boom132

I think you are missing the point.... I'm not asking to have a bumper nick fixed, or a seat repaired, or even asking for help on an engine/tranny problem as a result of improper servicing... I'm asking for assistance for a safety concern or issue related to either A. smolding/fire condition, and B. alerting drivers around me of a braking condition. This is a result of very poor engineering on the part of MB and is directly safety related. This should be reviewed as no differant in nature than seatbelts and airbags.

Yes, I've seen/read all the other posts, and I think the general consensus here is that, regardless of the "mileage" or whether purchased new or used, the wiring harness failure is something that MB should take care of... again, what is their current slogan?

Das Beste oder nichts

Sportstick

I get the outrage and the point. I spent 6 years as the vehicle safety manger for another car company, so I am addressing the process and the obligations. Our opinions as owners have no bearing on the process, other than to vote with our dollars for the next purchase. Until NHTSA makes a finding that there is a safety defect, for all intents and purposes, there isn't one which is capable of shifting responsibility back onto the manufacturer for an out of warranty vehicle. An owner's assessment of the risk of the wiring failure may be accurate, but it does not place the burden on anyone other than the owner to have a repair made. This would similarly be true for out of warranty vehicles with seatbelt or airbag failures, unless and until NHTSA did the root cause analysis and found a design defect was the cause of the failure. Our consensus as owners carries no weight, except to the degree that we report our failures in volume to NHTSA to assist their failure rate analysis to reach a finding.

If you are relying on the MB slogan to suggest they should be more pro-active with resolving this issue even without a NHTSA finding, I'm sure we would all agree. But, that is at their discretion, as is our freedom to return or not for our next vehicle purchase.

Meanwhile, save your receipt when you have it fixed!

boom132

Well... I pressed the issue with the service manager... he called me back, and said, just bring it in, we'll take care of it for you; no worries. That is the type of service I'm looking for. I mean, we all purchased vehicles from a high end manufacturer. If I wanted to be kicked in the teeth, I would have purchased a Kia! Again, I'll keep everyone informed, and provide before and after pictures. If this was going to turn into a $200+ job, I was just going to fix it myself... but, again, I'd rather someone other then me do the work and possibly admit the failure... Thank you sportstick, for your comments... I do appreciate any/all remarks...

boom132

Okay... the verdict. The dealership did indeed fix the wiring harness. They replaced the harness and the board... What I find odd, is that the fix is exactly the same as the original. In other words, some thing brown ground wire... so of course, this is going to happen again. But now that is has been repaired, I may "beef" it up to include another ground wire to another location. Not sure if that will really do anything. I did check the other side (driver) and that harness appears fine. I have the invoice with part numbers if anyone is interested... Jason.

dolvio

I had this done under warranty also a couple months ago. Never would have caught it unless I changed my tails out. It's not just the brown wire they change. It's all connectors and the ground point. Should be no further issues with it. I did love that the snap screws they broke were never put back in. lol

Philipangoo

I have experienced this issue on my 09 C63 AMG now out of warranty. They declined to cover it and I am currently working with MB customer service to try to get the amount reimbursed but I urge you guys to report this to NHTSA even if your car was covered under warranty and they repaired it for you please report the instance. From what everyone is writing and what I understand, eventually all the cars with this same wiring harness is going to do the same thing since the ground wire is overloading and getting hot. This means that even if they fixed it for you it was the same as stock, and in due time the same issue will pop up again. If you have not experienced this issue, open your trunk and remove the carpeted covers. Take a look at the brown ground wire plugging into the harness, does it look normal ? If it doesn't your wire is progressively getting worse as well.

This is a safety issue to all of us and we want it to be repaired correctly with proper load bearing circuitry. This is not too much to ask, it is what we should have been offered on these cars from the factory.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

You will need to enter your VIN number and then be sure to report the issue. It takes like minutes.

I cannot stress this enough, we need bring this issue to the attention of the NHTSA. If you search the C Class forum you will see over a dozen threads started by people with these issues, and within those threads several more claiming to be experiencing the exact same problems. If we want action we need to do something about it!

Philipangoo

Honestly I am not surprised about the reports of flames, here is how mine looked, and it got progressively worse 2 weeks after. I had mine fixed but still make a report to the NHTSA, this needs to be documented.

Gtowndan

New to the forum and first post here.

I have the same issue. 2009 C350 with 67K on it. Not a new problem, I have been getting the check right rear directional message for a while. The LED lamps still worked so I just chose to ignore it. Tonight I finally went to investigate it and checked the connector to the bulb plate. Burned my finger twice on it before I pulled it apart and found that the connector on the wiring harness was toasted. Boy, was that wiring hot. Some of the brown ground wire was exposed where the insulation had melted away and it was burning up. I'm pretty handy and could fix it myself, but since the connector is falling apart, I suppose I will take it to the dealer and have them replace it just in case MB ever does do a recall. Hopefully they will keep the price reasonable. After they fix it I think I will run a supplemental ground wire.

I didn't check the other side but I bet it's in poor shape also.

I'm going to file that paperwork with the NHTSA.



GtownDan

Amir_AMG

nice to see great utilization of the forums! try bringing up that NHTSA already has a large file open and see if they can help you out with price or even do it for free. I just checked mine 08 c300 with 62k miles and it looks new. the previous owner might have had it taken care of already! goodluck

signeddesign

I have a C180 (2008) and started to get notifications that a bulb was out on my rear offside cluster. As I was 20 days away from my B1 service I decided to book it in to maintain my authorised Mercedes service history. I was notified of frayed wire last year as part of the A service by the Mercedes dealership and they quoted me £250 - I was under warranty at the time and wasn't aware of the issue so decided to leave it as I was told it was a very minor matter.

