Need some advice on my E420
 

It's doing some wierd electrical stuff.

Tell us precisely, in as much detail as you can, what its doing

It started this morning when I started it. It made a wierd sound then my radio stopped working, antenna is stuck in the up position, my door locks don't work, and it's idleing rough. HELP!!!

Is there ANYONE that has had the same problem??

Maybe yours is one of the cars that has the wire-harness issue. Try doing a search on it here.

-Larry

More info, please!

--How many miles on the vehicle?

--What sort of weird sound did it make? For how long? Ever done that before?

--From WHERE did the weird sound seem to be coming? (e.g., under the hood, from the radio, from the trunk?

--Any recent work done on the vehicle?

--Have you checked the fuses? The radio/antenna problem sounds like it could be a blown fuse.

--Any other weird symptoms?

There IS an answer (or maybe several) to solve this; more specifics will help us logically help you figure it out.

Ok I'll try this again.
The car has 78000 miles on it.
It made a deep humming sound for about 2 seconds. It's never done it before. The sound came from under the hood. The only recent work was an oil change. All of the fuses are fine. Other wierd symptoms are as follows. 1. radio turns on but no sound. 2. Antenna does not go down any longer. 3. Door locks do not work. 4. When I turn on the rear seat passenger light from the switch on the dash the fasten seat belt light comes on. Hope this helps.
I called the local Benz dealer and wanna charge a fortune just to look at it. Help!!!

Thanks,
Allan
94' E420

What an odd combination of symptoms! Very difficult to reconcile, and what they have to do with the humming noise ... hmmm ...


When I hear about weird electrical problems that make no sense, what I've gleaned over the years from this and other MB lists:

1. Often OVP (overvoltage protection) relays are at fault. I'm pretty sure your car doesn't have an OVP (since it's basically the same as my car and I don't have one.)

2. Fuses, though looking good, can actually have hairline cracks and cause all sorts of weird, intermittant, nonsensical electrical glitches. One MB guru recommends replacing all ceramic fuses every ten years. You might want to go ahead and replace all the fuses even though it's a year early.(Get fuses from dealer -- I just did mine.)

3. The other thing that can cause weird electrical problems is a bad ground somewhere. Do you have the repair CDs? They have a listing of all the grounds. Even if you don't have it, you might want to check out the obvious grounds you see under the hood (e.g., near the right-side front shock tower) and in the trunk, near the antenna. You might get lucky and find that cleaning and tightening a bad ground connection could solve your problems.



If all else fails, and you can drive it up here, I have a GREAT independent mechanic who charges $55/hr and would track down your problem pretty quickly, I'd bet.

Where do I get the repair CD's????

RE: CDs, I THINK FastLane has 'em though I didn't see them when I searched on it. (FastLane is the sponsor of this list; see the button at the top of the screen to take you there. You can always call Phil who runs FastLane. He is EXTREMELY helpful and knows his inventory. Prices are generally about the best you'll find.)

If that fails, you can call 1-800-FOR MERC (the MB main phone line) and order from them (I think).