Can someone please tell me how to get the drivers door panel off on a 2001 CL500?
I would appreciate any input.

 

Please bear with me I will attempt to be as descriptive as possible and try not to forget any detail... but I may so pay attention.

Get out your torx set and take off the door end. Plastic (?) on the 500 chrome on the 600 for sure. Unscrew the phillips screw by the lock mechanism.

Look at the vent under/next to the speaker inside there is a phillips screw. Remove that and the vent will pop out. The screw is hidden so get a flashlight and look inside the vent from the front.

The speaker pops out it has a white clip that recesses but comes out with a little force. Be careful.

Once the speaker and vent are off you should be ablt to look down on the seat controls. There is a black slider on top that will unlock it. Slide it forward and slowly wiggle on the whole control panel it will tilt toward you. Be careful not to break the bottom clips... if you do the panel will still go back and sit correctly, but in the back of our mind you will know u screwed it up.... as did I.

Now when you unplug all those damn wires count em and look/write down the ones that are missing. The door control panel does not have all available spaces filled and it'll drive you crazy looking for the "missing" wires. And when you put the door back together don't forget to plug em all in or you will have to take it all back apart.... sucko trust me.

NOW look DOWN into the door pannel there is a large plastic clip that you will Squeeze toward you to release the door pannel. This was a problem at first for me.... it is black and camo'ed out in there. At first it is not obvious, but if you take your right hand and insert your four fingers and keep you thumb and hand out and squeese you should feel what I am talking about.

After that run your hands around the door pannel and pop out all the plastic clips and pull up on the pannel.

BAM 20min and you should be done. Hiding all that wasn't easy for MB, but its not a Ford either is it...

Good luck. What are you doing changing speakers??

 

A very good description! Also, if yours has the air bags in the door, pop off the "srs" logo and under it will be another screw. aka the magic squirrel!

 

awesome write up! I have to dig into my wife's cl500 tonight; she broke her handle off when getting out at work this a.m.! she called me and I told her to "roll down the window and use the outside handle"..."thanks, I was going to hop the console and get out the passenger side!" gotta love her...anyway thanks for the write up and sorry for hijacking the thread!...T

 

Thanks very much! But what tool do I use to remove the chrome door trim, I know it's not a phillips? Thnaks again, Peter

 

TORX bit in the correct size.

 

Great job on this. It helped me find the screws. Here I made this to help others. First one of many. Next ones will be better.

 

great video!!! thanks.

 

Thanks for the video.

 

Thanks....going to give it a try.

 

it happened to me last week and I got out of the passenger side!

 

My inside handle broke , dealer charged about $300 parts and labor