Jbt308

Evening everyone,
1st time poster, 1st time MB owner, knowledge level low, hope you can help.

I recently inherited a 2003 c240 w/ about 160k miles. Love the car, but the lcd screen was fading, and here in Florida, it gets hot a lot, so it was nigh useless.

Bought the replacement part, followed the instructions and replaced the screen, no issues....until I reinstalled the cluster.

The first time I turned the car on, it lit up and was throwing all kinds of errors about the srs, brakes, etc....

Turned it off and disconnected battery, thought that may clear it. But now, the cluster shows no life. No gauges, no lights, nada. The car starts, and I presume drives, radio works too, but the cluster shows no life. I checked fuse 42, and it was fine.

Is there anything I can do in this situation?
Thank you for any help, its much appreciated.

rwb001

Take it back out and check your connections. Make sure you put the LCD into it's connector correctly and latched it. Check to see if you bent any pins on the wiring connectors. It was good before you removed the cluster, that is where your problem should be.

Jbt308

Thanks for the reply, I'll check the connection and reseat the LCD screen, I may even put the old one back in. Does this mean that this may very well be a physical issue rather than an electronics issue? Knowing that BMWs put sensors on everything, I was worried this was something that you'd need a scanner or something for.

Thank you again!

rwb001

When I replaced my LCD I inadvertently broke my connector. I used hot glue on it and has worked for several years without problems. If your lucky it will be something simple.

Jbt308

RWB001 - awesome man, thank you for your help. I took the cluster out, reseated the ribbon cable and made sure the back of the cluster connection was clean and secure. Boom, works! For some reason now it's throwing an SRS malfunction, but I'll figure that out in time. Thanks again.

For others like me:

1. Make sure to disconnect the negative terminal first
2. When putting in the ribbon cable, the slide stops on either end are on a pseudo-pivot, so make sure both are seated all the way down
3. Make sure no pins on the back of the cluster are bent
4. Try out the instrumentation before putting it back in the housing, once you're sure it works, put it back in the housing and reinstall. This is an extra step as you have to take the neg term on/off, but it saves you recliping the housing and taking it in/out

Hope this helps

rwb001

You disconnected the battery, which is probably why it is throwing the SRS.

Jbt308

Seriously?!?!

I love the car, but that is just dumb engineering. So if I need to replace my battery, disconnect it, it will always throw the SRS error? I've never heard of such a thing(not saying you're wrong, I'm just shocked! hehe)

rwb001

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...g-battery.html

Jbt308

You're a gentleman and a scholar

Looks like it may be well worth getting one of these Carsoft scanning tools:

rwb001

This is what I'm using.

slammer111

Incorrect. The car threw the SRS code because you turned the ignition key with the instrument cluster disconnected. It has nothing to do with removing the battery. The car will throw the same error if an airbag is disconnected when the key is turned.

Conventional (ie cheapo) code readers cannot clear SRS codes. The dealer can clear the code, as well as any indie with a commercial grade reader such as the Snap-On one. Usually the indies will do it for free or a nominal fee.

Jbt308

Gotcha, so since the car thought the cluster disconnected due to bad connections, it threw the code...

Re: scanner, I've had a fox foxwell in the past and returned because after 1 use, it literally burned out/fried. Probably not normal, but I'll give the car soft one a shot. Doesn't hurt its $30 cheaper.