In my 94 e420, the hinged cover for the arm rest is broken. I cannot open the armrest without the top coming off. I can "close" it, but as soon as it gets a lateral bump from me or a passenger, it pops off (insolent arm rest..) and i have to sort of push it down again. I cannot put the armrest up either, as the top comes off. There's 2 little strap things (great tech description, eh?) inside..hinges? and one is broken.

When I bought the car, the dealer informed me that the part was $700! say what? interestingly (?) I was looking at another e420 at the time and it had the same problem..that dealer told me the repair was $1200. He did have a bad suit on; I suppose he needed the money.

What do i need to do to fix this? a new top for the arm rest? a whole new arm rest? an E 500? (hope so...well you see dear, I had to get the 500 as no one could fix the arm rest..)

also..I need a book on this car..is the Haynes the best one? i know about the cd, but I'd like a good simple book to start with, as to not clutter forum bandwidth with questions about broken armrests and repair manuals.
jp

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John Pazdan
94 E420