Hi,

I have searched through the site without success.
I have a 1997 E320 where the motorized rear window sunshade suddenly became stuck in the fully open position.
Upon pushing the switch on the console, there is no response. The fuse for the device is good.
Any suggestions before I take this into the dealership?

Thank you.
Lee Wei

I had the same thing happen on my '98 E320 a couple weeks ago. It drove me nuts! One day I went out to my car and noticed it was down! I asked my wife and she said she ran an errand in my car and just pushed the button and the shade went down just fine.

It was a cooler day, so maybe it had expanded with the summer heat and on the cool day was able to retract. Whatever the reason, I am leaving it down from now on!

Good luck, I hope you find out what the problem is.

Mike

Same had happened with mine once but I jiggled it around a bit and it started working again. Those things always jam up, even in the new W211's...

Unfortunately, this turned out to be an expensive repair.
The entire automatic sunshade assembly is about $670. The motor is about $250.
To remove the replace the motor is not trivial because the whole rear deck has to be dis-assemble (I am just parroting from the dealers).
After getting a few quotes, I got the motor replaced with 2-hours of labor for approximately $500 (part $250, 2-hr labor $240).
Just some information for others to use.

Mine did the same thing..
I started working again after i tried to activate it while driving on a bumpy road.

/kim

Based upon the symptoms, and from my observation of the shade assembly from diagrams. If the shade gets stuck due to temperature changes, increased vibration to make it work again, and just letting it sit. If the assembly is not physically binding or bent (highly unlikely), then the brushes of the actuating motor are probably getting stuck. The motor itself is very similiar to a power window motor. If you shade gets stuck when the temp. outside is hot, but works again when cooler. Stuck brushes are probably the cause. You can test this theory by hitting the area where the motor resides. I am not sure if this is possibly from the top of the rear deck, probably better from below inside of the trunk. If after a few good hits with your fist or rubber mallet, the shade starts working, then it is the motor brushes.

Can this be fixed? To some degree, if you can get the motor out, undo 2 to 3 screws holdng the motor case to the motor gear box on, you can clean the armature area and brushes with motor contact cleaner. You can sand the armature contact area with emery cloth to clean it up. It will give you another 2 years before it acts up again.

Incidently, the power window motors can be cleaned up the same way. Although, it seems the it is more the window regulator that fails than the motor itself for the windows in the W210.

Thanks for the rep guide.
The next time mine acts up i will have a goo at it..
/kim