Agreed... Both sides dug their heels in BUT this story is on CNN.com. How much damage to Mercedes reputation are they willing to endure for a few million dollars? Im sure the car could be repaired a lot cheaper.

Yeah only the bad stuff makes the news.

Their was a guy on MBworld with a new E55, the engine blew up. MB flew one over from Germany at great expense and got the car up and running extremly quickly. Needless to say the guy who built that engine for AMG had a bad day.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Well, MB has managed to keep the issue at hand, the MB Wiring Harness Defect,
out of the news. Anyone know anyone at a major auto magazine or JD Powers?

Or, do we have to wait for a fatal accident?

btw, my NHTSA list is up to 188 complaints.
.

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

Perhaps, but to Mercedes-Benz' consternation I own one of their cars......

For those who have yet to file a complaint with the NHTSA, I'll be snail-mailing another batch of complaints to their Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) in the next few weeks. Please file your own complaint with them ASAP to be included in my hard-copy mailing. Thanks.
.

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

Im not sure what your really trying to accomplish here. The quality problems at Mercedes go way deeper than just their wiring harnesses. It seems to be a systematic problem involving mostly their attitude and lack of customer service skills and care when engineering their cars. If you really wanted to accomplish something perhaps you could protest in front of a Mercedes dealership with a burned up wiring harness.

any DIY info you could give would be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update:

I have now recorded 197 Mercedes-Benz 1991-1996 Engine Wiring Harness Defect Complaints filed with the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHTSA), and the list continues to grow.

Included in this new total are two new 1991 model year, and one new 1996 model year, disintegrating wiring harness complaints. This brings the number of 1991 complaints I have recorded--so far--to thirteen, and the number of 1996 complaints to four. While the 1996 number appears low, keep in mind that two of those four complaints were only recently filed with the NHTSA, and so are probably an unfortunate harbinger for other 1996 Mercedes-Benz owners.

Also, I have recently received some new pics, this time from a gentleman in Belgium, of the disintegrated wiring harness out of the 1992 500E he recently purchased. If you click on the the below images link, the pics from this European Mercedes harness are the bottom two:


FYI, this is still an active investigation within the NHTSA. As the increasing scope of the problem becomes apparent, I would not be suprised to see it gain a higher profile .

.

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

.
BTW, read the below complaint. I have been in contact with the complainant. First, it is miss-categorized. It is a 72,000 mile SL500, and the owner, a woman, is the original owner. The problem she is suffering is the deep down--unspoken--fear all Mercedes-Benz owners with cars of this era face:

The woman is suffering TOTAL failure of ALL the wires in her car. Pretty much bumper to bumper...

She is looking at $10,000 (48 hours of labor) to fix her SL. Apparently, all the wires in her car came from the same supplier. And why wouldn't they???

In the complaint below hers, another 1995 SL owner with a SL320, states he has had to replace a total of four different harness, beginning with the engine harness in 1998.


NHTSA Complaint Summary
Make: MERCEDES BENZ
Model: S CLASS
Year: 1995
Complaint Number: 10159899
Summary:
PARTS OF THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM BEGAN FAILING. DRIVERS WINDOW WOULD NOT OPERATE AND AFTER MUCH TROUBLESHOOTING BY THE REPAIR SHOP, THE SWITCH WAS REPLACED. SEVERAL WEEKS LATER GAUGES ON THE DASH FAILED AND THE PASSENGER WINDOW AND HORN FAILED TO OPERATE. AFTER DISASSEMBLING THE INTERIOR (SEATS, CONSOLE, DASH, ETC.) THE REPAIR SHOP CAME UPON THE PROBLEM - WIRES SHORTING ALL ALONG THE WIRING HARNESS AND CAUSE SPARKS AND SHORTS THROUGHOUT. *NM


