[BrianS-2006-C230]

Now that my car is 11 years old, several plastic parts have been breaking... thanks to the sunny Southern California weather. (I'm not complaining, though.)

Yesterday the rear window sun curtain dropped suddenly. The motor works fine but the pushrod hinged ends broke. The hinged ends connect the pushrods to the sun curtain track. Can these hinged ends be replaced or does the entire unit need to be replaced?

I've seen the hinged pushrod ends available for BMW but not Mercedes. Somehow I can't believe that they weren't made by the same supplier.

 

[rudeney]

Individual parts are not officially available, but it's possible there are some aftermarket parts out there. You might try removing it and seeing if you can repair it with epoxy. It's not too hard to remove - you remove the back seat, the C-pillar trim, a few bolts in the trunk and then the shade along with the hat shelf, comes out.

 

[BrianS-2006-C230]

Thanks for the reply and the information. I'll try the epoxy fix and hopefully that will work. Unfortunately I think I "caused" this to happen since I noticed a bit of chatter as it raised and did not attend to lubricating the track. Any suggestion on lubricant? I'm thinking a white lithium grease.

 

[rudeney]

White lithium grease will do it. But I doubt that was the cause - these sunshades almost always break eventually - either broken arms or bad motors. They are just in a very harsh environment.