Posts Tagged ‘gear’

Mercedes Benz A-class W168 hot fixes (models 1997 up to 2001) – Part 1

If you own a Mercedes Benz A-Class I will explain the problems that your will face and how to fix them. It is a lovely car, I had an Avangard model but as the car gets old, many problems come out.

1. The Air Conditioning switch is made of cheap plastic material, which by the times you use the car gets melted, therefore is acting like isolator and does not allow the two layers to get in contact and activate the AC. At the two different MB services in my country they told me I have to pay over 1 500 Euro which is equal to 2 500 US $ to change the whole AC board since it was malfunctioning. Well they were wrong, because I opened the whole mask of my a-class with a friend of mine who works as a mechanic, and we initiated a manual circuit which activated the AC and proved that the MB Service guys were wrong. Next we checked out the AC switch and we noticed the new plastic layer that was acting as isolator, and we removed it. We assembled everything as it was and I saved over 1 500 Euro in less then one hour.

2. I told you about the cheap plastic material on the AC switch, and unfortunately it is used all over the car. When I opened the windows to pay the highway tax, I could not close it anymore, so I went to the service right away. They told me again the whole electric boards of the windows switch have to be replaces with a new one costing something less then 200 Euro. Of course I could not trust them anymore so I refused to replace it and wend back to my mechanic friend, who help me get the switch out, which is pretty easy and you can do it yourself. We saw that the plastic part was ripped off, so I had to glue it back. But this is not a good idea since, after a month I had the same problems. So I bought new plastic button from the MB service and it replaced all windows switches. It bought then for only 15 Euro and I didn’t have any problems for 2 years, since I replaced them with the new ones.

3. If you have problems with the gear mechanism, you should also consider buying a new plastic part which is located right next to the engine. The guy at MB service knows about it, because it a failure in the a-class and all card are affected by this issue. Change it before its too late, the car might leave you in the road at the middle of the night, I’m sure you don’t want this J.

End of part 1. I’ll publish new instructions as soon as I will be able to because I’m going abroad for few days. Till then I wish you all the best.