91 and older Benz owners - does your instrument cluster clock still function?
 

I am wondering... how many owners here of the older Mercedes still have a properly functioning instrument cluster clock?

I hope I do not jinx myself, but when I got my 85' 380SE, I was amazed that the instrument cluster clock was still in perfect working order. As far as I can tell, it has never been repaired/replaced. I find it amazing, because out of all of the older cars I have owned with an instrument cluster clock, none have ever operated. Seems to be an extremely common problem on ALL older cars. Aside from the A/C systems on cars, this seems to be the next thing that typically goes out.

Knowing my luck, I just jinxed myself and the clock will now be on the fritz. :D

I have a 1979 300TD and a 1989 300SE--both clocks work perfectly.

Joe B.

You're obviously not used to German cars!

Oh, perhaps I am mistaken? Fool that I am :D, I gathered that it was common from a Mercedes site link that was posted here on the boards. Someone on the site was talking about "common problems" and this was one of them mentioned. Perhaps I should just delete this then..... sorry. :uhoh2:

Now I feel like a fool.:silly:

Mine died (86 560sl) but I replaced the capacitors on it and it worked fine. I refinish instrument clusters and I had some spare clock mechanisms. I replaced caps on 4 others, and three were revived!

The clock/tach on my 82 300D works fine. The clock on my 83 240D failed and has been replaced.

yes
 

all of my clocks work perfectly

86' 300E ...still tickin.

1987 300SE Euro. Judging by the accuracy of the clock in mine, one would think this is a Swiss car.

I noticed that STRIFE repairs clusters so I am expanding - not highjacking.. - the thread to ask about clusters in general. Hope nobody minds.

All the gauges on my cluster work properly , however at nighttime the light is quite dim. I did replace the bulbs and that helped a little. Would replacing (the old but working ) dimmer improve things ? Basically , is a dimmer a "work or no work" thingy - or does it become less effective after many years ?
TIA

Mine works fine. Only problem with my cluster is that the winshield wash tank light is always on. Then again, I never fill it. There could be a correlation.

Mine works fine. It stops working when I have to adjust it for the time changes, then it quits. There's a mechanical problem with the adjustment whatever that thing is called. I must have CRS syndrome.

1979 and 1985 300cd both work and keep time perfect.

89 300CE Clock works fine.
But the tach stops working whenever I reset it.
Repaired it atleast 4 to 5 times.
Need to do it again now.

Dash clocks
 

My 89 420SEL clock only works intermittently, and I really don't care --- don't really look at "dash time" anyway. My 76 450SEL clock also works a bit, but not consistently .... so the net result is that they do not really work well and I am not going to fool with them. My 99ML electronic clock is still doing fine however.

89-300ce, works fine.

Jorg

My '85 380SE clock works great. I had older Mercedes cars from the '70's with the round clock that never worked right though, and this was in the eighties- early nineties.

Re. the cluster dimmer, do a search, as there are threads discussing this at length. Basically, you can connect the 2 prongs and that will show you what the 'most' light looks like. Corrosion on the internals can reduce voltage, but the consensus here seems to be that the full-on position was not bright enough even when the car rolled off the showroom floor.

mine doesnt work :(

The only time mine quit, I flicked the adjuster knob and it ran again. Its been fine since.

1982 300TD-- Clock works.
1983 240D -- Clock works.
1988 560SL-- Clock works.
1965 Mustang-- Clock not installed. But being a Ford, it probably would not work:D

Dave

works fine on my 87 300e and 88 300ce.

The clock in my 81 300SD works great! The tach is inop,have tried all the fixes. My dash lights are kinda dim and the rheostadt changes nothing when I turn it!

clocks
 

My 77 450sl works perfectly, (never repaired). Note that early clocks before 70s used point type clock mechansims that usually went out after a few years. Later closcks used quartz movements that can last a long time! good luck all, Abe G

Not only do both of mine work perfectly they keep time as accuritly as any watch.

These are German cars I wouldn't expect less.

Can anyone point me to a non-404 link for the clock repair DIY?

I've gathered snippets here and there, probably enough that I can R&R it, but there might be some pointers that I'm not aware of.

Thanks.

On my 88 124c

Clock works fine as do the left guages: fuel, oil pressure & fuel economy.
The left dash light bulb has gone twice in the last 4 years.
The speedo used to fluctuate occasionally between 70-75 mph.
The odo went at 75,000 miles just this past August. Repaired for a couple of hundred dollars.

From what I've read here, odo failure IS a common problem with older benz's.

Mine works perfectly (hope that hasn't jinxed it!!!)

Two for my 190 do not work.... Old one and newer one.....

The clock works fine in my 88 560SEL. The fuel efficiency gauge wasn't
working but has been repaired. The trip odometer doesn't work.

