I have many, many years of experience with W123 and 124 (diesels) -- and none with any of the 202/210 stuff (or gasoline engines). Recently purchased a 100K-mile 1995 C220, and I'm wondering if I've bought some problems (I think I'm the fourth owner).
Among other things, almost half of the instrument cluster illumination lamps were burned out, so I pulled the cluster, expecting to replace some Osram 2721 lamps. Imagine my shock at finding these absolutely B/S lamps that are soldered to the sockets (except for the two largest lamps)-- someone should be shot for devising this.
Anyway, while I'm in there, I see that someone has used some regular black electrical tape to re-wrap the wiring harness leading into Connector #2 (the long, narrow one). Further back in the maze of wires I see an unattached Brown/White with a yellow single-pole female connector. After a little deduction, and dis-assembly of the connector body, it looks to me that the yellow connector fits into one of the now-vacant slots of Connector #2 -- most likely the slot labeled "E1" on the connector body. Not wanting to disturb anything -- the car seems to be running just fine -- I have not re-installed it.
Can anyone tell me what circuit this wire is from, or point me towards a schematic and/or wiring diagram? All the functions appear to be working in the cluster -- but there are 16 indicator lights (not all labeled), plus the low fuel light (which does work), and this wire must go to one of them. I'm a little concerned it might be the "Check Engine" light, and that a previous owner has obviously disconnected it to hide a problem. The "Check Engine" does light up during pre-start (as do all the indicator lights, except the two I pulled from unlabeled holes to replace other ones that were burned out).
By the way, does anyone know if the 1995 C-Class had actual paper Schematics/Wiring M-B manuals available? (The E-Class still did in 1995 -- but, of course, that was the last M.Y. of the W124, which had paper from its origination in 1986; the C-class was new in 1994, I think -- so maybe M-B decided to eliminate paper manuals from the new design.)
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Dedicated to the 1995 E300D -- overall, the best M-B diesel ever built (and certainly one of the best M-B's ever)
The Osram #2721 1.2-watt lamps are apparently soldered into the little blue sockets that get twisted into the back of the instrument cluster; I'm guessing that the same-sized lamps that are soldered into the beige (or greenish) colored sockets are the #2722 2-watt lamps (the 2721/2722-sized lamps are the same ones that go into the ashtray and gear selector sockets -- but they are the actual bulb-only, and are not soldered into a color-coded connector, which just drives the price thru the roof). The largest two bulbs are 2-watt, and are physically-sized the same as a typical #194 lamp -- but they can be removed from the black-colored sockets that twist into the back of the cluster.
I'm simply saying that the result of the soldered bulb/socket design is that you to pay three of four times the price of the naked bulb when it's time to re-lamp -- another example of a manufacturer reducing its production costs by passing-on the higher field-repair costs to the consumer.
My dealer charges under $2.00 retail for replacement bulbs. Is that too much?
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E300D95 - 9/6/2004 4:18 PM
The Osram #2721 1.2-watt lamps are apparently soldered into the little blue sockets that get twisted into the back of the instrument cluster; I'm guessing that the same-sized lamps that are soldered into the beige (or greenish) colored sockets are the #2722 2-watt lamps (the 2721/2722-sized lamps are the same ones that go into the ashtray and gear selector sockets -- but they are the actual bulb-only, and are not soldered into a color-coded connector, which just drives the price thru the roof). The largest two bulbs are 2-watt, and are physically-sized the same as a typical #194 lamp -- but they can be removed from the black-colored sockets that twist into the back of the cluster.
I'm simply saying that the result of the soldered bulb/socket design is that you to pay three of four times the price of the naked bulb when it's time to re-lamp -- another example of a manufacturer reducing its production costs by passing-on the higher field-repair costs to the consumer.
Yep -- that's a real cute comment. But if you must.....
The bare 2721 lamp is 40 cents (or even less) -- so I guess paying $1.60 more per specially-designed bulb/socket combo is no big deal, even if you have to replace all 16 or 18 in the cluster (only about $25 more total).
Of course, don't cry to anybody (for just one example) when the whole instrument cluster has to be replaced for $600+ instead of just repairing something within the cluster that you might have spent $50 on in previous designs. (Of course, M-B isn't the only company that has adopted this cost-shifting "let's-generate-some-additional-cash-for-ourselves-because-we-can" strategy.)
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