140 300SE Shifter Illumination - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

#1 05-17-2002, 09:59 PM

Shifter illumination on 92 140 300SE not working. Was able to open shifter area by removing ash try and wood trim with no problem. Noticed that there were two wires with what look like spade connectors on the ends--obviously not plugged into what they're supposed to be plugged into. These were a brown wire which I assume is the ground wire and a gray wire with blue stripe. Can not figure out where these are supposed to plug into. Can someone help me here ?

Gilly · #2 05-17-2002, 10:28 PM

Welcome to Mercedesshop. i think if you look at the very frontof the shifter assembly, you may see the light socket that holds the illumination bulb. Possibly the wires were removed from the socket for some reason. i'm not sure if these 2 wires are the ones, but it's worth a look. At any rate you should see the socket and can pull it out to replace the bulb, assuming it's wired up. If the 2 wires will plug into the socket, plug them in and see if it'll work.
Gilly

#3 05-17-2002, 10:43 PM

Gilly--thanks. I'll give that a try. I had some work done to correct some transmission problems I was having--would not go into overdrive. After much searching around my shop found some wiring problems were the cause. I know they did some extensive probing in the shifter area and I think they just forgot to reconnect the shifter light when they put everything back together. They should've checked this, but they didn't and if it's a quick fix by connecting these two wires like I think it may be, I'll do it rather than take the car back and risk having to hand it over for 2-3 days for them to "get around to it". Thanks again--George

Gilly · #4 05-17-2002, 10:55 PM

George:
I didn't understand that the wires were connected together. That doesn't make sense, you would think by switching on the lights would fry something.
I think I may just ignore that for now, and concentrate on locating the socket on the front of the shifter assembly.
Gilly

#5 05-17-2002, 11:07 PM

The two wires--one brown the other gray with blue stripe are just hanging loose. Each has what looks like a spaded end. My guess is they plug into something either under the wood panel that holds the window switches and mirror controls or soemwhere close by. I guess what I need to do before I go looking for the errant female end is to determine if the wires are hot or not. I've found that in most cases anything with a male end on it is not "hot" so that if it does somehow become disconnected it won't cause a short. I'll ck it in the morning before my annual trek to the Import Car Show in Carlisle--in search of 113 parts!. Thanks--George

MikeTangas · #6 05-18-2002, 12:01 AM

Could they be the connectors for the cigarette lighter/ash tray lamp? Those are the only spade connectors I recall in that general area, at least as far as the 126 goes.

If the shift gate is similar to the 126 shift gate, the bulb socket should be located in the left front corner, kinda slides in at an upward angle.

#7 05-18-2002, 06:11 AM

Thanks for reply. Preety sure these are not the cigarette lighter leads since botht eh lighter and illumination for ash tray are working. I'll give it another look over this morning as soon as the sun comes up. One of the problems I had last night when I finally got the panels off was my wife was nagging me that we had to get going to the movies or we'd miss getting our tickets. I only got to do a very quick visual in some bad light.

savagetom · #8 05-18-2002, 07:06 PM

myarmar, what is the ETM and where do I find it?

Gilly · #9 05-18-2002, 09:14 PM

Tom:
What an ETM is is the electrical diagrams for the car. ETM is the abbreviation for Elrctrical Troubleshooting Manual. Typically, you find it on a shelf at your dealership, I don't know why he thought you would have a set of ETM's for your car.
I would continue a "good light" search for the socket. If you have a continuity tester (test light) you can possibly connect it to these 2 wires and turn on the parking lights to see if there is in fact power and ground present at these 2 wires with the switch on. Keep looking for the socket, remember it can't hardly be farther away than the wires will reach.
Gilly

#10 05-19-2002, 09:30 AM

Guys thanks for all the help. Let me bring you up to where I am. Finally got to take a look at this in the light when I had more time. I popped off the shifter cover--the one that covers the shifter pattern lettering and the flex cover. Now I need to take a good look at how the wooden handle comes off the shifter shaft since it is almost impossible to access either the bulb or the socket without pulling the cover completely off. I suspect it's a nut arrangement under the handle, but who knows, on these cars it seems like everything has a special tool or technique that just isn't common sense in most cases. I haven't done the basic electrical test on the two unplugged wires--that's next. One other thing I have not checked yet is my backup lights--could this be the wiring for that ? I know how to simply eliminate that as a possibility as well. Will let you all know--George

#11 05-19-2002, 04:55 PM

Thanks for all the help on this guys, but I've finally solved the problem. Pulled out the shifter cover and low and behold, the bulb socket is totally missing. Evidently the previous owner or one of the mechanics who did some work on the car removed it. Took me a while to figure this out because there are two bulb-like things attached to a wire inside the shifter box. After much figuring on how my two loose wires could attach to this single wire with a bulb on each end, I finally figured out it is a fiber optic cable that is supposed to carry the light provided by the light bulb in the socket that is missing. Should be fairly easy to fix now I know that I need to go to my dealer and get the missing socket and bulb

George