Help! It's getting hot in here!
Weirdest thing. My electric windows were working fine one day, then we
have a big storm, and the next day the passenger side front and driver
side rear won't respond to the switch. Not a big deal because i mostly
use the driver's window. Now, about a week later, the driver side
front and passender side rear won't work either. To top it off, it's
summer. In San Antonio. And this car is my daily driver. Argh. It's
hot. The main fuses all tested out fine, although none of them were
labeled as fuses for the window motors.
Aside from baking dinner on the floorboard on the way home, you have
any suggestions?
Jeff
Richard Sexton - 18 May 2006 09:14 GMT
>Help! It's getting hot in here!
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>hot. The main fuses all tested out fine, although none of them were
>labeled as fuses for the window motors.
They may test fine, biut replace the, anyway with new ones and clean the
contacts of the fuse holder very well with an ink eraser.
If that doesn't fix it then get a volt meter and trace back to see
why you're not getting any electrons to the fusebox.
As you've noticed the fuses do control diagonal windows.

Signature
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net
ws - 18 May 2006 18:41 GMT
>> Help! It's getting hot in here!
>>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> They may test fine, biut replace the, anyway with new ones and clean the
> contacts of the fuse holder very well with an ink eraser.
Concur. Storms and Hot weather do cause condensation, and this does give
rise to lots of problems. You will probably find that rotating the fuses
in the holders allow operation again.
> If that doesn't fix it then get a volt meter and trace back to see
> why you're not getting any electrons to the fusebox.
>
> As you've noticed the fuses do control diagonal windows.
Try replacing the fuses to ones with brass links, if you can find them,
the tin ones really do oxidise fast.
Happened to my 115, 123 and to a lesser extent on my 124.
Contact cleaner does help to slow down the oxidation.
Cheers,
WS
Hazey - 18 May 2006 19:10 GMT
Same thing happened to me, and it was a not "blown" fuse, but one in
which the aluminum had shrunk from heating of corroded elements causing
the fuse element to heat up causing it to shrink to the point that it
can't carry enough amperage to run the motor any more. They can look
fine and be bad!
Also, when you say that you checked the "main" fuses, if you mean the
fues box under the dash . . . the window fuses aren't there. At least
they weren't there in my car. I found my window fuses in one of the
little rectangular black boxes on the firewall of the engine
compartment. They were near the passenger side of the firewall, and
they were all red fuses in the little black boxes. Check in there and
just replace them all. At this point no original fuse in your car is
really good. They are all too old to be reliable.
All the best - H
rhinesj@gmail.com - 30 May 2006 03:03 GMT
Thanks -- that was it exactly -- it just took me a couple weeks to get
back to posting.
PT in OR - 19 May 2006 17:39 GMT
I was an English motorcycle guy (think Lucus electrics) before I
started playing with MBs. One of the coolest tools i made was a fuse
tester. I took a 5 amp breaker (about $5 at Napa) and attached two
clips. I could put it across a fuse holder and it would complete the
curcuit without taking out the wirering if there was a dead short. I
actaully made it for finding dead shorts since the breaker would blow,
i would disconnect parts of the circuit until it stopped blowing.
However, for any electrical gemlins, the first thing i do is toss this
across a fuse holder and see if a fuse is bad. If everything works as
it should, then the fuse is bad. Something I do on my MBs, is if one
fuse corrodes, then I change them all out. I have a jar of spares int
he trunk. Quite handy.