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2002 Mercedes-Benz S430

Question: circuits bad after rain

Question

antock, Upper Marlboro, MD, August 27, 2009, 17:45

Rookie

My car would not start after a hard rain. Merz road service showed up. Took one look at passenger side floor board (it was soak and wet) and flickering light in rear. Said port to catch rain under hood on passenger side is to small and causes rain water to overflow to floor board and damage circuits. Dearlership said that was 13th car that day. he said this was a design defect. Shouldn't they pay for this and repair it for free? They should tell people not to drive this $70,000.00 car in the rain or keep it in a garage. Solution is for them to drill more holes in the carriage. In the mean time circuitry is going crazy. They call it a flood car. Anyone else having or have had these problems? Definitely a manufacturer defect or design defect, shouldn't be my problem. Do you agree?

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Answer #1

patrick mannion from Greg Solow's Engine Room, August 27, 2009, 23:26

Master

I do not have great experience with Mercedes but your comments shock me! Does it not rain in Germany? Your car is unfortunately "too old" for Mercedes North America to be interested in your comments but I would call Mercedes North America 1-800-367-6372 and pass on your frustrations to them even if they offered some gesture of goodwill or sympathy I would quote your dealer as saying "that was 13th car that day. he said this was a design defect.".

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Visitor, March 18, 2010, 17:59

there was a defect...there is a drain hose from the sunroof that occationally gets clogged and water backs up under the right passenger seat front and rear and causes you to replace modules and fuseboxes that are under the seat. They must unclog th edrain hose first and then repair the water damage. once fixed you wont have that problem anymore . trust me i had the same experience!!!!

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Answer #3

Visitor, April 19, 2010, 13:13

there is a class action suit aganist MB due to design problem Many owners of S or CL 2001-2006 series are having huge problems up to $10k of water damage due to water getting into the cabin from poor design. MB was rejeting claims

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Answer #4

Visitor, October 01, 2010, 10:59

I have that same problem and it's recurrent. Just happened this morning with my Mercedes S430. I just go to my mechanic and he uses an airblower and blows all the water and drains it then everything is fixed.

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Answer #5

viglionemark March 09, 2011, 08:24

Enthusiast

I had the exact same problem where my S430 was parked in heavy rain, the drain is inadaquate and the floor board flooded. There is a circuit board there and it was almost a $1500 repair to replace and dry out. Here is the good news. Just about two months ago due to a lawsuit against Mercedes I was refunded the full amount of this repair plus rental car cost. You should be able to do a search on this to find out more info.

Basically Mercedes has taken responsibility for this design flaw.

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