I recently purchased a 2004 CLK 55 AMG with 10k miles. Prior to me getting it, the seats were stolen from the car and some *freak* cut all the harnesses that plug into both driver and passenger front seat. I purchased replacement seat and plugs from another 04 CLK 55, but the plugs have not arrived yet. Of course, the SRS light is on, but the plan is to have it reset once the seats are wired up.

I'm not in any way sure this is unrelated to the seat problem; but, as stated above, the tail lights on the car are acting wonky. Only the driver's side brake light works, but it flashes if you turn on the right (passenger) turn signal. The left side turn signal is inoperational, as are the reverse lights on one (driver's side) tag light. All signals/indicators at the front of the vehicle and rear view mirrors work perfectly; the problems are confined to the tail lamp assemblies. There was an indication on the dash about "Right tail lamp out, Substitute on" but that went away after I replaced bulbs.

Also, I had the car out for a test (drives great) when I got the ESP/BAL malfunction warning after a spirited burst on the throttle. I know this may indicate a defective brake switch, but would a bad brake switch cause all these problems at the rear?

I have traced each wire of the tail light harnesses back to the rear saam module and there are no voids or breaks in the wire. Voltages at each wire are all over the place. Some show 3-ish volts while some read 0V. I could only find one wire in the entire harness with a 12 output. I have also replaced all the lights in both plates, replaced the battery, and reset the ECU. That gave me two tail lights on the bottom, but still only one brake light, one signal, one tag light, and no reverse lights.

Can anyone please help shed some light on this (no pun intended) before I have to take this thing to the stealership??

Thanks in advance for looking at this thread!

If the seat control modules are mounted on the bottom of the seat like W208 then coding from star might have to reset the new system module.

When line communications cables have been cut, it is recommended to solder and heat shrink insulate each cable. The twisted pair is twisted in such a way to create a resistance per foot which is an industry standard in CAN BUS protocol.

I cannot say my opinion will fix your problem here but it is where I would start.
not many butcher cars ever in the forum.

Any Low Voltage or logic circuits should be repaired as mentioned above.

Best Luck, Gator

Okay, so it's been a while and I wanted to update this thread for future users searching for similar issues. The problem with the tail lights on my car was corrosion inside the rear SAM module due to moisture or condensation inside the trunk. There were small dried traces corrosion all over the original SAM module when I disassembled it.


SOLUTION: Ordered used SAM module from fleabay, paying particular attention to the model numbers on the module itself. It was a true plug-and-play repair with no Star programming required for the replacement SAM.


Thanks for all your help GatorMB, as I have been searching away on here. I soldered and heat shrunk every wire on the seat harnesses after sourcing the harnesses themselves from an identical CLK55 AMG. :-)