Water damaged my S500
 

Hi family,

I guess my 00 S500 got ruined :( I left it on the street and did not drive it for 2 month and during this time we had pretty heavy rains. today I started my car and first thing I noticed that my key turns but does not clicks so I have to feel when its first, second or third position. So I started the car already with bad feeling. Second thing I noticed that non of driver side controls are working (side mirrors, heating, cooling, seat adjustments and etc.) and even driver door soft closing. Passenger side works. Then I noticed that instrument cluster got some condensation inside!! And condensation on my sunroof from inside!! Now I hear some random beeping sounds (same as parking sensor beeping) and some static radio noise coming from center vents (even tho radio is off). I am soo depressed right now, I dont even know where to look, and where to start :( Any advice, guys?

I love this car so much, its long version, designo package with rear reclining and heated seats, front cooling seats and etc.

First thing to do is to fully charge the battery, no matter what it takes to do that.

Next thing to do is to look under the hood and find the large black plastic grille that covers the cabin air intake plenum - it is near the right corner of the windshield. Use a flashlight to look down into the plenum and carefully check the small round opening at the bottom of the funnel. If the opening is fully or partially blocked, it must be cleaned. If water builds up in the plenum, it will eventually overflow thru the firewall and run down behind the carpet into the floor. There, the water will travel down the channels in the floor where the main power cables and fuses live, causing corrosion and problems. The carpet will NOT look or feel wet inside the car! The water will eventually work its way to the rear, where it will enter the rear fuse and computer area under the rear seat (the rear SAM), causing more corrosion and very expensive problems.

You might be lucky, and find that the problems are a combination of low battery charge and a faulty driver's door module...

I think that I would go one step beyond WallyP's advice of clearing the plenum drain and charging the battery.

I would pull up the carpet on the passenger side. Front and rear. Pull up the insulation underneath. That closed cell foam can hold an astonishing amount of water and will take days to dry out. You need to get it, and the water, out of the car. In addition to fouling the rear SAM and causing corrosion, the power supply for all the SAMs and the high/low voltage CAN wiring run under the front passenger footwell. Prolonged water exposure will cause that wiring to short out and corrode.

A failed high or low CANBUS can cause your symptoms, so can intermittent power to the SAMs.

Get the water out of the floor. Get it dried out. Check and clean those connections in the front passenger footwell.

Then remove your rear seat cushion and dry out the rear SAM. It may take a while. If it was exposed to water (you'll know) then I would hit the connectors with something like DeOxit to stop the corrosion and restore good connections.

Because there is a chance that water got in the car, in those critical areas, you need to take action now to ensure that any water that might have entered is removed and the damage stopped/reversed.

Thank You guys! Will do. One more observation, I just realized that front half of the car was under the carport and only moonroof and rear were exposed to the rain. Also today I found that front driver door compartment was wet and a razor blade I left there was all rusted. I guess it leaks from somewhere else rather than windshield drains.

Also you guys got an idea how to remove reclining seats for the rear? Or should I just pop it up like regular rear seats?


by the way I had issues with my battery prior to storing it. And right now it’s on charge, I hope it was the issue, but leak I might have and idea that I have no idea where it’s bugging me

UPDATE:

So it end up being broken driver seat control module. Replaced it and everything started to work. But I cant find source of leak. I put one bucket into front drains and it drained just fine. I opened moonroof and started to put water onto rails and water drained just fine from the rear. Then I noticed that I have no sound so I went to check trunk. Trunk weather strip was bad, so I am replacing it as well, because I saw water in the trunk, cd changer was 1 inch in water :( Connector and Fiber optic connector all rusted and corroded. I dont use it so I just removed it. I closed the fiber optic loop with a connector, but still get no sound. AMP itself look clean without any water damage signs. Fuse is okay. I went to check the front fuse box, and strangely my fuses dont match with the diagram I got from here: https://w220.ee/File:Fuses_1_to_27_a...tment_Left.jpg

Some do, but some spots are random and got random fuses. F25 was empty and F24 got 10A fuse (both for sound system). Do I redo my fuse box and match it to the diagram?


Also, my side mirrors rubber gaskets were all deteriorated. Can these be the reason for water leak?

Openned rear SAM it all was dry and no signs of water.

"Do I redo my fuse box and match it to the diagram?"

Almost certainly a very bad idea. Go here https://www.benzworld.org/forums/w22...ml#post5758807 and scroll to the bottom to find fuse charts.

Soo all this time a was looking into a wrong chart? Mine is 2000 S500, so chart I need is: A0005451500 could you please confirm?

So you guys were right, replaced driver seat control module and now it works. I fixed sound too, removed cd changer and closed the optic loop and got my sound back!!!

I can’t believe it, now center dash controls (parktornic, rear shades, and etc.) don’t work!! how the hell all my controls fails one after other?


PS, checked passenger side under the hood water drain, it does not seem to overflow but I see water draining to the engine bay right below the drain box, is it how it supposed to be?