So I know this is against the law, and it is not something I plan on doing, however I own my car, and plan on keeping it for a long while and sort of enjoy experimenting with the Mercedes systems... the way they are put together is very impressive.

So my rain sensor wipers were working erratically, I looked for a "rain sensor" fuse, and ultimately found out that the sensor just needed to be cleaned from the outside.

In the process I noticed an instrument cluster fuse... I pulled it, and sure enough the whole instrument cluster went dead.

-Car still starts
-All chimes on the display, including seat belt, blinkers, are totally dead
-Command loses the time display, must be sourced from the cluster.
-Headlights are stuck on
-Blinkers still work (but you don't hear them)
-Car still locks
-There are certain accessories, like folding mirrors, and cornering lights which normally do not work over a certain speed... you can fold and unfold the mirrors at 60 mph... and the cornering lights come on when you put on the blinkers at any speed...
-Finally, and very surprising to me is that this stops the odometer on the display... how could mercedes of let this happen? I have read elsewhere on here that the other odometer is stored in the EIS (electronic ignition switch), and when this reading doesn't match with the IC, you get a "-----" but that did not happen to me. I am wondering if killing the IC stops the mileage from being recorded in the EIS as well, the same way that the power mirrors and cornering lights lose their read on speed.
-When I put the fuse back in, everything was fine... no lights, or anything, just the same mileage from when I pulled it out.

Just surprising and would be interested to hear people who are more knowledgeable than me about this. If this is possible, adds a whole new concern to buying used benzes.

Car is a 2010 E350 btw

 

I would think that there is more to this than it seems, and it is definitely not worth the risk.