nicgentile

Happy new year

Left a new years party at 4am.
Got a defective lamp warning. The REAR fog light light on the headlight controls was lit. Checked my tails lights just to get home safely. They were good. Drive home no problem.

Got to work today and went
To see what light was "out" car totally freaked out (see video!)
Wouldn't start. Had to disconnect the battery etc.
Hooked the battery back up and car continued to act crazy.
Got it to start and now I'm afraid to turn on my head lights or turn the car off.

Anyone have ANY?! Ideas? Please help. I'm lost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-zCXqCwNDw

CJackson13

It could be a bad alternator. I had a similar problem with my E55, the electrics were 'freaking out', the car would cut off, and I'd be left with no braking power. All of this was due to low voltage from a bad alternator. Take it to the shop quickly! Or else you run the risk of getting stuck on the side of the road and paying for a tow truck like I did... Good luck!

nicgentile

Thanks for your input. The situation appears to have stabilized (a bit)
Freak out is finished.
Car starts and shuts off fine atm.

REAR fog light indicator is always on while car is running.
ESP/BAS errors as soon as car starts.
No lights at all in the trunk or on the hatch.
No power there at all.
No reverse. No bar brake light. No rear tail light. Checking fuses. Not looking like the answer though.

nicgentile

So just when things couldn't get worse......

I disconnected the battey as the car began freaking out again. Like in the video.

I shut the trunk and now I'm locked out of the too!!!!!!

CJackson13

I made the same mistake, to get into the trunk take the metal key from inside the electric key housing and use that to open the trunk.

nicgentile

That key works for the driver door, but does not fit in to the trunk what so ever.

Any other ideas?

CJackson13

Really? Mine fits into the trunk lock. Try again and if it doesn't work I don't know what to tell you man. But there is definitely a way to do it since a mechanic would need to get to the battery.

VIPclk320

if you can open your hood, there is a jump start terminal in the hood on the driver side, its on the shock tower area, small black plastic box that when you pop the top you will see two screws faced upwards with some wires mounted under their knot. hook up your posetive there to one of those screws(doesnt matter whichone they are both posetive) and the negative to somewhere on the body around there and now you will have power to pop the trunk open.

As for the problem, I have only two guesses, you have a short on the wiring on the tail light area(on the trunk lid behinde the carpet cover) and they are also connected to the same lights as your interrior they all come from the same source or you have a fualty SAM unit Replay to SAM unit itself. It could be other things but my first guess is the short because something is shorted to your rear fog light and thats the only way that indicator light would stay on.

nicgentile

Well the night ended with me having to call a tow truck. We got the trunk open by using the jump point under the hood.

The mechanical key for the trunk would go in and with a pair of channel locks it would turn counter clockwise and **click** into place at both the 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock positions, but it never actually ever actuated the trunk.

ANYWAY!

Had to get the car towed. Still freaking out. Would not start. Etc.

Rode with the tow driver 45 miles to my home city and dropped my ride off at the only local dealership. I'm currently so scared at what this could cost. Might not be ale to afford it. Might have to scrap her.

nicgentile

Anymore info on the SAM would be greatly appreciated. Thanks VIP

nicgentile

Dealership just called me. The guy was a total A-hole to me on the phone.

Him -"How long you want me to spend on this?!"

Me - "Well its my only car, so I need it fixed"

Him - "labor is $110.11 a hour!"

Him - "How long you want me to spend on this!"



..... I wish there was a good indy near by :/

I hate this place.

They are beginning to "trace wiring" now.

This sounds like a totally expensive waste of time to me!

nicgentile

Something I maybe forget to mention. I replaced the tail lights with all LEDs about 2 months ago. Didn't even think of it really.

The dealer wants me to drop off the original tail lights and swap them back out. Not sure this is the whole solution, but I guess it is a smart place to start. :/

CJackson13

Wow, I'm sorry for your treatment by the stealership, what an *** he was. The guy who helped me knowledgeable and kind about everything. He really helped me out, a lot. What area do you live in? I know of a few great indi mechanics around. It would be a shame if she had to be scrapped, best of luck to you man.

nicgentile

Promise that was a word for word transcript of our convo.

I live in South Eastern PA. Near Philadelphia.


I know most you guys are out west :/

VIPclk320

Go grab your car back from the dealer asap. They aren't gonna do any tracing what so ever. They are just gonna jerk you around for a few days and not do **** and just tell you you need a new wiring harness which will be in the thousnads for the body wire harness and the labor as they have to gut out your car to replace it. Bring it back to your house and ill try to help you through the forms here. I probably know more about the ins and outs of the electrical on this specific car than 20 dealers put together. Bring it back and start by putting the factory lights back on, start only by replacing the ones on the trunk piece not the body ones. And let me know what happens, specifically if you still have the raer fog light indicator light "on" next to your headlight switch. Don't worry man I'm sure its something small, and if it ended up being the SAM unit you can get it for about $150 on ebay and install is very easy and takes about 20 minutes, if it got to that point ill walk you through how to do it via skype or phone. But let's start with the small things.

nicgentile

That sounds great! I was already going to go "steal" my car back tonight anyway. I "tricked them into parking outside their gated lot by saying "Im going to be bringing the original tail lights to you guys, but its gonna be late till I get there. Park my car out front and I'll put the lights inside the car and relock it so that they are there for you in the AM"

They agreed.

I have the lights at home now ( they were 30 miles away)

I will replace the inner tail lights on the trunk lid and report back.

