Hi, I have just purchased a 1983 240D in excellent shape. I just seem to have 1 problem. The dash lights are inop. i checked the fuse box and the fuse was good. I replaced it anyway. Still no good. Checked the fuse box again and see the fuse controls the right rear tail light as well as the dash and i believe the trunk light. All are not working. Can anyone give me a suggestion of what i need to look at next? New to the Mercedes brand. Been with the old Spitfires and MG's mostly. Please help.

Take the fuse out that feeds the lights you mentioned. Clean the contacts in the fuse box. Scrap as clean as you can. Clean the ends of the fuse. Better to put in new. These fuses develop hairline cracks with age,and even though they look good they may not be. Check bulbs in rear light. Clean residue buildup if any. Also check ground wire to trunk light. Clean contacts.

If dash lights still do not work, your rheostat is bad. Pull instrument cluster, remove and replace rheostat. Or, as some have done here, bridge the rheostat with a wire and run full lights on all the time.

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Selling used Mercedes parts on Ebay...always changing...
cdplayer51 take a look!
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Thank you. I will do so and hopefully this works. Thanks again

Hey there,

I had the same problem with the non-functional dash lights. I planned on
trying the jumper wire temporary repair, and in fact did have one soldered on... until I became curious as to why the stock rheostat failed.
I took it apart. The two contact springs looked good, and the rheostat coil wire looked good. The only obvious problem was rather heavy green oxidation. So I got some lemon concentrate out of the fridge, put the rheostat body in a cup, and covered it with the lemon juice. I swirled it around once or twice, then let is sit for 15 minutes in the lemon juice, along with the contact piece. After this, I removed them from the juice, and covered the parts with table salt. I used a toothbrush to scrub both parts for about a minute each. They were obviously clean, so I rinsed in hot water, blew them off with the compressor, and re-installed. Yep, it works fine now, rheostat fully functional again. So I reckon I made almost
$100 today in paying myself for cleaning that part rather than throwing money at the problem.
It would have been perfect if my daughter had managed to bring the right replacement bulb i needed. She got close! I just couldn't find the part
# for the actual instrument lamps. Removing the the cluster is so easy on the 240D I'll replace the lamp at the auto parts store, on the spot!
I'm not saying this will work for everyone's problem, but I am sure there has got to be a few folks out there that will benefit form trying this...


Stan

check the connections at the starter solenoid. If they are fine and the solenoid is ok then you need to find out if you have a battery Isolator.If you do then you need to check if it is bad.You can bypass it with each battery separately to find out if each battery will power the rig alone. If you still have no power then it is time to start testing fuses and fusible links.

Arnold, you have become fixed in between my cross-hairs. For a few days I have been reading your posts and noticing a lot of bad information. That crap posted above is a fine example.
I'm guessing you have a pretty good knowledge of some form of vehicles, it just doesn't seem that old Mercedes are part of that database.
I am not trying to disparage you personally, just your collective forum information. I'm sure you're a good dude.....

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

98% of the time the rheostat is bad on the back of the cluster.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section