Hi, I have a 2013 C250 Base and have frequented this forum to solve my problem, but it seems like mine just needs more help, which prompted me to make an account finally. So here's the issue:

I drove about 4 miles, went to McDonald's's, and after pulling out the Drive Thru, the car went dead on me, it didn't shut off, the steering wheel just locked on me and the car crawled to a stop. I cut it off and let it sit for about a minute, then it cranked up, and I was able to drive it home, unfortunately that was the last time. I had also been dealing with water in my car for about a week or two but thought at most, I'd have soggy and moldy carpets, so I'd just surface level vacuum my carpets, I did not realize how much electronics ran under the seats. The cause of the water inside my car? Sunroof drains got clogged, water got into the driver and passenger side. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't live in Florida during a tropical storm. I located the drain plugs on each side and sure enough they were dirty and the moment I opened them, water came pouring out along with gunk.

The car turns on, I'm able to do everything electrical, from windows to sunroof to AC, radio, you name it. I get every light on the dash to pop up. It just won't crank. I came out to about two inches of water in my passenger side and about one inch on the driver side this morning. I removed the carpets and drained all the water out. Both CAN Lines were completely submerged, so after I scooped and dried the water out, I dried the CAN Lines on both sides with a hair dryer. As seen in other posts/videos, I inspected the lines and sure enough, the big three CAN BUS Connectors all had signs of corrosion. Not only that, but also the yellow connector in between the first and second CAN BUS was severely corroded, to the point that about two wires completely fell out of their sockets due to the corrosion. I replaced all three CAN BUS, or as Mercedes calls them, the Energy Distributors (The two brown ones and one white one) directly from the MB. I forgot the wire placements and just inserted them where they fit, I'm not sure if it matters where each exact socket each one fit into, and if it does, if someone can show me a picture or video where each wire plugs into that'd be great (I just matched the brown wires with the Brown CAN, and the white/green wires with the White CAN).

I then went to the passenger side, cleaned the small white CAN but didn't replace it, it was also bad, but I just wasn't thinking about replacing it at the time, only the main three on the driver side. Not only that, but I also was unaware of the black one, so that will also be on my list to clean/inspect/replace. I tried to see if I could diagnose it, but to my surprise, the OBD Port is unresponsive. I heard it connects to the Rear SAM, so I'll look into that but if the Rear SAM wires goes down and runs through the Passenger side, then that could also be due to the passenger CAN Line being submerged.

Things I replaced:
The three "Energy Distributors" on the Driver side, not sure if everything was plugged in correctly due to not remembering the placements of where each connector needed to go. Parts #000-982-01-12, 000-982-00-12 and 000-982-02-12


The Yellow Connector I was referring to that's really corroded and two wires that fell out. This isn't my picture, but it's the exact part. I'm unsure how to fix it.
The battery
Key fob battery

Things I don't think is the issue:
Weak Battery (Brand-new battery put in)
ELS/EIS (I'm able to hear the lock engage and disengage and can turn the steering wheel just fine)

In the morning, I will send pictures of my Yellow connector along with my CAN BUS wire placements.

Same video from another guy in the first picture, but I uploaded this to show how my yellow connector wire also looks like this, corroded to the point that it broke off.

The Yellow Connector I was referring to that's really corroded and two wires that fell out. This isn't my picture, but it's the exact part. I'm unsure how to fix it.

 

Here's my corroded wires from part #053-545-225 As you can see the red and blue wires have corroded out of the connector socket. I saw a video where a guy cut all of them and spliced them together, is that advisable?

 

I would buy a couple of new connectors, pins, and a crimping tool. It's always best to do the job properly, and if you do it properly, you never have to do it again. It may cost a little more and take a little more time but it's better than a wad of spliced wires.

 

good job on tracing the short circuits to your bus distribution bars.


The individual slot where each connector land on the bar is not mandatory but preferred to save time identifying what wite goes to what module.

Each bar is a different CAN Bus: B; C; D..

 

UPDATE I GOT IT WORKING, HERES WHAT I DID

As said, I drained all of the water out of the car, and then I replaced all CAN BUS connectors on both driver and passenger sides straight from MB. After that, I checked my OBD Fuse in the Rear SAM and sure enough, it was cracked I don’t know how I didn’t see it before, but tested it with a fuse tester and no response, so a quick trip to autozone and BAM, my car could be read now. I then plugged it up to my Innova 3020RS and read the codes, seen it said something about CAN BUS fault. I then made sure all of my connections where plugged in to the correct CAN BUS and then cleared the codes. Sure enough right after that, it cranked right up. For those who don’t know, the connection placement doesn’t matter, as long as all wires are plugged into the correct CAN, it doesn’t matter the order they go in.

Ive been test driving it and sure enough, its been driving just fine.. although I did run into another problem.. the cars audio stopped working as fas anything coming out of the speakers, I get no sound. But I’ll take a ride in silence over not being able to ride at all, that’ll be for another day. But for those who turn their keys to position 2, get all dash and COMAND powers on but the car just simply doesn’t crank or even attempt to… that’s why I recommend