Here's the story. My 1995 E420, 67k miles (which I've owned for one month) lost A/C on Saturday. I took it to get charged this morning at an independent shop, and we discovered that the aux. fans aren't coming on when the A/C pressures up. Result: the pressure builds too high - until a check valve opens and releases refrigerant. The likely culprit is the resistor - located underneath the air intake box on the driver's side (about $30 - not bad).

Until I get this resistor - I can still use the A/C - but only when driving at highway speeds (or the system will overpressure and release coolant again).

But now here are my 2 big problems:

1) When looking at the resistor, I took apart the air scoop in the front, driver's side of the engine. When reassembling, I forgot to reattach the electrical connector on the plastic scoop - which I assume leades to an intake air temp. sensor.

2) When I realized this, I went to open the hood again and the handle was loose in my hands - the cable to open the hood had broken!

Here's the real rub - I have to meet my wife at the beach this evening after work - and have no time to repair the car between now and then.

I'd hope that the Germans have built redundancy into the enginemanagemnt system - and that a single inatke air temp sensor disconnected wouldn't pose a problem.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO - SHOULD I DRIVE TO THE BEACH WITH THE SENSOR DISCONNECTED AND HOOD UNABLE TO BE OPENED? THE TRIP IS ABOUT 150 MILES.

Thanks in advance - any quick fix or workaround for the hood problem would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Troy K.