coobah

Hi.

I see small holes on the bottom of the tailgate in my S211 wagon. Shall they be left open as water drainage or shall there be some kind of plastic thingys plugged in?

Sulaco

huh? What holes?

sciroccor

yes, what holes??? and, what's an s211 wagon?

fazxs

S211 is the the wagon/estate version of the W211 generation also referred to as T-Modell in Europe.

Sulaco

the 3 numbers represent the model: 123/124/210/211/212/213 etc

the letter at start indicates:

w: sedan
s: wagon/estate
c: coupe
r: sport-light (SL, SLK)

sciroccor

thanks!!! i never knew. kind of ironic, though. sedan (starts with S) is W while wagon (starts with W) is S. i am aware that they are made in Germany. it's also interesting that when i use the WIS Mercedes software, it auto fills, using the VIN, my car as W211.

sciroccor

water doesn't get in there.

coobah

Thanks for the response guys...


Those ones:





I work with boats and to be honest.... I don't believe there are places where water won't get in
For an example there are openings in the top part of the rear lid (for top "spoiler" mounting etc.) there also are opeinings in the middle (for the opening switch, for the license lights etc.)

I see one plastic plug in the iddle hole on the upper pic and (if I'm correct) no plug on the side.
Could anybody confirm it's the "factory status"???

I'm paranoind about rust. I like cars from the "golden era", but all of them were taken from me by this "red b*tch that dances like crazy"
I did import my E55 from Tokyo to avoid rust and I also cover it with Mike Sander's anti rust fat in and out the first day I got it.






But I also know that the rear tail gate of the wagon is one of the first things that gets rusted on S211.
Just want to know for sure if everything is as it should. My car had absolutely no plugs in there and all those plastic bits are freakin hard to identify thru Mercedes EPC....

coobah

Nobody with a wagon here? 😂

Guys please, I'd really appreciate your help..

prktkljokr

They are for drainage, all cars have them, also bottom of doors, if you block them you will have problems with condensation and this will lead to rust, unfortunately you can not stop rust, you can only slow it down.

I would suggest to take off the inner trim and cavity wax it, just make sure the holes are clear once done.

fazxs

Hey Coobah, I guess there isn’t an issue to worry here. All the wagons have these little holes though I don’t know why it exists. But since all the wagons have it, you shouldn’t worry.

A pic of my wagon tailgate

E55Greasemonkey

My 2008 E350 wagon has rubber plugs. My 2011 ML63 and ML350 do not. No rust here in FL unless you live near the ocean.

Sulaco

Oh, I understand, I was looking at the plastic door card and not the sheet metal.

Yes, i believe those are drain holes so that any water that intrudes has a place to go to avoid rust.

Thankfully, I live in the Southeast US, so MB's don't rust here. My 1999 C43 has 313k miles on it and not one spec of rust underneath.

E55Greasemonkey

Those holes may also exist for the factory zinc phospate bath liquid to run out of.

https://youtu.be/JauUjmXlTPE