?

 

[Petrol Pete]

Guy's stop ! Most are telling OP how to fix electrical damage and dry stuff out . No point at all until the source of the leak is found. I still think OP paying for an independent (non MB) inspection to find the leak is the only way. If something that is found that is the fault of MB , with the cars history in mind, the OP will have a 'case against' MB. If the fault is down to the OP , then so be it.

The car has a full MB service record. Is cleaning out the drain routes on the service schedule ? If it is.....

 

[LeeJV]

Hey buddy, not sure how you have progressed in this, but I've been having a similar problem, my car has been at MB for a month now, finally getting it back this week.
They sourced the leak from 2 places
They found that the windscreen had been replaced and not sealed correctly, water was getting trapped under the scuttle and leaking through behind the dash.
They also found a rubber grommet in the drivers side footwell where the wiring harness comes through that had perished, then they covers the floor and foot wells in powder for a week while the car was left outside in the rain to see if any moisture was left.

Not sure if this help you in anyway, but thought it might be worth a mention

 

[Jigglyjohnson]

Hey buddy, not sure how you have progressed in this, but I've been having a similar problem, my car has been at MB for a month now, finally getting it back this week.
They sourced the leak from 2 places
They found that the windscreen had been replaced and not sealed correctly, water was getting trapped under the scuttle and leaking through behind the dash.
They also found a rubber grommet in the drivers side footwell where the wiring harness comes through that had perished, then they covers the floor and foot wells in powder for a week while the car was left outside in the rain to see if any moisture was left.

Not sure if this help you in anyway, but thought it might be worth a mention

Yes this is what i was talking about earlier on in the thread. I would certinaly be checking this first

 

[RadiumRob]

Facing a similar situation it would be very interesting to hear the outcome of this.

 

[JHS]

Facing a similar situation it would be very interesting to hear the outcome of this.

DocDick​

New Member · 58 · From South West
Joined Dec 8, 2020
Last seen Dec 18, 2020

He did not stay for long.