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As requested by several people, here's a short DIY to repair your engine wiring harness so you don't have to spend $800-$1500 to replace it.

Take the cover off where you would replace the spark plugs to see the three wires (on a C280) that lead to the 3 coils. These wires are 12V DC, and are the most common failure points.

Picture 1 is a view of the part of the harness on my car that failed. Carefully cut off the outside insulation of the harness between the plug and where the harness enters a rubber section.

Picture 2 is a view of the harness after I removed the outside insulation. The picture is kind of fuzzy, but you can see the green corrosion on the wires and how there is no insulation around them...this is bad!

Picture 3 shows how I separated the wires and wrapped electrical tape around them, and then wapped more tape around both wires to hold them together. Be very careful to separate the wires entirely, especially in the plug and in the rubber housing.

Connect everything back up, making sure to have the air tube that crosses over the engine back in place, and then start her up. She should fire on all cylinders now, but if she doesn't then just jiggle the two wires around a bit near the plug and rubber until it works.

Last step, to reset the Check Engine Light, turn the engine off and pull fuse number 32 in the fuse box on the driver's side of the car (LHD cars), and leave it out for about 30 seconds. Replace the fuse, turn the car on, and the Check Engine Light should be off.

Good luck!