turbo97se

I recently got a 320 CDI and two of the Keyless Go handles were not working, so I started looking up on here how to do it. Saw the DIY and people were saying the cost was about $140 per handle. "Great", I thought just buy two handles and the DIY is pretty easy .. went to purchase and they are now $280 a piece! Can't believe the price went up that much in just a couple of years. Even used ones (that might still break) are going for over $140. All right, I thought, I wonder if I can repair the handles.

Here is a picture of a typical handle, with lock and unlock (Borrowed this picture).



What appears to happen is that the rubber membrane surrounding the switches cracks over time allowing water to get in and damage the components. On my driver door handle, is was well cracked on the underside. and deep into the crevice:



I opened it up and saw two wires and a microswitch inside it:



The pair of wires are joined to two microswitches in parallel - one for lock and one for unlock. To distinguish between a lock and an unlock signal, when you press the lock button, it puts a 475 Ohm resistance across the wires. For an unlock, t puts a 300 Ohm resistance.

My plan is to drill two holes in the plastic and insert water proof microswitches (one for lock and one for unlock) as shown below:

I am looking for the appropriate switches right now .. identified a couple that might work .. solder the appropriate resistors in and voila. Not stock but will be functional again. The reason I put two switches on the inside of the handle is that:

a. It is easier to get to. The switch on the outside is routed through solid plastic.
b. It is not as cosmetically noticeable if you screw up.




For the other door handles that were still operational, I decided to inspect them and found some were starting to wear a little with a slight crack.

I decided to mask off the area around the black rubber, clean the groove really good with alcohol there was a lot of gunk in there which could be another reason why they break - due to abrasion. Then added Permatex Ultra black in the groove:



Here is the completed handle .. it is not perfect but once mounted on the door, you can't see the imperfections at all:



This should keep the gunk out of the groove and (hopefully) extend the life of the handle.. There may be better products out there than the Permatex Ultra, that is just something, I had on hand and was fairly pliable .. maybe a Silicone would be better? I have no idea. Anyway, hope this is useful to someone.

I will post back once I get the switches and fit them I already tried the resistors and the keyless does function correctly.

StarvingArtist

I like the idea of waterproof micro switches. Keep going man!

romeomikehotel

I love it! Can't wait to see the finished product

BagMan

Good info Turbo!

What's the procedure to remove the door handles?

Toadster

nice idea!

I'm still amazed that Mercedes can build a $20k motor that is really hard to blow up - but they can't build a door handle that lasts as long as a motor LOL

turbo97se

I can't claim the DIY on the replacement procedure .. that was done years ago .. my E55 handles still work most of the time. Probably because my car is garaged 90% of the time when it's stationary.

I decided to look past page one just now since I just noticed there are like 7 pages of info ... looks like someone else tried to pull one apart but did not repair it.

I was going to wait until I was all done, but a lot of you guys are pretty smart, I thought I would see if anyone could recommend a good small waterproof microswitch. I bought a couple of different types online from Ebay. We will see if they work. The microswitches are like a couple of bucks with shipping. Beats the over $280 from the Mercedes. It would have been nice to replace with capacitive touch sensors like the W212s, but that is too much work I think ... definitely doable and would be cool .. I'll let someone else take that one on.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ement-diy.html

hachiroku

please keep us updated...but if its only the microswitch that fails, can't we just replace with similar unit? could we just encompass the microswitch in plastic or sealant?

cetialpha5

Huskerparts.com sells them at about $235 each plus shipping depending on the color.

http://huskerparts.com/2005-mercedes...11709960-item/

I think some colors are cheaper than others. The real problem to fixing it is finding a micro switch that will work. I think someone mentioned in another thread about taking one from an old fax machine, but that's kinda hard to source parts like that. I had 3 of mine replaced when I bought the car and one of them didn't last more than a year before it went again. At least MB has a 1 year and 12k warranty on their work.