It was raining when all this crazyness was going on. The second or third call the dealer gave to me he said "Why did you have it towed here?!"

I told him I had no lights in the rear and the car wouldn't even try to turn over. (start)

He said "we started it no problem this morning" (No Rain)

.....So something is getting wet. Something wet I think is what has started this. :\


Here goes nothing!

nicgentile

Ok here is the situation currently.

I just got home from stealing my car back from the dealership. The dealer ship had the inner lights unplugged. No rear fog and no reverse lights. The car started normally gave me the usual "Defective lamp error" when I started it because of the inner lights being unplugged I assume.

There was NO rear fog lamp indicator on during my little ride home.

Drove normally.

There was no light on in the trunk and the licese plate lights are not working either. BUT before the car was started the plate lights would illuminate VERY weakly when the trunk was open.

This is all really strange.

When I got home I turned OFF the headlights and removed the key. The info screen was telling me to turn my lights off. I got out. locked the car and let all the lights go out. Then I unlocked the car opened the door again and the info screen was normal. Locked the car again and came inside to write this.
Also the trunk release switch inside the cockpit functions, but the LED in the switch does not light up as the trunk is popped.

Enough for now I suppose.

When the dealership calls me tomorrow I will tell them that I took it home to swap the tail lights myself and bring it back. Not going to pay them $110 a hour to swap tail lights.....

I have a buddy coming over tomorrow to give me a hand (tools really) to switch the inner tail lights first and then go from there and see whats going on.

I only hope I can understand and fix all this soon.

VIPclk320

you mentioned on your drive home you had "lamp defective" light on, that wouldnt be relavant to the inner(on the trunk piece) lights. also your lisence plate lights are completly seperate from the reverse lights and the rear fog light. they have a seperate power source. when you were driving home with your trunk piece lights disconnected did your tailights/brake lights that are on the body work normally? did your lisence plate lights work? does your interrior lights(switch illumination) works? does the city lights inside your high beam housings work? does the side markers on your front bumper impact strip work? check these individually and let me know.

nicgentile

Tail lights/ brake lights (led) yes
License plate and light inside trunk no

All other lights worked normally
Headlights. Side markers. City lights. Interior lights.

nicgentile

Just swapped the tail lights back to OEM (bulb) lights

Nothing has changed.

When the trunk lights are plugged in my rear fog light indicator is always on. When I turn the car off it does that electronic freak out ( see video) in first post.

With the trunk lights unplugged the vehicle appears to function rather normally.

Beginning to really think we are looking at a shorted wire somewhere and while im pretty handy with a multimeter i wouldnt even know where to begin.

Im really feeling lost in it all and afraid this may be the end of my CLK.

VIPclk320

when you sya "trunk lights are plugged in" do you mean the aftermarket ones or the factory oem ones? if the answer is the aftermarket ones then try pluging the oem ones in.

if the above didnt solve your problem, the problem is more than likely in the wiring harness thats hodden under the trunk lid carpet. this is how you remove the trunk lid carpet:

there are about 5 or 6 plastic fastners on the carpet, remove those by pulling out the top round piece and then pulling the bottom part out

next youll see one of each one of thise fastners on the sides of the trunk where the plastic cable cases are on the top corner, remove those as well

nect slide the edge of the carpet out from under the lock assembly plastic cpver and slide the rest of it over the trunk switch. now the carpert is loose and you can get a good visual of the trunk wire harness.

now look for any melted connectors or wires or wires that have their cvers cut or worn off. specifically on the driver side(left there is a black connector that should have 3 wires one is the ground for the reverse light and the fig light and the other two are for the reverse light (+) and fog light (+).

you also mentioned that your trunk cargo light is not working, try pulling on the trunk switch and then pushing it in, that trunk switch is also a reverse switch, when the trunk is open the light should be on but if you pull on the gray part of the trunk switch it will act as a switch to turn off the cargon light to save battery, i just found this out a few months ago from a frined of mine. that might be the reason why your cargo light is off.

go through the wires and check voltage and variation in voltage when the lights are on and plugged in.

nicgentile

Problem is the same with both led or OEM lights. I currently have all the OEM lights in. I have the carpet fully removed. Nothing looks damaged or melted as far as I can see.

Trunk switch light I am aware of. This is not the issue.


Will check the wires you suggest ASAP.

VIPclk320

check inside the connectors make sure everything looks good, from there on start your trace back. those wires go all the way to the front of the car on the passenger side behinde the rear side panel and then in the wire tunnel under the passenger side door seal. and then under the kick panle on the passenger side and behinde the dash were they go next to the fire wall to the driver side and into the fuse box under the sam unit. I would also open up the fuse box in the engine bay on the driver side and completly remove the cover, it has a pop on cover and then the bottom cover has about 5 or 6 screws that you have to remove for it to ecome out and then you will see the SAM unit(it has a couple of relays on it. Check the connections behinde the SAM unit and all the wires there.

nicgentile

It's already getting dark and it's 20 degrees F outside. I don't think I'll be able to look anymore today.

nicgentile

Here is today's update.

It's 15degrees F out and I'm back to work anyway.

In my mind have narrowed this issue down to a shorted rear fog lamp/ reverse light short.

My car was in an accident and few months ago. The passenger side was smushed a little. I now know that this is where the wire tunnel is for these wires.

It again is just too damn cold out but I would be willing to bet that this is where the wire short is. That is my guess right now anyway.

Does anyone have any wiring diagrams or schematics with or with out wire color codes for the rear end/ rear fog lamps. Etc.

That would be the biggest help right now.

Thank you!