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Hi all,
I was attempting to remove the rear overhead dome (interior light) unit today, to replace the capless bulbs with LED ones.
I did watch a clip on You Tube on how to remove it, was using both hands, but as I pulled it came away faster than I anticipated and I have unfortunately managed to rip three lines of the wire ribbon that powers everything in there.
Can anyone tell me if that ribbon is replaceable, as in a connection at both ends? Also if so how far across does it go under the hood lining.
I hope this is not a mission to repair, as I hate having things like that not going.
Guess I should have practised this on my E500 first!
Cheers,
Graeme
The flat wire can be removed from the connector and the flat wire is not repairable to my knowledge. Parts number shown is for a US spec E55 so verify the part number directly from the damaged flat wire or at your dealership. Cost is around $30 USD online. I would hazard you will need to drop the headliner down to pull the replacement flat wire through the overhead. No color codes but you should find the circuit ID number on each end of the flat wire less than an inch from each end; that way you can confirm you are pulling the correct wire.
If you have experience soldering, it's usually not that hard to solder regular wires onto the traces of the ribbon cable. You just scrape off the plastic insulation until you get down to the metal trace inside (but not through it) and carefully solder a regular wire on top of it (without getting it hot enough to melt the insulation under it). You can splice the cable back together by soldering in short lengths of regular wire. You may also be able to solder the ribbon cable directly together, but that would be more difficult and I'm not sure how well that would work (I've never tried it). Assuming it broke at the connector, rather than in the middle of the wire, you can just solder those same pins onto regular wires (they need to be thin enough to fit into the connector, though). This is not the best way to repair it, obviously (that would be replacing the cable) but I've done both of those repairs before without issue. For something like a dome light that is not critical and is not exposed to the elements or any sort of wear and tear, I would definitely attempt a repair before replacing the cable.
There are also tools for repairing those ribbon cables, but I'm not sure it would be worth finding and buying one to use it only once (they're pretty rare so it's not the kind of thing you will find as a loaner tool at auto-zone or anything).
If you have experience soldering, it's usually not that hard to solder regular wires onto the traces of the ribbon cable. You just scrape off the plastic insulation until you get down to the metal trace inside (but not through it) and carefully solder a regular wire on top of it (without getting it hot enough to melt the insulation under it). You can splice the cable back together by soldering in short lengths of regular wire. You may also be able to solder the ribbon cable directly together, but that would be more difficult and I'm not sure how well that would work (I've never tried it). Assuming it broke at the connector, rather than in the middle of the wire, you can just solder those same pins onto regular wires (they need to be thin enough to fit into the connector, though). This is not the best way to repair it, obviously (that would be replacing the cable) but I've done both of those repairs before without issue. For something like a dome light that is not critical and is not exposed to the elements or any sort of wear and tear, I would definitely attempt a repair before replacing the cable.
There are also tools for repairing those ribbon cables, but I'm not sure it would be worth finding and buying one to use it only once (they're pretty rare so it's not the kind of thing you will find as a loaner tool at auto-zone or anything).
I actually broke the ribbon cable in the middle, nowhere near the connector unfortunately. I shall try a local Mercedes wrecker and see if they can help. I also shall try sourcing a new cable from the details supplied by the first responder. Either way, I will get it going again.....eventually!
Thanks for your input too.
Graeme
Previous owner broke my overhead ribbon cable right in the middle & I soldered it back together. Slightly more challenging than I thought it'd be, but it's been working ever since.
The flat wire can be removed from the connector and the flat wire is not repairable to my knowledge. Parts number shown is for a US spec E55 so verify the part number directly from the damaged flat wire or at your dealership. Cost is around $30 USD online. I would hazard you will need to drop the headliner down to pull the replacement flat wire through the overhead. No color codes but you should find the circuit ID number on each end of the flat wire less than an inch from each end; that way you can confirm you are pulling the correct wire.
Thanks to that info you supplied, I decided to see about getting a new cable. Has cost me $55 NZD (approx $37-$38 USD). Is coming from Singapore and I should have it within a week.
My next job will be to figure out how to drop the headlining and install the new cable!
This link is to the removal, recovering, and reinstallation of a W210 headliner but will give you an idea of what you are looking at if you need to drop the headliner. I recovered the headliner in my W210 and it was quite the job just to get it out of the car; for your car you might get away with just lowering it on one side. I would estimate removing the hand holds over the doors, sun visors, front overhead control panel (maybe), trim around the sun roof, A-pillar inner cover, B-pillar inner cover (and the weatherstripping on the doors on that side), rear overhead light, inner C-pillar.
Would be great if you could just pull the old one through with a line attached and then pull the new one through...
Perhaps tape it to a coat hanger and use the hanger to guide it over the headliner and around obstacles?
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