Project : W210 - Trouble Shoot The Parktronic

Today I will be removing the front bumper so that I can check the conditions of the Parking Sensor or as Mercedes Benz called it, Parktronic.  As mentioned in many of my earlier W210 post, the front bumper of my W210 had a minor accident and the bumper was torn apart by a truck during a corner of a street.  That incident damaged my baffle plates and also one parktronic sensor.   

 The Parktronic had been disabled for more then 10 years because it will not function even if one sensor is not working. I need to make sure all the Parktronic sensors and harnesses are in working order before sending this car for respray.

So to check, first I need to remove the front bumper and the body under panels.  It's a straight forward job by just removing all the bolts and screws

Once the under panel is out as shown above I can begin removing the bumper.  There are only 4 bolts holding the bumper with the car body.

First bolt as shown here

Second bolt as shown here

Third bolt as shown here and forth on the other side

Then you slowly pull the bumper out and here it is!

The top picture is one of the harness connector for one of the Parktronic.  There are 6 in the front and 4 at the back.  And thank god all of the harness are in working order.  How do I know?  Well, I had been doing a lot of research on these Parktronic online. To know whether the Parktronic or harness is functioning or not all you need to do is switch on your engine and put your finger on the Parktronic sensors and feel for vibration.  Because the Parktronic uses ultra-sonic wave you can actually feel the wave vibrating! Another way to check is to put your ear on the Parktronic sensors and listen for vibration or knocking.  I tried both methods and it works!  

So here is what I found. I took a working Parktronic sensor and tried it on all the 6 harness connectors at the front bumper. As mentioned earlier all the harness connectors are working just fine. I also tried all 6 Parktronic sensors on the harness connector and found out 3 of the Parktronic sensors in the front are no longer working.  One of Parktronic sensor is a purchases I bought online at Aliexpress.  So now I need to get 3 units of Parktronic sensors for the front.  

As for the rear bumper, I have to engage to reverse gear to engage the Parktronic. Again using feel for the vibration and I am glad all four are vibrating!  So it means the harness connector and Parktronic are working fine!

The three broken Parktronic sensors

Project : W210 - Boot Button Replaced

Good day readers!  Back to Project : W210 again.  It is going very smoothly so far and I am very happy about it.  Today we will look into installing the gear shift console.

I actually do not need the console or the window buttons.  The key button that I am in for is that "Boot" button as shown.  Project : W210 is 20 years old and that button had seen some pretty abuse when we cross border shopping to Miri. LOL.  So somewhere along the line one of my sibling broke and lost the button.  Mercedes Benz do not sell just the boot button.  It is a completed parts with the window buttons and  cost about BND$250~$300.00 brand new!  This one cost me just BND$37.00

So the first step is to just simply pull out the center console as shown above.  Then remove all the switches from the console as shown below.

Then you just unscrew and unclip the part and swap the new one in!  Simple as that.  Oh by the way the part I bought share the same part number as my car so I know it will fit perfectly.  Only problem is whether it will work or not.

And here we go.  The boot button is back in business!!!  And yes it works like a charm!!!!  One more problem eliminated!!!

Project : W210 - Indicator Replacement

Here are the new tinted side indicators that I just replaced myself.  The standard indicator for W210 is white color.  For this I wanted to be a little different thats why I chose the tinted version as I think it will blend in well with the new paint job that I have plan for this car.  We will see how it goes, if I don't like it we can always go back for the white version.

The replacement took less then 2 mins for both sides.  It is very easy to work on, only tiny problem I have was the old indicator broke into many pieces while I tried to remove it~.

After installing both side indicators I went for a test run on the working condition of both side indicators.  Sadly, the connector for the bulb on the exposed old indicator no longer working.  It is an easy fix but I will leave it to the painter when I pit the car for repaint in the future.

Announcement

Project : W210 - New Hood Emblem and Avangarde Grille Fitted!

Here is the new refresh front looks for my Mercedes Benz E240.  It looks so much better with the new grille! Now it looks like a proper Mercedes Benz with the new three-pointed star emblem finally back on the hood!

Project : W210 - Avangarde Front Grille Replacement

Here is my original front grille staring at you and me.  It needed to be replaced immediately!!!!  Sadly mine is an Elegance Model so it comes with two slates front grille.  I have to be honest with you, I really dislike this grille.

The grille is in perfect condition but I really want the Avangarde looks grille.  So to remove the old grille there are only 6 nuts to remove from the bonnet and the grille will just pop out!

Here are the comparison between an Elegance grille and an Avangarde grille.  The multiple slates from the Avangarde wins my heart every time I saw a higher spec W210 driving pass me.  Finally I can have this cool grille in my car as well now

Project : W210 - UK Parts #8 Mercedes Benz Hood Emblem

 

[ Exterior : Body - Mercedes Hood Emblem ]

Price - $22.00

Here we go readers!  The final parts ordered from eBay UK!  This is also the first repair job for Project:W210 exterior! The original emblem was damaged by my maid around 10 years ago and it has since been left as is till now.

Removing the emblem is very easy.  You need only one tool, pliers, and 2hp of your muscle.  You just need to turn the holder as shown at the arrow in the pic below with a pliers.

Once its loose you can pull out the holder and push the existing emblem out of the bonnet.

Now just pop the new Mercedes-Benz emblem in and reverse what you did before

Finally Project:W210 got it's emblem back on its bonnet. This emblem cost about BND$18.00 from eBay UK.

Project : W210 - UK Parts #9 Bumper Stripe

 [ Exterior : Body - Bumper Stripe ]

Price - $90.00

Here is a rear bumper stripe I ordered from eBay UK. It took 6 days for this particular part to shipped from Germany to UK. Now that item is back in Brunei,  I opened it and realised it is the wrong bumper stripe.  It will still fit but doesn't have holes for the Parktronic!!!  Oh man this pisses me off so much!  How could they even got it wrong and the worst is I cant even return it. That's the problem of ordering online!

Arghh!  Now the only way is to modify this bumper stripe to cater the 4 Parktronic holes when W210 goes for a full respray.