Speakers Melting
Can you tell me what the NEW part number is? If I were to buy one on EBAY I do not want to buy a used ( bad)one that may have the exact same problem, and burn out more speakers or cause a car fire!
If I were to go with an aftermarket amplifier what specs am I looking for?
I tried to pull the wire harness off the control module ( amplifier) and could not even figure out how to do that! Had some weird Purple latch on it (?)
Thank you
p.s. a MB dealer reconditioned amplifier/control module is $1500.00USD
It is disappointing that people are having this problem and there is consistency..but MB does not want to address it.
Thank you




It is disappointing that people are having this problem and there is consistency..but MB does not want to address it.
Thank you
Last edited by P Hilliker; Dec 31, 2020 at 04:08 PM. Reason: Clarify car model




I called parts and this was the part number they gave me. I’m too lazy to type it in so here’s a photo
Ive had my subwoofer installed for 1 year now, and no issues yet. Just installed a used door speaker and everything seems to be working. Found out the used speaker i bought originally also had the same issue. but yeah.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG




and omg, now I'm reading, Harman Industries sold out to Samsung in 2016 or 17. sigh. Harman includes a LOT of brands like JBL, Infinity, Bang and Olfson, Crown, Mark Levinson, etc etc.
Now the rear factory sub is making the same sounds.
It's been pretty hot here (100+F), and my car sits all day in the sun sometimes.
The radio was not in use during the noises/melting. It was on, but volume was at zero. I turned the unit off at the first sign of problems, but apparently the head unit doesn't need to be on, because the sounds and melting continued.
Another note, if I walk out to my locked car and press unlock on the key fob, the sounds and melting start before I even put the key into the ignition.
Does anyone have a similar experience or any advice? I currently have both speakers disconnected so I don't have to hear all of the crazy noise and smell the roasting plastic & rubber. Now I'm worried I'll slowly be melting them all because of defective materials.
I'm curious if MB will help me with this (2014 but out of warranty, 65K miles), since it is not a user issue and should not be happening to such a new car (and I almost always don't listen to anything, but if I am listening to something it's primarily talk radio). These speakers are expensive and I don't want to throw a bunch of money into replacing them, just to have it happen again.
My gut tells me this only happens on 100+F days and the car sitting in the sun for hours before I drive...so the speakers have inferior glues/adhesives and start melting, causing the speaker to short out (which is making all of the sounds).??





I am going to preventively fix my AMP internals.
big chunky heatsink for 5x tiny Amps
MAIN AMP: (in trunk, driver side)
Speakers poping sound plus the thick white smoke would suggest DC current is fed to the load...
PCB review without schematic: there are 5 small integrated Amps we can guess are driving each 4x door plus 1x center front speaker.
The 3x large 3300uF 16V 105°C caps are wired in parallel to clean the power supply to the integrated amp chips. These caps work like a single 10.000uF cap to smooth all inbound riples and feed high instantaneous current to the Amps from a low impedance source.
smart looking tech
PCB ANALYSIS:
Overall electronic build quality is very professional and the 38 IC's land this automotive amp module in the fancy design tier.
The 5x tiny integrated Amps packages seem capable of producing high heat as witnessed by an onboard fan...
The Thermal Grease in use seems pretty watery and prone to evaporation.
The 3x large caps have a dangerously low safety magin between 16v and the alternator 14.9V smart charge voltage.
power reserve caps
PREVENTATIVE: 3x 25v caps + regrease Amps
REPAIR: 1..5 IC's + regrease Amps + 3x caps 25v
Failure points
cryptic Amp chip markings 🤣
SAFETY:
unplug R-SAM fuses (Amp #67:40A +Woofer #69:25A) to prevent frying your speakers.
2x R-SAM fuses powering both Amp modules
SUB-WFR
A totally separate sub-woofer Amp circuit is mounted on rear window shelf.... I save that work for after main amp.
I'll edit this post with further findings and pics once available.
++++ EDITS ++++:
Not changing anything to the above, simply adding the 16V caps get damaged by the power spikes reaching over 14.9V on top of the defective ground circuit.
Here the sick amplifier kills the speakers, not the other way around.
This amp is part of the reasons Key-ON uses sky-high 30 Amps >> I recommend against listening to car audio without the engine running!!
[I still have not gone into the rear shelf woofer amp, it likely has 1 or 2 chips bridged + DC feed caps].
👍
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Dec 13, 2021 at 11:42 AM. Reason: hands on




its the amplifier(s) that fail, and burning out out the speakers.
btw, an 08 C class is probably a W204, which is an entirely different car than the W212 this section is for, 2010-2016 E class, so non of our part numbers apply.
Last edited by Left Coast Geek; Mar 25, 2021 at 06:28 PM.
Now since my car has low mileage, it's still under warranty.
The real problem is it's just a perfect 82 degree cool day. However, the dark brown interior and the sealed cabin heated it up to 100+. I can't imaging I need to open the window every day to avoid this issue. It's just 82 degrees outside in Pennsylvania. What about people in AZ or CA? It should be a re-call issue!
We recently purchased a 2014 C300 Mercedes for my daughter. MBFM had her care for months for service. We picked up her car this past week and same issue happened with the rear right speaker. It started to smoke and smell. The popping and crackling was occurring as well. I purchased an extended warranty but doubt that it will cover this. The bumper to bumper (lol) covered none of the repairs Mercedes did. Merceds stepped up and waived the repair costs on the other issues. Does anyone know if this issue has become a recall. Thank you.




Now since my car has low mileage, it's still under warranty.
The real problem is it's just a perfect 82 degree cool day. However, the dark brown interior and the sealed cabin heated it up to 100+. I can't imaging I need to open the window every day to avoid this issue. It's just 82 degrees outside in Pennsylvania. What about people in AZ or CA? It should be a re-call issue!
We recently purchased a 2014 C300 Mercedes for my daughter. MBFM had her care for months for service. We picked up her car this past week and same issue happened with the rear right speaker. It started to smoke and smell. The popping and crackling was occurring as well. I purchased an extended warranty but doubt that it will cover this. The bumper to bumper (lol) covered none of the repairs Mercedes did. Merceds stepped up and waived the repair costs on the other issues. Does anyone know if this issue has become a recall. Thank you.
I managed to buy a new one for about $280 luckily and my problem has been gone since. You can try to fight for goodwill in your situation.
any feedback 2 years onward?
any feedback 2 years onward?
I replaced the amp and that was the cure. Wasn't much $$ in the end for a used 1 up here in canada, just had to make sure it was the right model, If I remember right it did get updated to 2 or 3 newer part numbers so it gave me a few numbers that I was able to use.