'79 450SL still working -- I can hear the quartz mechanism going tick-tick-tick when I go in the garage. :)

Both don't work.

I believe that when these cars sit for an extended time, the slow drain on the battery is what does them in... both of mine sat for quite some time before I got them. There isn't enough to pop the fuse for the cluster/clock so it burns them up. I know this to be true for older Cadillacs from about the mid 70s and earlier. NONE of those ever work that I've seen.

All of them work!
Knock on wood!

Let's see... on my 300SD, it was working perfectly when I purchased the car. Then after I decided to pull the instrument cluster to change the bulbs and rebuild the rheostat, etc, it stopped working. :confused: Made no sense to me as I didn't touch anything on the clock at the time. Then after several weeks, it started working. When I reset it to reflect the correct time, it stopped working again. :confused: This process of starting to work after a while of not working and then quitting once the time is set to reflect the then current time happened two more times. Then all of a sudden, one day I reset it and it actually kept working. So today, I have a working clock. :D


Getting ready to fix the clock on your new 300SD? Well, believe it or not, I actually printed out the contents of a "non-404" DIY clock repair page to repair the clock on your car. Never got to it but I still have the print outs. Let me know if you want them and I'll just throw them into the file for your car.

The dimmer is a rheostat, basically a higher current potentiometer with a wire-wound resistance element instead of a carbon strip. It can get corroded and "noisy" (like a crackly radio volume control, except with light, not sound) or if the element or wiper breaks from wear or corrosion, just drop dead, but I don't think it can really get "weak" across the board. MAYBE, if the wiper arm loses its spring tension, it might not make a great connection and get weak across the entire travel, but I doubt it.

Those tiny bulbs can get weak, though - they develop failure modes other than just going dead with a broken filament. I have examples with "hot spots" that don't give out much light; I have others with darkened envelopes with diminished output.

I've put in the recommended brand new lamps, I know my dimmer is perfect, and I wouldn't say the brightness in my car is exactly overwhelming. This may be a difference in "taste" between European and US drivers. I'll bet at least 50% of your average US drivers have never touched their dimmer during the entire life of their car!

My clock is still working also. (1991 420SEL with 182,000 miles). Some of the above posters have talked about their clocks stopping after resetting the time. I think this may be due to the push-in reset mechanism not releasing fully when let go. I think someone even mentioned that they rapped on the reset knob and then the clock started moving again.

As for the dash illumination getting dimmer over time, I think I recall reading on another M-B forum that the bulb can actually develop a coating on the inside of the glass surface, basically a metal-film deposition of material from the filament. This would make the bulb itself dimmer over a long period of time. Of course, there could still be a problem with the dimmer potentiometer.

1990 300E - 198,000 miles
 

I have a '90 and the clock keeps nearly perfect time. By the time daylight savings roll around it's maybe a 1 or 2 min off if that. Clock still works in my '92 as well.

I will try replacing the bulbs again and play with the dimmer. I had already sort of given up on this cluster brightness issue - until this thread came around and for a brief moment.. hope was here again. I may as well face it - this wonderful car is not perfect. Thank you all.

I have a 1982 300D, both the clock and odometer are kaput.

I had a prolem with no dash lights on my 240D I took the reostat apart and found that the wiper and wire were green with corosion cleaned them up and it work.

I have owned over ten Mercedes over the years and none of them had trouble with the clocks. All worked and were remarkably accurate.

Haasman

Someone asked for a non-broken link for repair procedure. I think they are in the great cyber space black hole now, but I copied this from the web a while back. Credit to the Ritter/Easley list FAQ of years past.

<<<<Assumptions


Using the categories of mechanical ability from the Mercedes-
Benz Discussion List
<http://hsb.baylor.edu/html/easley/mercedes/subscribe.html>, you
need to be at the level of "Medium Do-It-Yourselfer" at minimum,
to repair your Mercedes-Benz clock. If you are below that level,
you may want to provide these instructions for someone who is at
the medium level or beyond.


Introduction


Most later model Mercedes-Benz clock failures are due to a bad
capacitor (or capacitors) on the back of the clock. Removal of
the instrument cluster to gain access to the clock is a simple
process with the use of two special tools that can be made from
common household items. You do not have to be an electrical
engineer to do this procedure. The electronics on the clock
consist of only 4 or 5 components, so identification is easy.


