phantom454

Hey there. I had my rear windows tinted on my brand new c180 which caused the SAM unit and some other things to fry. When I drove to the service shop my trunk, fuel filler cap and seats were opening/folding randomly during driving and eventually completely refused to open. My rear right seat was smoking from the opening. I took the car from the shop and they told me that they need to order replacement parts from Germany but they are not in stock for now, so I will have to wait upwards of 3 months. They told me to drive the car home, park in the garage and not drive it until the parts arrive. The thing is, they fixed everything and cleaned out the water. The entire car is functioning completely normally, except the right rear seat which they told me to leave foolded. There is no errors and no weird things happening during driving, except the occasional plastic click sound from the folded rear seat.

What do you guys think? Can I drive this car for the next few months until the parts arrive?

CaliBenzDriver

the short answer is...YES, UP TO YOU
My best guess is you have a 75% chance to have ok driveability. Not exactly sure how toasty things got. Need additional info.

I would try to identify the circuits that are acting up, then either disconnect fuse or the connector to seat actuator and SCAN THE CAR for errors that could be impacting SAFETY.

Right now you're sure the R-SAM is a little messed up or upset with your rear seats. This SAM Module is involved in many things including "consumers" power management, tail lights, AGM battery charging, fuel gauge.
It's entirely up to you to re-evaluate your car and then ignore dealer recommendation to park.

With that being said... I believe the tint shop ran your battery extra low during tint installation. That caused the Rear-SAM to get soft-crashed crazy from dismal voltage glitches... it then started messing up with your rear seats and perhaps told stories to its cousin the Front-SAM: dedicated butler of the engine ECU.

You have a very fair chance to improve your predicament for free by charging your batteries then doing "CAR REBOOT" (ie. 15mn battery disconnect). This will refresh soft crashed computers.

I would CAUTION you not to drive without assessing your car faults. Electric steering, ESP Brakes and the powertrain require CAN sanity. Be your own man if you have to drive to the corner store knowing what this car may do to you, right?

The take home knowledge here is a real life case how R-SAM got glitched and requested service. This SAM packs true problems for many chassis.

phantom454

Thanks for such a detailed reply! That does make sense since the headlights stoplights and the ambient lighting were on for the entire time he was tinting the car, which was about 3 hours.

First, here's the whole story. Tinting gets done, I go out the store and start driving home, first the trunk flies open. I'm confused but go out and close it. I then start driving further and the rear seats, fuel filler cap and the trunk all fire off at the same time. The latch got locked at the top and they refused to close. I then shut the car off and on and then I could close everything normally. When I was about to enter my yard the back seats again fired down. The rear right seat then started smoking VIDEO HERE! I then called the dealership (they have their own service shop there) and they told me to bring the car in tomorrow morning. I parked the car and waited until tomorrow. Keep in mind the car had no other issues other than the trunk rear seat and fuel filler cap.

When I woke up tomorrow the fuel filler cap and the trunk did not want to open at all, no reaction to any buttons. I drove to their service shop, left the car there and went home. They called me tomorrow morning to come take the car home but not to drive it just in case. The parts they ordered will take months to get delivered. They told me the main rear computer was full of water (i guess this is the SAM) and that 4 additional "computers" got fried. They ordered all of those. They changed the fuses for the trunk and fuel filler cap and cleaned all the water out. When I turned the car on and checked everything it was all working fine. I guess they disconnected the battery like you said. No error codes, no nothing. Just the rear right seat that was smoking before had clicking in itt sometimes. It would click when I go into reverse drive or park. And it would click when I would go over a speed bump. I drove the car for 60 kilometers since I took it from the dealership with 0 issues.

This is the entire story, I hope it is enough details I don't mind leaving the rear seat down, I am just afraid the car will blow its airbags or something else will fry, but there is absolutely zero issues. Also, the car fires up it's RPMs to 1.5k every time i turn it on. I always wait for it to go down before driving. However, it did this before the catastrophe that happened.

Turn signals work, rear camera works, all rear sensors work. No issues with doors, fuel gauge or anything. Everything is absolutely perfect. There is only 2 things. Whenever I turn the car on it shows "passenger restraint system malfunction" for literally 0.1s. And when I was driving it yesterday I kind of didn't close the hood completely so I went out to close it. When I got back into the car the sensor was beeping on the side I walked up to the car and it wouldnt let me go forward. I just went into reverse a bit and the sensors reset. This issue did not happen again.

CaliBenzDriver

At some point the questions are going to be WHO pays ($2.5k) and HOW did the water get there?

I am missing the connection between the water soaked computers and the tint shop...
- perhaps shop decided to wash your car
- Or your car had been accumulating water since day one.
- Or dealer did not physically checked and assumed it was a soaked SAM.

See, water damaged computer boards don't work so well even after fully drying. Especially not these that built without any gap or protection between pins and ground. They can short out with dew or A/C condensation alone. Your car is "new"... So without hard evidence, I am leaning towards this chaos was triggered only by "low voltage", not H2O... tint store insurance pays!


trunk water channel

Check on your chassis!
Rain should not directly enter there until a tiny rubber falls apart, then it's shower time

phantom454

The car never had rain on it actually. The tint shop sprays water on inside of the rear window so it dripped down. If you read this thread you will see it is a very common issue with the w206. I will take a picture of what you said for you to see though.

CaliBenzDriver

I don't understand how spraying on the rear window could soak your R-SAM control module. It is remotely located on the far sides.

I hardly believe your tint installer was hosing down the interior of the car with gallons of water...

Car lights do not stay on, they time out with 10 to 20mn... unless "Ignition-ON" the quick drain, yes!

phantom454

I have absolutely no idea... I will just assume that they overreacted and I will just drive the car. Since it drives fine, It's not like something can suddenly short with no water and nothing right now. Especially since it fixed itself completely over night. I will drive minimally though and wait for the new parts, and will always tell the tale of how much tinting my first mercedes ever cost me Thanks for your help!