orlzx6r

Been lurking for a while and getting up to date, the information on this site is great! I have a 2004 C240 and the AC control knobs are sticky from the factory coating wearing off/breaking down from the Florida heat. Any recommendations for fixing or a place to buy replacement knobs?

Thanks!

Glyn M Ruck

Benz used to produce a replacement knob kit for the rubber aircon knobs & the Audio 10 radio volume on/off knob. Have not seen one for years. I understand you now need to buy the whole controller.

danev6972

Glyn is right. You have to buy the whole unit. I was in the market for a knob before and was told by the stealers they don't sell the knobs separately w/c is idiotic I think.

Don't know if its the same as yours but mine had "goo" on it like sticker goo...I took it off with (goo gone).w/c turned out good. One other knob I soaked with goo gone while finishing with the other one. BIG MISTAKE!!! It took out all the black coat & nothing but white plastic left. However, I primed the knob & painted it with flat black w/c turned out ok.

Good luck.

Where in FL are you? I'm in Sarasota County.

MW_ATL

About a year ago I was asking about knobs at one of my local dealers and they pulled out an entire tray of them. It had a couple of different styles and such. If you can find the part number listed, maybe you can ask them to search other dealers' inventory for it.

Of course, I was looking for a knob for a Comand unit and that they did not have that.

Glyn M Ruck

You might get lucky & find dealers with old stock

orlzx6r

Yep, they have "goo" on them just like a old sticker...

I'm in Orlando.

selwyng

I know this is a really really old thread but i just wanted to inform you guys of my findings...

I also had the problem of the sticky/gooey knobs. A couple of months ago i was cleaning the interior of my car and decided to take out the knobs from the aircon unit and wash them.

I soaked them in detergent (dishwasing liquid) and after couple of minutes used a piece of cloth and wiped the knobs. The knobs looked like brand new after wiping them!!! it was perfect! So whoever is having the same issue, please give this a try. It works!

tim-p

Thanks for updating. I'm having this problem and will give your suggestion a try.

Alswag

I soaked my set in goo gone, but I only left it in there for about 5 minutes, I reckon any longer will wipe the paint clean off. It turned out okay. I wasn't able to wipe it clean, exactly, but I was able to easily scrape the goop off with an old gift card. Came out beautifully! I don't know why Mercedes didn't just make the knobs like this in the first place.

2014GTO

Just bought a c230 kompressor and the a/c knobs had goo on them and I said wtf is this? I had never seen knobs this messy. So I tried to clean them out with warm water and it did not work, so I just used a terry cloth to rub it off and it removed most of it; but it left it sort of sticky. So I put a small portion of nail polisher remover in a cotton ball and removed the sticky residue left. Becareful though, if you put too much or rub it really hard, you will take the black paint off. It happened slightly to one of my knobs, so I repainted with camouflage black(best matching flat black you can get for interior).

Hope that helps

tommy

Well, I'm no CSI, but I would say there are two options, neither of them good.

Glad you got it painted; while buying another until off ebay may seem a little extreme, they shouldn't be that expensive, if the repainting doesn't work. Too bad MB doesn't want to sell the knobs individually; you would think that would be a no brainer, which is usually in MB's wheelhouse.

slammer111

I just scraped all the goo off the dials with my nails. Took about 30-60 minutes total, mostly done while stopped at red lights. Absolutely no damage to the knobs.

You'd think MB would've checked this before sticking such a poor coating onto those knobs..

Boom vang

I scrapped all of the 'soft touch' coating from the knobs and while they are not the nice rubberized feeling of the original, they are now a satin (semi shiny) plastic that more or less matches the interior. A far better look and touch than the sticky gooey mess that the soft touch coating produces after years of touch from the natural oils from our hands.

You would think that they would continue to offer replacement knobs knowing that this is a major issue with the coating