My '01 E430 passenger side front door has developed a rather nasty case of rust breakout on the back seam.
Since it is on both the exterior side and inside edge the door is pretty much terminal.

I picked up an '02 replacement which I'll be swapping on as soon as it gets little warmer. The good news is it's brilliant silver and the color match is perfect so no paint will be needed.

The door wiring harness looks to be fairly long.
My question is can you pull the body side of the connections out far enough to unplug and plug, or do you need to pull interior panels to gain access?

A quick glance didn't reveal any magic access points to the kick panel.
Any one have any ideas?

 

i have a 1999 E320. i wired in my own door mirrors with LED array. this
required that I remove the interior, kick panel facia. this, I did, with little
trauma and with no need for instructions.

i pried loose/off the door gasket surround,
possibly removed metal door sill (it's been a few years),
poked my head below the glove box and removed a few panels,
peeled away floor carpeting.

this was all done within 15 mins or so, and allowed me to access the wiring
junction blocks within the kick panel and to tap into power/ turn signal wires.

 

Thanks,
It turned out to be a fairly straightforward process.
Hanging the replacement door took a few tries to get right.
and naturally the speaker clip came loose which I detected after installing the interior panel.

All systems go.