NHTSA Complaint Summary
Make: MERCEDES BENZ
Model: 129
Year: 1995
Complaint Number: 10150787
Summary:
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON DASHBOARD, IDLE ROUGH, STALLING OF CAR. I CHECKED THE ENGINE HARNESS CONNECTOR TO THE AIR MASS METER AND GENTLY MOVED THE WIRES. THE OUTSIDE INSULATION BEGAN TO SMOKE, THEN MELTED FROM THE HEAT. I QUICKLY TURNED OFF THE CAR'S ENGINE AND CHECKED THE DAMAGE. THE INSULATION COVERING THE 4 WIRES INSIDE OF THE HARNESS HAD TOTALLY DISINTEGRATED, THUS CAUSING SHORT CIRCUITS IN THE HARNESS. THE HEAT GENERATED ACTUALLY MELTED THE OUTSIDE COVERING OF THE WIRES BOTH AT THE AIR MASS METER CONNECTOR AND UNDERNEATH THE MAIN ENGINE COMPUTER (ECU). I HAD THE CAR TOWED TO THE LOCAL MB DEALER AND THEY SAID THAT THE WHOLE BODY WIRING HARNESS WAS DESTROYED AND HAD TO BE REPLACED AT A COST OF $1250 PLUS $600 FOR THE HARNESS. MB SAID IT WAS NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR AND OFFERED NO ASSISTANCE. I FEEL THAT THE HARNESSES ON MY 1995 SL320 WERE MADE FROM SUBSTANDARD MATERIALS AND THUS DISINTEGRATED PREMATURELY PUTTING MYSELF AT RISK FROM A POSSIBLE CAR FIRE. I STILL HAVE THE HARNESS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO INSPECT IT. ANOTHER HARNESS, THE ENGINE WIRING HARNESS WAS ALSO FOUND TO BE DEFECTIVE, CAUSING SHORT CIRCUITS, AND WAS REPLACED BY MB UNDER WARRANTY IN 1998. SO FAR I HAVE REPLACED 4 DIFFERENT WIRING HARNESS ON MY CAR, ALL SHOWING THE SAME DECOMPOSITION OF THE WIRING INSULATION. *NM

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

This thread has digressed from the original issue. There was / is a wiring issue with the early to mid 90's Mercedes Benz cars. These issues are a matter of safety and not just a matter of dollars. At this point I am personaly involved ( my car had a fire diagnosed as #$%&%^^^%&Q#@$ from the wiring harness by a Dealer tech " Off the record " ) If you want to proceed with something then there should be some sort of ORG. to handle this. I am not an attorney but my job allows me some freedom to go to D.C. and hand deliver any papers etc. I know that this issue was not only a MBZ problem during the same time frame. Does any one else own another European car from the same era ?.

Alan

__________________
92 500E Silver 66k
82 Porsche 911SC 84K
68 Cadillac ( Gone Now )
03 Suburban Z71 200K
85 300SD 217k From Original Owner ( Dad )

My memory tells me that this defective wiring was also used in Volvo product during the same time.

__________________
95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

According to Dave, of Dave's Volvo Wire Harnesses, 1980-1987 Volvo's had a similar problem. Evidently, Volvo figured out their mistake, and fixed it, fully four years before Mercedes-Benz decided critical engine harnesses were a good place to improve their bottom line...

Dave told me the company that makes the aftermarket Volvo harnesses are backordered a full year.
.

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

The problem isn't limited to the engine wiring harness. ALL the wiring on affected MB cars are made from this defective insulation. Nearly all discussion is about the engine wiring harness because it sees a lot of underhood heat and deteriorates first. Your discussion with the SL500 lady reflects this.

I've had to repair other wiring on my car because the insulation became brittle and broke from flexing. I bought my car for the long haul. I only drive 4K each year with it. I shudder to think that my otherwise perfectly maintained collectible E320 will need to be scrapped in 15 years because the miles of wiring are too expensive or too difficult to replace.

__________________
95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

So does anyone actually know for certain in which year MB switched away from the bad wire insulation?

Steve

From my research, it appears MB made the switch away from the bad wire insulation sometime during their model year 1996 production. The problem "appears" isolated to model year 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996 MBs.

As of yet, I have come across no reports of defective harnesses for either model year 1990, nor model year 1997 MBs.

MBUSA, of course, could give us a much better idea were they to suddenly become a little more forthcoming...

__________________
MERCEDES-BENZ 1991-1997 ENGINE WIRING HARNESS DEFECT NHTSA COMPLAINTS

My 300TE with 234K miles was manufactured in March of 1991 and does not appear to share the wire harness defect. Mark