OCKlasse

^Husker Parts FTW...always.

turbo97se

OK I moved forward and am finishing up this little project. 300 Ohm resistor on the unlock button shown here. The switches were $0.40 a piece, the resistors $0.05 a piece. Rubber caps $0.05 a piece and Silicone gasket sealer I had so not sure what that cost me. So the repair cost was ~ $1.

You have to get rid of the original microswitch in the handle to make room for unlock switch. There is no way to repair the one already there as it is embedded into rubber.

I used the Silicone gasket maker to seal the handle back up and "over molded" the handle and buttons together. This allows the black portion of the handle to still flex and press the unlock switch.



Drilled a hole in the plastic black piece of the handle



Black piece installed back on the handle. You can see the microswitch.



Added lock switch on the other end:



Added red rubber caps to the switches that protrude slightly above hole. I forgot to take a picture of them installed into the handle, here is what they look like:



Added gasket sealer:


Remove masking before the sealer completely dries. I will probably add another layer and smooth is out more. I tried Plastidip on the outside and cosmetically it looked better, but it peeled off easily. Probably because I was spraying on to Silicone:


Anyway, the handle is fully operational again. It's not super pretty, but you can't see it since it faces the door.

romeomikehotel

Links to purchase switches please!
Awesome work turbo


This really should be stickied along with the link on how to remove the handles. I'm willing to bet 99% of us will have this problem at some point in time.

turbo97se

Opening actually works faster than the original switches. You don't even have to push on the button itself actually since it is molded to the plastic handle and when the handle moves, it pushes the button too ... worked out better than I had hoped!

Here are a couple of videos:

Testing before install:

After install:

hachiroku

i'm not an electrical engineer, but would either of these work?

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/sto...0001_119011_-1
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/sto...0001_153252_-1

romeomikehotel

They should. I just ordered a set of 50 switches from eBay for 2 bucks I think.

turbo97se

They're a little short. It would be better to get one with a longer/taller button. However, if you use the one in your picture, you may be able to get away with not drilling the holes actually. When I did mine, I was expecting the button to protrude a little so I would press on it. However, since it is all moulded together and as long as you don't JBWeld the handle to make it solid, the elasticity in handle should suffice.

I got impatient and did not wait for my eBay switches to arrive. I just went to an electronics store close by work and picked some up. They don't have a brand or part number unfortunately.

I like the feel of my handle now .. it is has a nice rubbery grip and feel to it now.

Deividas

Hello, i was inspired by turbo97se and i did fixed my dor handles, but I made it abit difrent, I leaved the swiches on its places, this two parts of video, how I did that. Plz subscribe, i will make more videos how to fix stuff on w211

turbo97se

Cool .. actually, the first one I repaired failed again about 6 months ago. I recommend not drilling the holes as I did in for the first one. Water eventually leaked in from those points and rusted the joints for the resistors. Also for the new repair, I cut across the top and into the locking button part and managed to shove another replacement switch in the locking button (facing the outside). There is a flexible metal shim in there that deflects when you press the button. I had to remove that and use a small piece of plastic to shim the distance correctly to match the switch. It seems to be working very well now .. just like stock handle. Will see how long this lasts. Sorry, I did not take updated photos which is partly why I did not re-post.

Rovel

I hope somebody can help me here. I was switching driver side door handle. Put the new one in and then realized that the keyless go wire was getting on the way of the glass. I tried reinstalling the door handle multiple times with no success. Eventually some plastic that looks like a retainer for the keyless go connection came loose How do I fix it? Should I take the door panel off? If I should remove the door panel, how will I glue that black foam thing back on the door?

turbo97se

If you can post a pic, perhaps one of us can help you ... not sure what it is you are referring to

Rovel

I couldn't take any pictures as it is a very narrow hole and couldn't get a good picture. My problem is that the female connector that the keyless connects to gets in the way of the window. I can't put it back in its place from the outside. I think the door panel needs to be removed. But wanted to see how others replace their keyless handless and don't have this problem.