I need a little help please.
Car is a 1987 300 TD.
The wife and children are out of town, I finish staining the deck. Time for some golf. Buddy comes over with his wife and children, alright lets go.
He notices that the passenger seat bottom won't adjust forward. Seat back adjusts. Tilt is intermittent.
I can fix this he says, get tools and contact cleaner. I don't do electrical I tell him.
No problem he says.

Take off the battery negative, hey there is some corrosion around the battery tray. 2 year old battery.
Take out the battery and tray. Loosten the ground.
Starts spraying contact cleaner on everything tray battery terminals the 2 BIG connections behind the battery.
One is for flywheel timing the other I don't know.
Take trim off passenger door. Sprays contact cleaner into seat adjustment switch.
Battery tray back in. I see these little areas of white aroune where battery tray screws into body, and on the nuts.
What is that? Lithium grease probably. Shouldn't we use some. We don't have any.
Attaches positive. Puts negative on loosely. It is tight oning on, he is fiddleing around. Hasn't tightened the ground yet.
Pull negative off of the post, it touches the hood hinge, tiny spark, puts negative back on the post.
Horn starts blowing. Check fuses. Replace number 6. It has a bulge in it.
Negative back on. Now the alarm horn blows when the negative is touched to the post. Check fuses, all appear ok.
Horn still blows when negative is on post.
His wife and childern show up, they are crying, well gotta go.
The end result is I'm am stuck without a car.

Anyone in Alexandria, Va wanna help with this?
Otherwise I will probably have to tow the car.

Need some advice please.

Thanks.

Bernie

blloyd7,

Advise: Take gun, shoot Buddy. LOL

Difficult to diagnose, some how spraying all that contact cleaner caused shorts in your electrical system. Try cleaning off as much as possible.

P E H

So I took off the negative / ground wire.
Sanded a little, reattached.
Opened passenger door, kind if sit the negative terminal on the battery post.
No alarm horm is blowing.
Try the forward / back seat button, seat moves as it is supposed to. Try it again. It doesn't.
Close door, open door a;arm horn sounds.
10 minutes later same thing.
30 minutes later same thing.

Can't find a fuse fot the alarm.

How am I going to be able to start this car?

Thanks in advance.

Bernie

You probably have a loose body ground. Remove battery, and re-check all the connections you've loosened and re-connect after cleaning.

With a bad ground connection, current will take strange paths and make all sorts of things work funny.

Make sure the batter cable connections are tight, too. Loose connections with intermittant contact will make the alarm go off. You will need to lock and unlock the driver's door to get the alarm to shut off. It "fails" on if you disconnect the battery, open the door, and then connect it again.

Do not let this guy work on your car again! All that was wrong was a dirty seat switch.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Peter,The positive terminal is definetly tight.
Do I need to take it off and re-tighten?
Also if I put negative on an tighten and the alarm goes off when I open the door will losking and unlocking the driver side door definetly stop the alarm?
I live in an urban environment and it takes me a long time to disconnect the negative, I don't want to alarm all of my neighbors.

Thanks for the help.

Bernie

Bernie:

Stick the cable on, run around and lock, unlock the door, and see if the alarm stops. I'm pretty sure it will. If it does, then tighten the clamp. If not, I'm out of ideas, I'm afraid.

From there, switch the ignition on and see what happens. I cannot imagine what damage you could have done by touching the negative battery cable to the hood with the positive connected.

Note that all sorts of strange things can happen on these cars with low voltage -- on the W126 chassis, unswitched operation of the wipers is a common indication, along with an alarm or horn, that the battery is low or dying!

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Peter,
Used your method.
Everything is cool, except the seat bottom operation is again intermittent.
Must need a new switch.

Thanks again for the help.

Bernie

Glad it was easy Bernie!

Get a new seat switch and restrict your friend to golf.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

You can take apart the seat switch and readjust the springs and ball bearings...do a search.

__________________
85 300CD Signal Red/Tan sold
83 300D Manganese Brown 109K
97 E420 Midnight Blue 197K sold
98 BMW 328i Vert White 100K, sold
95 BMW 525i White 125K, sold
93 BMW 525iT Red 193K, sold
95 E320 Green Wagon 125K, sold
94 E320 White 127K, sold
85 300SD 156K Grey (Annie), sold
84 300D Lapis Blue 170K (Judy), sold
99 ML 320 Black (lease), 1998 C230 White (lease)
00 Honda S2000 Red (lease)
86 Mercedes 300E (sold)
84 Porsche 911 Red (sold), 1965 Porsche 911 White (sold)

Cut the alarm wires!!!!!!

__________________
Nick
*****
2002 Sprinter 2500 140" High Roof :

Next time this happens to you, just temporarily disconnect the alarm horn in the engine compartment. The lights should still blink telling you the alarm has been set off, but the neighbors won't know. Gives you and them some peace while diagnosing. If you need the sound, connect any 12volt buzzer (radio shack) in place of the alarm horn again while you diagnose.

__________________
Willy

'94 E420 White

Mods
-------
Berg Werks Keyless Entry
Buzzer replaced with Chime
Dash Light Upgrade
Burlwood/Leather shift knob
Alpine CDA-9815 Head Unit
2002/2003 16" C Class 7-Spoke Wheels
Updated "Chip" to fix Code 19 problem

OTFLMAO!!!!

This very much reminded me of a TV commercial from the seventies. The neighbor comes over when a complex problem occurs with the car. He says "hey, I can fix this. You're talking to someone who restrung their own venetian blinds!" After the car is smoking and knocking the neighbor throws his hands in the air and says something like "well you've really messed it up now!" and then walks away.

Have a great day,