1992 500E 132,000 mi. Charcol Grey. It's a full moon tonight.

Loving the car so far except for fact I can't see my dash at night..

Scanned lots of threads and have run lots of searches. I downloaded the schematics from braingear and they have been quite helpful.. BUT.. man.. I just don't know if I'm doing enough when 'eliminating' a curcuit as the culprit.

SYMPTOMS:
Turn on running/head lights and fuse #3 (cuircuit 58R). Fuse box shows it covers:
parking/tail light right
headlamp cleaning unit
warning buzzer
illumination: license plate, instrument, control elements

Otherwise not other electrical or performance issues.

CAR:
Stock as far as I know (I've had it home for about 8 hours now). Factory Becker radio with MBZ badged CD changer in trunk (which is also not working.. perhaps this is a clue as well). Radio works fine. Wiring harness are stiff but do not seem 'brittle' in the trunk area.

DIAGNOSTIC SO FAR:
- Lots of fuses tossed at this, all of them burned up.
- Unplugged both right side parking/tail lights. Flipped headlamp swith to the parked mode (one side of car illuminated only). Fuse was OK. Plugged lights back in and it still worked (both front/rear illuminated).
- Unplugged headlamp wiper relay (D on diagram) - fuse still blew.

I'm thinking the next stop is to check the wiring into the trunk area (going after the low hanging fruit first). What is the best way to really check this for problems? I have it out of the harness holders but I have not split the extruded loom or cut into the black insulation around the 3 wires into trunk lid. Should I remove the liner on lid, cut wire and pull it through the trunk support stip it all back and look for shorts? I'm OK with doing that if it's the best/only way. If there is some easier less invasive way to do this I'm all ears.

If this does not work I'm going to try to pull the inst cluster (done this on my 300 before, not fun but I know the drill) and see if there is a way to unplug all of it and eliminate it from the possible cause. Maybe the regulator on the back of it (does it have one?) is shorted?

Having the door open or closed does not have an benefit. Fuse still blows, only diff is that if the door is open I hear the buzzer for a split second as the fuse burns up.

Is there other wiring (the diagram is 274 pages and I'll admit I've not read all of it yet, still trying to decifer the way it references the next sheet on a wire run) that I need to unplug or (cut??) to fully eliminate the headlamp wiper motor system as the cause? I'm thinking that pulling the relay is not the full solution but it was the quickest to try.

Help?

I'll keep searching the archives and if I find something that I think will work (or does work) before there is a reply I'll post such.

TIA!!

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