the W123 has a problem
 

I pulled into my nieghborhood and all of the sudden my legs felt warm, it felt like heat was radiating from the underdash panel. The the dash lights started flickering, I said holy **** and turned the car off and let it coast into the neighborhood parking lot and grabbed my 13mm out of the trunk and disconnected the battery. Ran to my house got another car and a flash light and when back to the 280CE. I pulled the underdash and felt around for anything hot but I couldn't find anything. So I I re-connected the battery and floored it all the way home and disconnected the battery. Atleast its safe now.

Any ideas?

Did you have the heat turned on?

no nothing was on but the radio and headlights. But this afternoon I smell something kinda hot but then it went away and I didn't think to much of it, the headlights were off then.

any idea. I need to find the problem soon.

Wonder if my car would have caught on fire?

Seems like a fuse would have blow but they all looked normal

I can't think of anything that would cause your symptoms without the heat being on. Could a surge cause the aux water pump to speed up and cause a hot spot under the dash? ( I guess only if you had monovalve issues too)

I put a fuse link at my aux water pump and a battery quick disconnect after I saw cphilips' car fire pics.

I think that causes a short in the CCU though. I don't think that would cause dash lights to flicker.

A couple of years ago I bought a 240D real cheap that had caught fire. The lady drove home from work parked it and when she went out next morning the car was toasted inside. It looked like the fire started under the dash around the radio area. Not a pretty sight.

My AUX water pump has been unplugged, it doesn't work.

Was he the one whose wagon caught fire in a parking garage? I tried to do a search but couldn't find the thread.

OK I found that thread I was thinking of. It was at another forum, http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w123-e-ce-d-cd-td-te-class/1351921-car-burns-ground.html
Blower motor was the culprit in that one.

Here's the thread I was talking about. His pristine 300D died next to a graveyard.:(

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=241899

OK. I pulled out the gauge cluster and did a full visually inspection of everything. I looked at every wire that I could and saw no problems. I pulled the headlight switch and smelled it and there was no evidence of it overheating.

So I connected the battery and turned the key to the run position and let it sit for about 15 min and I was touching everything and nothing got hot. I saw this relay to the right of the main grounding area, I went ahead and touched it and it was getting warm, I waited and touched it again and it was progessivly getting warmer. I don't know what this relay does nor do I know if it should get hot or not. I think if I had waited another 15min or so it would have gotten pretty hot. So should this have gotten hot?

describe the relay

run the P/N in google to see exactly what it is.

i'll upload a pic...

if you can pull the relay:

apply some voltage across the terminals (process of elimination) to ensure it is 'relaying' and not sticking.