HELP! I just bought a 300d one week ago. Love the car and thrilled to have it.

I went out for a drive today and after about 15 minutes on the road, my fan/motor (for climate control) stopped working. No big deal right? Well, I check the fuse and sure enough it is blown. I notice that the blown fuse is 25amp instead of the 16A that is called for. Makes me suspicious. Anyway, I replace the fuse and get...NOTHING. problem must be the motor, A guy from the auto parts store comes out with a little tester to check the connection, and it sparks on him. He says to leave it fuseless and have the fan-motor checked.

I drive home. On the way, I realize, to my horror, that the following items (all of a sudden) no longer work:

Turn signals
Fuel Gauge
Temp. indicator.
WINDOWS!!

What the %)*@? I've checked the fusebox, no fuses appear to be blown... I know nothing about cars. I have owned this one for a WEEK. Does anyone have an idea of what has happened and what I should do? Any and all help is appreciated.

Joe

82 300D 150k

Easy!

Without checking for which circuits might be on this fuse, it sounds like all the things you mentioned are on that circuit. If you left out the fuse, then it is easy to explain.

You need to remove the kick panel that is above the passengers knees. There are three little plastic rectangular shaped covers. Pry them off with a small screwdriver and remove the phillips screws behind them. Then use the phillips screwdriver to turn the two grey plastic fasteners low on the panel one on each side. Turn them 1/4 turn then pull them out.

Pull the kick panel out of the way and get under there a pull down the fan motor. It's been ages so I don't remember EXACTLY how it comes out but it is very easy. You will pull out three screws I think and the motor with fan blade will come straight down. Disconnect the fan motor, then put the correct fuse in place.

Drive the car with the fan motor disconnected. If the fuse does not blow then the fan motor is at fault. If it does blow the fuse, then don't condemn the fan motor. Check the other accessories that are in the same circuit as it is one of them that is blowing the fuse.

Usually something blowing a fuse can be found with visual inspection. Something is loose and hitting ground, or a wire is pinched where it goes through the firewall or some such thing.

Best of luck with it,

ah, sounds like the previous owner was having problems blowing the Number 8 fuse. just like me.

in a previous thread, i mentioned that i found a blurb on people replacing their 16 amp fuse with a 25 amp fuse. the short answer is don't do it. you risk additional electrical problems, and maybe even a little fire.

as larry said, check the fan motor and its brushes.

I work at Home Depot in the electrical department and I am amazed at how many people think that you can "fix" an electrical problem by increasing the amperage of your fuse of circuit breaker.

I've seen customers buying a fuse and an hour later they are back in the store buying a higher rated fuse. And then they wonder why their house burnt down.

BTW, Since MB fuse boxes are known to have connections that corrode, is it ok to run a steel brush across the connections? What I mean is that if I'm running a steel brush across them and I happen to hit 2 or 3 connections simultaneously, will it do any damage or do I need to disconnect the negative terminal on my battery first?

__________________
Frank
84 500SEL EURO 101K ( JUST LIKE MY 1ST WIFE. GLAD TO GET RID OF HER! )
85 300D 310K (sold)
90 350SDL 184K sold
83 300D 118K (sold)
88 300E 153k (sold)
93 400E 105K (sold)

I bought a small brass wire brush. Pulled all the fuses. Did one side at a time. On side is power, one side is load. I did not disconnect the battery and had no sparking or problems. I replaced all the fuses with brand new ones. I replaced them with fuses that had brass / copper elements instead of the white metal ones. I bought them on EBay from kbnorthwest.
Fred
300SD