However the notification turned into a whole series culminating in my indicator going out so I popped into Kwik Fit (the closest to me) for a bulb change but realised the wiring was frayed and burnt out.

Anyway, called Mercedes Roadside assistance informed them the car was undrivable due to the indicator not working and they came round and fitted a new unit and did the wiring. Hopefully this will last for another few years before I have to worry about it.

TL-DR: Check you have Mercedes roadside assistance, give them a call and get them to fix it for you if the car is undrivable due to indicator not working.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

polskifacet

Hey guys,
I had the same problem but i caught it before it got bad. I unscrewed, wire-brushed all the grounds I could find under the hood and in the trunk and put dielectric grease on all of them. I dremeled all the melted solder off the contacts in the bulb carrier and replaced all 8 bulbs with LEDs. There is a small parking light 194 wedge which I had to leave the incandescent bulb or i would get a error since I didn't have "error free LEDs". The four larger LEDs (1156) are not error free but I dont get any messages probably because they use enough power to satisfy the SAM. After a bunch of testing the brown ground wire stayed cool. Got the LEDs from terminalsupply. Hope this helps.
2008 C350 50,000

mac911

Has anyone not had this happen?

My car is old 2008.

I recently unplugged the connector on both rear lights and both looked fine. Am I missing something? I wonder if there is anything preventative I should still do, or leave it be?

Very frustrating problem for everyone! Hope it all works out.

C300Sport

My 2008 is still in good shape....of course now that I typed this, it is in the garage melting itself down for me....

giovannifh

My passenger side ground melted too. About 2 months after i bought it

I cut the connector off and re-crimped all new pins and installed a new connector and backplate for a whopping $26.

I then drilled through the ground plate on the light backplate.....took a wire and crimped two loop terminals on each end.....bolted one side to the ground plate of the light and the other side to the chassis.
This seemed to really help.....i swear the taillights got brighter!!!!

PS: i used electrical tape to cover the crimp because i didn't have any heat shrink ...... i hate it looks like crap so i will probably re-do it when i get some heat shrink

mac911

Yep, that's exactly how I felt posting my condition.

giovannifh - Nice work. I will study this and other repairs in case I should need to do it later.

JimMBC300

My 08 C300 has not had the problem. Over a year ago when this posting first appeared I added a ground wires from the light backplates to the chassis and applied low voltage contact lubricant to both connectors. With so many failures being reported, there is obviously a basic problem.

BenzManNy

Can we all bring our cars to you to fix? That way we won't complain anymore.

BenzManNy

I just found a spreadsheet with all the VIN Numbers with the possible issue. Almost 57,000 09W204 affected mine included. That is not to mention 2008, 2010 and some 2011.

nyca

Just developed this on my 2009 C300 this morning (95K miles). What's teh general consensus, ask the dealer if they will fix it for free, or fix it yourself (I am capable with electrics, soldering, etc)?

nyca

Dealer said they ran my VIN and won't bite on paying to fix it - apparently there is no formal TSB on it?

nyca

Wow, when you actually start to take this apart you see what a total mess this is. First off, I don't see how to remove the pins from the existing connector to reuse them in a new connector. I couldn't do it, so I had to cleanup the old connector and use a new pin with a new higher gauge wire (14 instead of 18) for the ground lead. I didn't have a lamp carrier plate at the ready, but will have to get one because you need that too because you can see some burn marks on it . So after fixing the failed side, I figured I would inspect the other side. Bad decision, just the act of removing the connector to examine it - destroys the ground pin/wire, so then I had to fix that side too.

Honestly, I don't see what the dealer does here to fix this - because a portion of the existing ground wire has to be cut back from the factory harness, the insulation is melted and cannot be reused. In a DIY job, you attach/solder an extension wire to a new pin to makeup for the distance cut back - but without doing that, I don't see how you can cut back the burned portion of the existing wire and still have enough length to attach a new pin to it and slide it back into the connector - there just isn't enough slack length to do that.

Its unreal how hot that ground wire gets - if you want to check this on your car, don't remove the connector else you might have it fall apart in your hand if its melted - just turn on your headlights and feel how hot the ground wire gets. This is a very bad defect in the car's electrical system.

All this said, after doing this repair - I wonder if I did the right thing. I wonder now if there is a recall on this, if my DIY repair (even though I used new OEM pins purchased at the dealer) is somehow going to be used against me to deny me the recall repair. Not sure, but I had to get the car back on the road and don't want to ride around without tail and brake lights because of the safety concerns, so I patched it up.

nyca

I just entered a NHTSA complaint now.

BenzManNy

1+ last week.

tivoboy

Looks like it's working

http://www.benzinsider.com/2013/12/m...investigation/

oakhillslake

I have been experiencing the same issue with My C300. The tail light is out and I am getting several error msgs. regarding my lights on my dashboard. I took it into Walters Mercedes Benz in Riverside this morning. I was told that the issue is caused by a melted electrical component.

I called Mercedes Benz and they told me they are not aware of this issue and due to the fact that I am out of warranty I will have to pay for the $500 repair.


Needless to say, I am not happy with paying to replace a defected part.


The Mercedes Benz customer service rep told me she will forward the issue to an acct mgr who will call me back within 24 hours.


I will post their response as soon as they get back to me.