Help: E350 Trunk doesn't close when button pressed
When I press the "red" button/switch on the trunk to close trunk lid, it doesn't close automatically. I have to shut the trunk manually. Is it the fuse or something that needs to be replaced?
I checked the fuse, and it seems as though it's not the "Fuse" .
help !
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I pulled the interior panel off of the trunk lid and removed the hinge plastic covers, I then removed 2 plastic rivet holders on the left side of trunk holding the side interior panel on, where the 12volt receptacle is. I gently pulled the panel down, but did not remove and found 3 broken power wires, Mine was brown, blue, and dark brown in color, completely fractured and severed. I spliced it back together with an electrical connector and suddenly had interior lights back on. All the lights are now working, the trunk was open more than halfway. To fix it, I had to pull the key inside the car and hold it for 5 second to set the trunk door, not it opens all the way.
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When I press the "red" button/switch on the trunk to close trunk lid, it doesn't close automatically. I have to shut the trunk manually. Is it the fuse or something that needs to be replaced?
I checked the fuse, and it seems as though it's not the "Fuse" .








But you might have snapped different wire.
* trunk can still be opened from outside and within the car, but only close from within diver side door.
* lights outside trunk - rear brake, middle brake, and license plate lights ALL work
* removed plastic cover - disconnected - reconnected trunk button
* checked wiring for split or broken wiring a b**ch but all good
Any ideas before I try ordering new bulbs and a new trunk switch? Fuses to check possibly???





I replaced the trunk controller with an ebay unit and that got the trunk closer to work again. Now heres the messed up bit. The trunk closer lights and buttons worked when I jiggled a bunch of wires going toward the rear of the SAM. Then lights out and nothing. So clearly there is a dry contact broken wire .... somewhere. The wires going from the button to the trunk closing controller have good continuity (and also checked for cross shorting and all is good.). So there is an issue with one of the other wires going to the controller ... two of which go to the sam (good continuity) and the rest make their way into trunk lid (the ones above I have checked) and the rest make their way to the trunk latch at the bottom.
There is another wire/module/gateway that is at fault here and I have pulled the entire harness from the SAM, nav etc to try and locate a fractured wire/ shorted connection .... for hours.. and found nothing. I am beginning to suspect the SAM at the moment as thats the area where wire movement seemed to bring things back to life albeit briefly.

I replaced the trunk controller with an ebay unit and that got the trunk closer to work again. Now heres the messed up bit. The trunk closer lights and buttons worked when I jiggled a bunch of wires going toward the rear of the SAM. Then lights out and nothing. So clearly there is a dry contact broken wire .... somewhere. The wires going from the button to the trunk closing controller have good continuity (and also checked for cross shorting and all is good.). So there is an issue with one of the other wires going to the controller ... two of which go to the sam (good continuity) and the rest make their way into trunk lid (the ones above I have checked) and the rest make their way to the trunk latch at the bottom.
There is another wire/module/gateway that is at fault here and I have pulled the entire harness from the SAM, nav etc to try and locate a fractured wire/ shorted connection .... for hours.. and found nothing. I am beginning to suspect the SAM at the moment as thats the area where wire movement seemed to bring things back to life albeit briefly.
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- I pulled SAM out, removed all connectors and refitted making sure the grounding frame pins were well secured.
- Cleaned and tightened central grounding point in inner upper left rear above SAM on chassis.
- Reconnected and fitted SAM.
- I also soldered the pins on the trunk switch as this switch has unsoldered push in pins (just in case).
- Tightened up connectors on the trunk closing module plug - just in case there was a poor contact.
- There was not one weak / frayed broken wire anywhere in the harness I could see.
- Checked the latch micro switch (ended up breaking connector and having to solder back in place).
- Nav, Radio and PDC modules are not connected currently - perhaps they need to be present for the trunk closing /lock switch to illuminate

So I found one of the interior trunk lights above the tail lights was blown and the other not present. I will replace these now. Maybe this is the root of the issue on this circuit but the ground wire has good continuity - I'll check if there is a short on this wire.
The result? Well the trunk button closes and operates the trunk fine now. However there is no light on the switch
perhaps related to the blown / missing interior trunk bulbs ... not sure at this stage. All I can say is the trunk buttons work and thats a result. Bit puzzled why the trunk button will work and the light does not but there we have it. I am tempted to jiggle the wires again to see if the switch illuminates but worried that I may lose functionality ... again.How did I fix it? No idea. My guess is there was a dry connection in the SAM, grounding wire or worst there is a frayed wire that is now making contact.
Will update once I got the new bulbs in.
Last edited by stevebez; Jun 9, 2021 at 06:07 AM.




I hate electrical issues/gremlins. It's annoying AF. The simple fact that when you moved the harness it was working/not working should tell you it is wiring at least. So that is somewhat helpful. I'm not 100% sure but when I didn't have anything connected for the rear trunk as far as lights and things like that, it had no affect at all on the red trunk button being illuminated. For the face lifted version it gets it's power right from the harness so if that isn't illuminating for you, again seems like there has to be something with wiring. I guess it could be the actual trunk push button. If you know someone you can swap the button, it literally takes about 2 minutes to put a new trunk button on. If it lights up then that might give you a better idea. If it doesn't light up then it might make it easier for the wiring.
I remember when I was fiddling with my truck I kept having a similar situation that you are experiencing with a sensor. I checked all wiring and everything checked out ok. Nothing appeared broken from looking at the outside shielding. It wasn't until I pulled all my hair out for days that I started doing a continuity test on each wire as I was moving the harness about, and it ONLY then failed when it moved in a very specific weird way. After I found that it was an internal wire that was broken but looked fine and functioned fine up until it was moved in such a way that then it wouldn't work. Drove me nuts. I would have rather the entire harness been severed, it would have made it easier to trouble shoot and fix/time...etc.
-Nigel




If it stops working again, Ill get a new harness and try that.









Now to hunt down that parasitic draw....
does nothing. Disconnected the closer, so now I just have to close the trunk manually. Poor, poor, pitiful me..... Never really
cared for the closer anyway, always sounded like it was on its last legs.




help !


