Hi kids!! Guess who's got the same exact problem on my 2002 E-320 wagon? ME.

A week ago my wife parked my car outside of a Wal-Mart with two expensive cameras inside, my laptop, and my golf clubs. When she came outside, all the windows were down, the doors were unlocked and all kinds of people wandering around. Incredibly, nothing was taken! When she got home, we were freaked out because every time I put the windows up and locked the car, it would happen again in about 30 seconds. Over and over.

I finally found out that if I disabled the interior lights completely with the overhead switch, that this wouldn't happen. Worked for me all week, but I have no interior lights. Still, it's too nerve wracking to have to park it anywhere, so tomorrow it goes to the dealer.

Oh yes - I also discovered that the passenger side front floor is soaked under the floor mat. Looks like it has been that way for a while, so I'm sure it's the same thing as wnobles had. In addition - for two weeks before the window issue, my Tele-Aid started phantom dialing every 20 minutes or so, over and over, de-activating the radio for minutes at a time. Very irritating. I think that must be water damaged somewhere as well.

This is gonna hurt. :-( I will report back later.

 

check for water under the rear seat....next to battery, air pump, fuse box...

 

I am running into the EXACT same problem (lock doors and windows and sunroof opens) 4 years after wnobles111 reported his blessed events. Again, problem occurs after leaving car (2000 E320 Wagon) out in the rain. I discovered Battery Well has a small puddle of water and I am just wondering if . . . . as a quick and dirty fix . . . . . perhaps taking a hair dryer to the PSE might do the trick. Comments?

 

I don't want to appear snarky, but I AM a priest and I wouldn't advise anything except "get it to a dealer." This is one of the weirdest situations I've ever heard of (and we've all read some real weird w210 electric stuff) and seems to be a candidate for a MB dealership to solve. Failing a total fix, I'd start shopping elsewhere and chalk it up to "life".
James

 

Hi guys!

Well I seem to have the same issue. After the car had been sitting for a long time, with much rain, I looked in the battery well and there was water.

I pulled the drain plug and now have pulled the Vacuum Pump PSE Module. It is very easy as it just sits on the floor.

I opened the pump to find LOTS of water in it. It is currently drying out on the workbench. It was working but there were gremlins. I am going to let it dry and spray it down with some electronics cleaner to get the gunk off of it and see if it works.

 

Well guys after cleaning the PCB and connectors with Denatured Alcohol, the Gremlins have gone away for the most part. The only issues now are the doors not locking when driving or by the manual lock switch on dash, nor is the key fob working.

Any other advice or do I just need to bite the bullet and buy a new Assembly?

If I buy a new Assembly, what is the coding process that the part descriptions talk about?

???

 

OK, so we are recent owners of a 1997 E320 (W210) and have reason to suspect that we could be the new owners of this ghost.

This afternoon as we were going out we noticed that the sunroof wasn't shut fully - the rear edge was tilted down slightly. We figured that our son must have had the sunroof open at some point and not closed it properly, even though he denied having opened it.

As we drove away we realized that the rear passenger side door was not properly shut, so pull over and shut it properly.

Rest of the drive goes OK, we get home, park up and lock the car.

Later on our son goes out to the car to put something in it and finds it unlocked and all the windows down......

He gets in, and closes all the windows with the exception of the rear drivers side window, which hasn't worked since we got the car, but somehow had opened along with all the other windows.....

So we take apart the rear door and drill out the window regulator, and everything seems to be in order - the mechanism moves OK, and the motor turns when a voltage is applied, but if I test for a voltage on the cables on the door I don't get anything at either the connector to the motor, nor at the connector to the window switch on the door (though typing this I think that the rear door window switches could be disabled from the front).

Anyway from reading this thread I decided to check under the back seat - no pooling water, but some of the thin layer of insulation which is closest to the passenger rear door is quite damp, but the foam around the vacuum pump which is underneath it is dry.

We have had to charge the battery a couple of times recently, and I haven't followed any special process for 're-syncing' which some other people seem to mention should be done. And since the charging I have noticed that the lumbar support in the drivers seat will inflate, then deflate, then inflate, then deflate, whereas when we first got the car it would inflate and stay inflated.

Any thoughts or suggestions on best next steps? At the moment we plan to just re-install the window regulator, and make sure the window shuts by manually applying power to the motor. But how to then ensure that the window doesn't just drop by gravity? I think the inertia of the regulator and motor should be enough to prevent gravity taking over, but it still doesn't answer the bigger issue of all the windows opening...

Apologies for such a long first post and thanks for such a great forum, I've learnt plenty from here already.

Cheers,

M

 

OK, so had a bit more of a look at things this evening:-

Whilst the top of the foam around the vacuum pump was dry, it was wet on part of the bottom. But when I've taken the pump out and checked the connectors everything looked OK. I popped the base of the pump and the circuit board doesn't look as though it's ever had any moisture on it. The tube from the pump to the internal manifold may or may not have been disconnected (can't quite tell if it just came off whilst I was pulling the circuit board out. The clear tube does appear to have fine black dust on the inside. When I've taken the cover off the vacuum pump assembly the 4 'sliders' inside seem to have worn smooth on the ends (I slid them out for the photo). Could these be worn too much? Would replacements be available, or would I just be better off with a replacement vacuum pump?

Next step was to look at the window switches in the center console. Took the assembly out and the switch circuit board definitely has corrosion around the door mirror switch area and also around the drivers side rear door switch. So I've ordered a replacement, which should be here by the weekend.

The more I'm learning the more I'm thinking that the vacuum pump is the source of a number of issues. I've had the error code P0410 appear earlier in the month, but not reappear after clearing it, and some of the air vents don't seem to be working too well. So I think this weekend will be a full check of the vacuum system to see if I can track down any leaks, or whether it's just the pump not keeping up.

Cheers,

M