The early style 123 Emergency Flasher / Turn Signal Relays are no longer available through Mercedes or the aftermarket. There are some companies that will repair them if you send them in. Mine gave up, so I decided to see if I could repair it myself. Turns out it is fairly simple. The following pictures document the repair.

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

More Pictures and Instructions

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

Additional Instructions

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

Slides 16 to 20

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

Slides 21 to 24

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

When I thought my Turn Signal Flasher had died it turned out that it was the Emergency Flasher Switch. Apparently my Wife had kept thumping here purse down on top of it. When she got into the Car.

When I replaced the Emergency Flasher Switch the Turn Signals also started working again.

Also when I was speculating on the actual Flasher Unit I wondered if that only thing that was preventing the use of some generic flasher unit is that the Mercedes flasher has round pins on it. Otherwise there could be Flashers made for US Cars that would work.

I had no need to experiment further as mine worked after the E F Switch replacement.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Very nice repair presentation.

Very well done, thank you .

? Why not replace the other capacitor whilst you had it apart ? .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Most probably will if they go in that far. Common value capacitor. . Easily obtained.

At least people will consider a repair now if they had not before. Wrecks to remove one from are declining. In my area for example they have become very scarce already.

Two reasons, main one is that I did not have that exact value capacitor in the kit. Second reason, I wanted to know which capacitor was preventing it from working. I don't currently have a capacitor tester (one is ordered), so I accepted that this may be an iterative effort to fix it. I also suspected the large orange capacitor was the offender, it was ever so slightly "dirty / oily".

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

Had exactly the same problem, followed your guide exactly, fixed my problem perfectly. I can’t thank you enough for this sensational guidance. My unit was as clean as a whistle. I began to doubt the capacitor was a problem as it looked perfect (not dirty or Oily). But 50 cents later, (we have a component store very near) my Merc is roadworthy again. It was searching to buy a replacement that I came across your post. Many Blessings upon you Turbo! Thank you.

Hey, thanks for letting me know. That is why we share our experiences to help one-another. So glad you were able to fix yours!

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

Well today, my son and I opened the flasher back up to replace that capacitor that I DID NOT replace a few years ago. Same symptom as before, relay buzzes when not in use. The 1 microfarad, capacitor finally gave up. The 47 microfarad capacitor was still good. Actually used my repair pictures here to speed up the repair.

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Turbo300Mercede
87 300D W124
83 240D W123
80 300 TD Wagon W123, 4 Speed from 79 240D, SLS Rear Suspension

EXCELLENT ! .

Thank you for the follow up .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Same here. haven't seen one in local yards in 3-4 months.

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1980 N/A 300D with 240d ACC and sanden unit, 268k miles, has a 617.952 turbo motor installed and a 4 speed standard in its future.