Hey everyone. I'm Jason. I live in Vegas. Just got my first MB less than a week ago. Searched this place out to help me with a few concerns my ride has.

First of all, it's a CLK430 black on black. I'm apparently the 5th owner (according to Carfax, as if anyone takes that company seriously). It has over 139K miles. Seems to run right. Engine is smooth, transmission shifts fine, brakes are very responsive compared to what I had before. My last car was a Lincoln Mark VIII LSC (my second Mark VIII). It was fun but hated to slow down and terrible understeer. Both of those factors put me in a dire position of plowing over a curb which damaged all the left front steering and suspension components, engine cradle and both left wheels/tires. Costs more to fix than its value.

I chose this car because I'm a mechanic and have seen various MB models come into my bay. I've worked on Audis, and Beemers too. The MB models always seemed less daunting to work on vs. the other two brands. I seem to understand the mechanics of the MBs better.

With that said, this car has it's share of quirks that I need to iron out. I don't have the owner's manual so I need help understanding some of the switches and bells and whistles. Next to the shifter there is a button that has W and S on it. What does it do? It appears that I have power rear headrests, but when I hit the button on the center console, I hear a noise but nothing happens. I have the same problem with the sun screen on the rear package tray. Noise but no function. On the instrument cluster, there are two LCD windows to the right and left of center but nothing displays on them. I just found out yesterday that the passenger seat power controls on the door don't work at all and the passenger mirror acts up when I put the car in reverse. It goes down and keeps clicking like it wants to go further down until I go back to drive. In drive it won't fully return to the normal viewing position. When I turn on the headlights, I get a warning to check lamps. I circle the car and headlights are on, front foglights are on, flashers front, rear and mirrors work, but I don't know what position is the rear foglight in the left rear light housing. It seems all lights are on but I get the warning each time I turn on my lights.

There's a lot here, I know. Mods, if this belongs somewhere else, help me out to do this all the right way. I've been doing some searching for these answers with no real luck. So if there are links or suggestions/help/advice on any of this, please and thank you.

 

welcome please post picture of your ride

 

 

nice looking ride

 

Welcome Jason

You can read/download a copy of your owners manual here.

http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/servic...owners_manuals

You'll find most of answers to your questions in the manual.

The W/S switch on the center console, selects winter / summer mode (e.g. winder mode starts in 2nd gear). The tilting down mirror in reverse is a design feature, to view curbs when parking and can be shut off. Sounds like the unlit LCD areas are for the temperature and clock displays and either the back light bulbs are burnt out or have been removed. Note: Missing segments is both of these displays has been a very common problem.

Regarding the lamp out warning, check the license plate light. It has 2 bulbs and just 1 being out, will trigger the warning.

 

You've come to the right place for info, forget the dealers, you'll do much better using this forum.
Serndipity is correct and all the items are simple fixes, jus to add...

The Winter Summer switch W/S starts the car in second gear for W and first for summer.

Tilting mirror is in my opinion a great feature, I find it hard to reverse other cars without it. It will dip the mirror so you can see the kurb then after 10 seconds of driving forward will go back to the standard position. If you dont like the auto-dip then side the mirror select over t drivers side near the shifter and it will cancell this feature. If it clicks you can adjust the viewing angle:

1- Turn key to position 2
2- Select reverse, adjust mirror down so you can see kerb for reversing etc.
3- Press Green store button on drivers door control next to the seat adjustment for a couple of seconds, then within 3 secs press the mirror control again just once in any direction, mirror is now stored. Return to Gear shift to Park.
4- Wait 17 secs mirror will return to normal position.
5- Select reverse and test to make sure it dips ! DONE.

For the dash they are prone to having pixel errors which can be fixed by firming up the contacts, search the forum. Also check the small lamps behind the cluster are not blown

With the lamp out warning, check all lights, start car, turn on side lights, then main, then press brakes etc, if the warning comes on at a perticular actions then thats the lights to check.
It could also be that the person before has fitted LED lights which draw a lower current, the car therfore thinks the bulb is out and throws the error, this can fixed by using resistors in-line.

 

Thanks for the reply!

The driver's mirror won't dip at all. It has power because I can adjust it, just won't dip in reverse. Passenger mirror dips and keeps trying to dip while in reverse. Meaning it hits the lowest position and clicks repeatedly. When it returns to normal position after selecting drive, it never makes it completely to the last known position. I don't know if that's a motor failure or what.

Lamp out warming only comes on when turning on the lights it comes on when the switch is in the parking lights position, detent 1. No fog lights turned on, just the first detent. I checked the city lights, the lights closest to the grille (which have a low glow and a bluish color to them), the bumper lights on the corners and the tail lights. They are all lit and equal in color intensity. I'm stumped on that one.

The problems with the pixels in the IC - easy to pull the cluster and fix?

 

Drivers mirror doesn't dip in reverse only passenger mirror. As previous post stated check the license plate bulbs if one is blown you will get the lamp out warning.

You can pull the cluster with MB tools, or you can make your own tools from a coat hanger, or try pressure points. There are plenty of threads on pixel and light bulb cluster repair

https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...t-cluster.html

http://www.panchogun.com/FVWebPhotos...ight-6x100.jpg

 

Sorry, I meant to put in my post that I checked the tag lights as well. They're all working.

 

Are any of the lights Led? A1EK advised that a poorly designed led light an cause the lamp out warning.

 

If you have LEDs in your parking lights and they aren't canbus type, you're going to get error codes.

 

Less daunting mechanicals. Yeah because the power train is kinda like a Lexus it seems to last longer than most, except for the transmission connector leak that ruins the trans ecu oh and the cps failures, brake light switches etc. And that is the daunting part of MB is the electrics. If you don't have star your kinda helpless, I suppose some high end tool may come close, but then you spend as much for it or more than you paid for the car.

 

I truly believe you got a pretty well built ride. Some would agree, and disagree, but from my advantage point
I'm leaning towards a good ride. I noticed your missing the bumper joi, its a strip that inserts into the bottom of the bumper, and from the dealer that part runs roughly $160.00 bills. You'll see some CLK 430/55 running w/o it. Check your local boneyards but expect not to find that part.
Welcome to the club