Funny, I thought the sticky peg thing was just my car. I had the same problem with the gas gauge on my 1995 C280. At first I thought it would be something like the stepper motor, but just for giggles I pulled the cluster and opened it. The needle was stuck to the peg with a sticky substance that looked, on a moist rag, like dried Coca-Cola. I thought, how weird? I wonder how many dealers actually know of this problem as they almost never open the newer clusters.