I've been using this mod for about a week with no apparent side effects. It's great to be able to open and close all the windows without fumbling for the key and putting it into the ignition. All you have to do is take a 14 gauge wire, remove the 2 fuses in pic, shove the stripped wire ends into the respective holes of the 2 fusesr, bend the copper wire strands downwards, put the fuses back in and you're done!. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes!

There may be a more elegant way to accomplish this by enabling the power window relay but I couldn't find a wiring diagram for the power windows and came up with this mod by poking around the fuse panel with a test light. If you know how to do this mod with the window relay, please post a how to here.

Also, if you know how to power the cig lighter w/o a key, please post a how to.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

ps. Just realized I have a switch wired to the yellow and green wires but I am going to get rid of it since I see no need to turn it off. Just one wire to jumper the lower left and upper right fuse is all you need.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I see a big fire risk from those wires rubbing through different points and feeding the switches unfused power (Maybe, I don't know where you tapped for power, but, your wires are on the non-common side of the fuse). Yes, you'll be powering the window switches with the key off, but you'll also be powering every other item in the fusebox by backfeeding through the window circuit fuses (including the cigarette lighter).

Have you looked at a window wiring diagram? Can you send me a copy? I certainly don't want a fire risk. if you know a better way (like enabling the window relay) please share. Afaict, there is no battery drain the way I'm doing it, the cig lighter is not powered nor is anything else powered. I will double check but if there's a short in the windows circuit, it is protected by fuses.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

You can just run a constant power wire from the battery to the cig lighter and it can be constant... the one that goes to it is switched so just replace that with a constant and you should be good to go...

Haven't tried this but in theory it should work... You can either go directly from the battery or find a constant power wire that would support the load of whatever you plug in to the cig lighter.. I would just run a separate power wire directly from the battery though... with a fuse of course... that way you have a separate circuit and nothing else would be effected if that fuse blew.

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'98 E300 Turbo "Juliette"
'85 Federal 300TD

There is no point in "enabling" the window relay (which will draw some current) if it's never going to be deenergized. Just remove the relay and jumper the receptacle with a heavy gauge wire. Or remove the relay receptacle and splice the primary wires together.

FYI the reason all cars have by fed reg "key off no windows" is because in the late '50s some small children touched the window buttons with feet while mom just poped in to cleaners etc and were strangled to death.

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85 300 SD ~ 115K
82 500 SEC Euro ??K
78 450SL 164K

To clarify: By enabling the relay, I should have said with a momentary push button switch, for the duration you need to open or close the windows.

No one has a wiring diagram for the power windows?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked