Psic0192

Hello Everyone!

For about 2 months i own a E 240 Elegance 1999, probably produced in Argentina. A very classic, comfortable and well maintained car over the almost 3 decades.
Everything worked perfectly on the first two weeks, until the fateful rainy day when it went thru a very big flood. The water went up until the middle of the doors and the backseat of the car got completely wet, damaging the battery wich i had to replace.
Besides many other minor problems the car systems went crazy:
- The trunk started to open without any interaction, like a poltergheist got control of the car (then. sometime later, it died)
- The lock system doesn´t work at all (its got a always on red light on the lock button, indicating it is off)
- the sunroof and all electric glasses normaly open, but wont close (unless manually, which is a very difficult thing to do)
- none of the internal lights work
- the reverse light doesn´t work
- the air conditioner direction cannot be changed
- AND mainly: I cant park the car without disconnecting the negative pole of the battery. If i dont, it is completely drained overnight.

Here in Brazil it is very difficult and very expensive to find a mechanic that can fix this car, specially because it is old. So, the problem is in my hands! And i hope you can help.
The car doesn´t have a ODB2 port, but a round one, with a lot of pins under the hood. There is not a scanner that can read this in my city. So, scanning is out of the question.
Researching online, i found out that my problem is probably related to the rear SAM (which, from what i understood, is under the back seat, near the battery, a place that definitelly got wet during the flood)
What can you tell me about this? Is my guess right? Should i try to replace the rear SAM?

Thanks in advance!

Psic0192

Here, in my introduction post, is a picture of the car: https://mbworld.org/forums/new-membe...roduction.html

Plutoe

yes it is on the opposite side of the drive side, but your problem is greater than that
you have all the lower wiring and door control modules and sensors located in the doors
i would suggest that you remove all the door panels and rear seats and find a paint shop with a heated paint booth and warm the car up for 24 hours

Psic0192

I am Still learning, sorry about possible dumb questions.
You recomended that I Check all the sensors and wirings on the Doors as they may be damaged because of the Water, right? I Will do so. Makes sense.
What i dont understand is how a heated paint booth can help.
If i just replace the rear SAM, is it possible that it gets damaged again due to possible damaged sensors and wirings?

Psic0192

i researched about heated paint booths and why you recommended them. I understand that they provide a greater temperature to dry the paint on freshly painted cars. So, your idea is to use such booths to dry possible water that is still in the car, right?
Id say the sun probably already did that job. Im am in Brazil, in the middle of summer, and it is a very hot place, hotter than any heated paint booth.

Plutoe

thank you for doing your own research as most forum members are like baby birds and do not want to use their time but rely on others to do all the research and sit back and get fed
if you think the car is dry then it is dry