jackdragon

greetings from Sunny Fhse lorida USA. I had the opportunity to actually get another check mark on my bucket list. And o0h boy did i get myself into a pickle. Bought my firt ever Benz...here we go.... 1996 C 280 . now let me be clear here. although i have decent knowledge of cars. i will openly admit,,,,,i know nothing of German Engineering .....Nothing. I have a variety of issues now i will say i was informed of some prior to purchase from independant owner. Problem is the gas gauge sweepmotor is bad. So i YOU TUBE the fix. and i did resister across the motor points. It worked,,,,,,,kinda,,,it works if the connector wires that are on the left side of the cluster as you look from the driver seat are not plugged in. Plug it in,,gauge dies. AND the left blinker is illuminated steady light full time, when the lights are on.turn lights off light goes away. but blinkers sont wanna work kinda, turn it on and off drive whatever,,,somethimes it goes away, but no gas gauge or speedo.oh and now the rake lights dont wanna work..that may be a fuse . but the gas gauge and speedo....Big Issue i am over my head i have tried so many posts i get lost o get down a wrong path.And this is jut one of many things i thought were a simple fix...yueah how wrong was I. love any i mean any help.....cause i have many more issues but lets et this Elephsnt one ite at a time....i promise you all as the day is long i will fix anmd restore this beauty back to her original youthfulness, Prject for lifetime. Thanks for listening if you have and feel free to hit me up with anything that can help th ol girl get back to her glory

W202_NY

sounds like you may have other shorts in the cluster, causing your problem. many other cars have the same problem, and usually fixed as you described, other options are getting a working cluster, or the complete fuel gauge only. There are also places that repair clusters, I used one to repair a "no lights" issue, it was $100 US, turn around was about a week.You may like tinkering, and the challenge if fixing it, but the gas gauge is kinda important for driving around. you can surely find them at any local junkyard, just harvest the parts... good luck