V12mrinc

Hey All,

This morning while removing igloo cooler I spilled at least a half gallon of water on the driver’s side seat.

Dried everything as best I could with some towels.

Car sat in garage for a few hours and now this afternoon I went into the garage and immediately smelled like something was burnt.

When I opened the driver side door the smell seemed to be coming from in the car and the dash wasn’t lit up.

I opened the trunk to check the AGM battery and the auto open/close on trunk wasn’t working.

After manually opening the trunk I checked the battery and sniffed around it and the was not smell of burning.

I then disconnected the battery and reconnected it after a minute and the auto open/close started working and now the dash was lightning up.

I then proceeded to start the car and…Nothing!

I then took out the push/start button and used the key…Nothing!

I then used the spare key…Nothing!

When key is in on position The dash is reading:
PARK BRAKE (see operation manual)
MALFUNCTION ON FRONT RIGHT SIDE
ESP INOPERATIVE
TIRE PRESSURE INOPERATIVE

The vehicle has been driving absolutely flawless with zero issues before this.

I also checked all fuses (both sides of dash) associated with the front seat and all are intact/no break in fuse/short.

With the burning smell clearly coming from the inside of the car (zero burning smell under hood/starter battery area or trunk) I think something under the driver’s side seat was damaged.

Any insight would be amazing!

Thanks in advance!

vettebk

It would help if you could give us the codes. It sounds to me like you drowned the passenger side SAM. These are the modules under the front floor board area. You can pull the carpet and gain access. If you see water or corrosion, which it sounds like to me you will given the igloo cold water torture. This most often happens from a bad window seal or bad sunroof seal or even a bad windshield leak. Take look and report back here. If you can scan the car, also give us the codes.

Water in the interior of the car is never good.

BOTUS

some mercs put a pre-fuse box near the pedals - never looked on a 221 - the floor carpet likely pulls up towards the seat (certainly does passenger side - in a manner one wouldn't expect, where your toes end just pull back nothing holds it there)

under the seat is the seat module, for airbags, seat adjustment and such rubbish and some pyrotechnic malarkey for the seat belt
the back of the seat gets another module for the fans in the seat squab and the stupid lumbar disaster

canbus is def on the passenger side but low volts, plus suspension module and tyre pressure module - these hate puddles and corrosion and will cause odd behavior if it plays up

drivers side above the pedals is the CGW which has a finger in the pie of most stuff including canbus

the smell of burning ought to have you disconnecting the batteries - older cars one in the boot and another under the bonnet.... (rear battery can be disconnected by taking off the earth strap side of inner boot beside spare wheel a red 13mm headed bolt with flat black ribbon cable 1/2" wide - the front just take off the earth).... then dry everything out and look for damage

the errors u have might be normal ABS sensor failure.... see post inside last week about the fun these give

V12mrinc

Unfortunately No way to pull codes at the moment.

The water definitely didn’t get anywhere near the passenger side. The driver’s side seat was drenched when the moving the cooler across the center console (the only reason didn’t remove cooler thru passenger side door upon arrival is because garage is a bit narrow and the door wouldn’t open enough to remove cooler on passenger side.

Absolutely bone dry on the passenger side.

The burning scent is 100% coming from under the driver’s seat.

Just looked at the #7 fuse (bigger 40A) controls ignition lock, ABS etc and not blown either.

Does seem to be a starter fuse on the diagram but wanted to check that too.

The soft close and dash are all not working currently but the dash still lights up if key is turned to on position.

The outside temp on cluster is reading 185 degrees and the analog clock is at 12:00 (not sure if these details matter).

Next step I think is to remove the front seat if no other suggestions are provided here on the forum.

V12mrinc

Yea! This water spilled on the driver’s side seat so the passenger side is 100% bone dry.

Any fuses or relays related to the general location of the driver’s side seat or directly underneath I should target for visual inspection?

—The smell of burning is so clearly from under driver’s side seat it is unbelievable—

Even the back seat area is distinctly less aromatic in terms of the burning scent when compared to the strong scent burning scent under the driver’s side seat.

V12mrinc

Just pulled up the carpet from back seat on driver’s side:



Underneath driver’s side (tape clearly bubbled up from water)

BOTUS

all those in the pictures of wires in twisted pairs are to reduces noise on CANBUS circuits

disconnect the batteries you are sending messages round and causing damage !!!!

modern cars work on stupid signals turning stuff on and off using 3 to 5 volt joke network messaging and extra fun has all these baby dumb computer modules throwing there teddies and doing the wrong things

dry it out and hope when you reconnect fully charged batteries the car wakes up feeling less stupid

but as u left it powered more harm and broken batteries where stuff never turned off

BOTUS

if you upset airbag or seat belt systems it may well not start as it thinks its been in a mega car crash (was it pyrotechnic fun that's causing the smell?)

I suspect your are in for a whole lot of hell and costs

best short term thing you can do to help is to get the batteries off and let it dry out - then disconnect and spay ACF50 in every single electrical connections you can find especially everything on the canbus junctions

heated seat squab cushion is $1200 and unobtainable.... and that's the simple cheap bit.... this event could easily write off the car from an economic back to how it was repair