W213 Estate load cover woes

[HamLondon]

Hi all, I've been having fun.

One of the lugs on the load cover broke, not sure how, my wife was using the car at the time. Car is under a year old, so I thought I'd have a try seeing what the warranty situation was like. On the phone everyone insisted that it was FAR TOO COMPLICATED (!!!) to understand on the phone, I would have to bring it in. When I did, surprise surprise, one hour later I am told it isn't a warranty claim (also, that I didn't have to come in, but hey ho)

In the meantime I contact parts, to be told that it isn't replaceable and the only option is a replacement unit for £710.

I've fired off a complaint to Mercedes customer service. In my view, if it isn't warranty, it isn't fit for purpose as a bill for £710 for a tiny bit of plastic that is clearly vulnerable and should be replaceable is not on. I haven't heard back, it has only been two days.

In the meantime, I've fashioned a substitute from a piece of 10mm aluminium, which I have made identical to the plastic and screwed to the cross bar. In the course of doing that I confirmed that the lug really should be replaceable, you can remove it with the single pop rivet.

And now, the cover doesn't lift. Can't find a fuse. Ho hum.

 

[Brian k]

How about a few pics so we can understand it and help ?

 

[HamLondon]

Not actually after help, just sharing experience and wondering if others had dealt with this.

Here's the broken piece

and here's my fix, identical to c 0.2mm of the plastic original.

I can confirm that, if this piece of plastic was available as a spare it would be the work of slightly less than 5 minutes to drill the blind rivet, replace the plastic and the blind rivet.

 

[HamLondon]

I should add, for anyone who would like to copy, that while the plastic piece is c 5.6mm thick, the copy needs to be cut from a 10mm billet as the angle of the tab means there is c.3mm difference one side to the other (so effectively needing 6mm+3mm = 9mm thick). It should be possible to remove the plastic piece and insert into the oval aluminium tube, if you were so inclined, I screwed it onto the bottom.

 

[jaymanek]

Yep those are always breaking. I just buy used ones from eBay. Normally ebay Germany is cheapest.

 

[jaymanek]

W213 rollo | eBay

 

[jaymanek]

W213 rollo | eBay

 

[HamLondon]

Yebbut they are still > £100? Unless you've found somewhere that does just the plastic bits?

150mm of 25x10mm Ally, £5 off ebay and that mother ain't gonna break

 

[HamLondon]

OK, the r/h side tab is not just a bit of plastic! it has a magnet embedded which operates a sensor to make the cover lift. I've got a 12mm x 1mm magnet which, once I'd inset it into the tab, work perfectly. Tested with tape around it, tried heatshrink but that was too thick. Bit of resin should do the job.

 

[fifermerc]

OK, the r/h side tab is not just a bit of plastic! it has a magnet embedded which operates a sensor to make the cover lift.

Now that you explain that, it makes the £710 replacement cost seem entirely reasonable!!

 

[HamLondon]

OK, instead of resin I ordered a length of thin heatshrink off ebay, and job's a good'un. Better with the heatshrink as it also protects from marking by the aluminium. For the record, the magnet goes on the top. Total cost of repair, £7.36 + about two hours. I may yet re-work to put the bar inside the ally tube, which would be still better.

 

[HamLondon]

Update on this, I did form the block to fit into the aluminium runner, as with it screwed on underneath it fouled the body and prevented it from "sitting down" properly with the cover retracted, photos to follow

 

[HamLondon]

Here's the upper side showing the magnet that works the lift switch, under the heatshrink

 

[HamLondon]

And here's the other side - you can see the hole from the previous screw on fixing. Sorry for the blur but it's bloody cold out there right now!