Hi all, just purchased my E350 wagon last tuesday. I feel I got it for a steal, but it seemed like a basket case. A lot of electrical type issues, but new AUX battery cured most of the weird ones and the Hood open one persists, until now
I learned that the W212/S212 have 2 latches and 2 sensors. One is made of black plastic and the other in light grey. Sorry no photos, but you can tell the tabs on both of mine were bent and causing intermittent contact with the micro switch. I tried to bend them back, but it didn't last long....New ones are on the way, but dang it is annoying in the mean time....so I came up with this and maybe it will help someone.

I removed both sensors. The driver side (black) one I recommend unbolting the latch which requires 10mm wrench. Then you can use a small flat head screwdriver to remove the sensor. The passenger side (grey) one is relatively easy to remove without removing the latch, but you can remove it just as easily as the driver side one. After the sensors removed, I figured out that the black one (driver side) is a normally closed the switch. The grey one (pass side) is normally open. All you need to do to circumvent the system is unplug the driver side one and tuck the connector.away. I would recommend taping it up with some electrical tape. Since the grey side is normally open, reverse of the driver side sensor, there is a bit more leg work required. Once you unplug grey one you need to jumper the 2 leads on the car side. There are a few ways to do it, I had safety wire laying around so I jumpered the 2 leads by looping the safety wire in each pin receptacle. Then I wrapped it up with electrical tape to keep it from dropping out or getting dirty inside and contacting any other metal components. If you don't have safety wire you can probably bend a paper clip to make it work. A more permanent way to do it is to cut the leads off and solder or crimp them together. I eventually will install new sensors on there so I wanted to be able to reverse what I had done.

 

I am getting random hood open warnings in my new-to-me CPO E350. I'll return to the dealer, of course, but am curious - how much were the parts?

 

Thanks for taking the time to document this.

 

Here is a link for one of them.

https://www.suburbanautoparts.com/oe...IFJlc3VsdHM%3D

 

Left 2048703158, right 2048704458 average about $20 each.