1998 E320 Estate Luggage Cover

[mikeharland]

The spring that retracts the luggage cover of my E320 estate has broken. The Merc dealer tells me I need to replace the whole cassette including the safety net as parts are not available to repair this cover. Does anyone know different please? Can anyone help with the spring(s) and know how to do the job?

 

[Wezzel]

I did think about taking mine apart a few months ago and even drilled out a couple of rivets on the end cap but then chickened out in case the spring took my head off. If yours is broken anyway I would take it apart and see. If you can't cobble a repair together you haven't lost anything anyway.

Mine was full of broken glass which rattled on every corner and drove me mad. I think at some point in the cars history someone had had a broken window and then closed the cover without removing the glass which was resting on it at the time.

In the end I spent about 2 hours shaking and poking with bits of wire until it all came out.

 

[OlafMaxwell]

I would have thought the cassette cover would be an item now available from a breakers yard. I don't know the cost new but there are a lot of estates now gone off the road so they should be available. My guess is that there must be a means of repairing them, probably a spiral spring inside the centre of the roll. While no spares are apparently available it may be possible to make up one with either spring/s or shock cord [a yacht chandlers will stock it].

 

[Morzine]

Don't need to worry about this being rusty either, not like the rest of the car.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[mikeharland]

Thank you Wezzel; OlafMaxwell and Morzine for your replies. I have drilled out the two rivets from one cap but still cannot work out how it comes off.