Is the lens alone available as a part anywhere?

I don't think so. Is yours cracked?

It's part of the cluster assembly. Not sure if it is welded to the case. Its easy enough to remove and look. There are people out there who repair them. Maybe you can get a lens from one of them.

It's still in excellent shape, but scratched mine some while cleaning (never touching it again!)

Still scratches even with quality MF

What can new clusters be had for nowadays for a car like mine? Still 1500?

can the lens be removed from the cluster? does anyone know?

It takes thirty seconds to remove the cluster - perhaps you could polish the scratches out.

Yea that's my plan, just gotta get a hold of the keys. But in addition, is the lens easily removable from the cluster itself?

I don't remember how the lens comes off - but I know that it does. Do a search for repairing the instrument cluster - there are several posts detailing disassembly of the cluster. Start at the thread that says "start here"...

I wouldn't disassemble - just polish the face.

Yea if I could remove lens I'd be able to use porter cable, if not I'll get a drill

Did the removal keys actually come w car? My dad was original owner, and they're nowhere in the glove box or anything

yep just noticed that disassembly isn't necessary at all, just removal of the bezel which exposes the whole lens for polishing

Mercedes neither expects nor wants owners to do any maintenance on their vehicles. If they don't include dipsticks to check the fluids, they certainly aren't going to include tools to disassemble the car! The keys are cheap on eBay...

Your best bet would be to go to a junk yard and see if you can take an assembly from a W220 there.

getting a set from dealer tomorrow......only $30!

I remember on an 01 S500 I had the instrument cluster went out on a long trip. Had to drive about 800 miles with no cluster lights whatsoever. No odometer reading so it was crazy. Took the car to MB and it cost $1700 to replace the cluster. They actually had the gall to tell me it was a 5 hour job to replace the cluster. However, I was later reimbursed because of the recall.

damn! glad u came out on top w that one

While it is a one-minute job to unplug/replug the cluster, they did have to hook up the STAR system and reset the odo. There may well be other adaptations that must be done as well - but five hours is a rip-off.

When they replaced mine it took 2 hours, (I waited), and they had problems reading the old one to transfer the data. Mine was under the 10yr warranty so they were not going to play with it.