Tools needed for repairing late model Mercedes-Benz clocks


High powered flashlight or shoplight.
A small low-wattage soldering iron.
De-soldering tool (not mandatory, but nice).
Rosin-core solder.
A miniature screwdriver set (flat blade).
Meguiar's Plastic Cleaner.
Meguiar's Plastic Conditioner.
Dash removal tool (Special tool: handmade). To make, fashion a
non-OEM factory instrument panel tool out of a a thin coat
hangar by doing the following: a. cut the long bottom strip to
use as the tool. b. put a 75 degree bend at one end with a
couple of inches of extra wire. c. cut the bent wire about 1/4
inch from the bend with a pair of wire cutter and leave
a "sharp" edge with the cut. At the other end of the coat
hanger, fashion a circular handle out of the excess, leaving the
whole tool around 4-6" in length.
Parts needed for repairing late model Mercedes-Benz clocks


1. Radio Shack part number 272-1028. You will need two of these
capacitors, and they only cost around $1.00 each. These are the
only parts needed.


Instructions


If your car has a telescoping steering wheel, fully extend the
wheel (as far away from the dash as possible). (If it doesn't
have this feature, you can still probably do this without
removing the steering wheel by judicious wiggling.)
Using your instrument panel (IP) removing tool (which you built
with pride), slide the tool in between the IP and the left side
of the dashboard at the 10 o'clock position, with the hook
facing down and parallel to the side of the instrument cluster.
Push the tool all of the way in. Turn it 90 degrees to the right
so that it engages the instrument panel. Grabbing the tool's
handle, pull the left side of the IP out carefully, until the
tool's hook just clears the dashboard.
Repeat step 2 on the right side at the 2 o'clock position.
Put a large clean towel on your workbench.
You should now be able to grab the IP by hand. Pull it out at
the right.
Start unplugging things. If the oil pressure gauge has a "live"
oil line, unscrew it and cover the open line with a piece of
rubber-banded plastic. You'll want to mark the bulb assemblies
with numbers if they are not already marked (mine were -- I'm
not sure if from factory or not.). Unplug everything.
Remove the IP from the car to your bench.
Lay the IP face down and carefully note ordering of
instrument "pods." Mine had three.
Remove the pods carefully and place in a non-scratchable
location.
Using the Meguiar's products, clean and condition both the
inside and outside "glass." It'll take a while, but you'll be
pleased with the result. Somehow, the inside glass accumulates
dirt over time.
Plug in the soldering iron to let it warm up.
Now, to the clock. The clock's hands remove easily with your
fingers (notation of positioning is unimportant at this point),
but the tachometer's needle is better left alone.
Remove the three flat screws on the front of the combo which
hold the tachometer to the instrument facing.
Put the combo face down on the towel.
Remove the rear screws which hold the tach and the clock.
After removal, you should now be able to separate the combo
enough to remove the clock as a component to work on.
Don't forget to "save" the rubber gasket on the back of the
clock for installation at the proper time.
Place the clock face down on the towel. Find the capacitor(s).
They are about 1/2 inch long and round. (the only other
electrical components are: 1 resistor, a crystal, and an
integrated circuit).
Note the direction of the capacitors (there should be a "+" on
one end.)
Using the soldering iron, and a large miniature screwdriver for
leverage, "de-solder" the capacitor (or capacitors), placing the
screwdriver blade between the capacitor and the circuit board
for leverage. You'll have to do this in stair-step fashion,
since the solder will probably harden before you can remove the
whole thing at once. After removal of the capacitors, "clean"
the wire holes by heating the solder and shaking it off. (Note:
a "desoldering" tool will work more effectively during this
step, but it is not mandatory.)
Install the new capacitor(s), without cutting their "leads."
Note that the Radio Shack replacements have a "-" instead of a
positive marking direction.
Cut the leads at the edge of the solder joint.
Reassemble and reinstall everything.
When putting the clock the clock hands back on, align them both
at 12 o'clock.
Turn the hands for a few revolutions using the setting knob and
align as necessary.
Finally, let me know if you complete this procedure
successfully; it took a while to type this, and I'd appreciate
knowing when each person has completed the repair! Please e-mail
me at richard_eas...@baylor.edu
To receive similar quality tips as described above on a daily
basis, consider subscribing to the Mercedes-Benz Discussion
List, which is located at the following site:


http://hsb.baylor.edu/html/easley/mercedes/welcome.html >>>>>>>

1986 560 SEL.........1973 450 SL. Both clocks work fine. Never been repaired or cleaned. They just keep on tickin'!!

Current car 1983 w126 280se perfect time.

Previous 1984 w123 200 also perfect time.

These MB clocks seem more accurate than my wristwatch or computer clock!

I have a 124 -230CE 1990, and the clock works perfect

Wow. Thanks for all of the replies.

Anyway, the clock on my car is still working fine, but it is still set on "daylight savings time". I am afraid that if I change it that I may jinx it and it will stop working. :rolleyes: The clock on my radio still works too, so I will just go by that.

As far as my instrument panel lighting, luckily all of that still works fine, and the intensity is still very adequate.