S212 Route of rear washer pipe, partial headlining removal ?

[Not_Anumber]

The rear washer recently stopped working in my pre facelift S212 estate. Water was running from the reservoir but leaking before it got to the tailgate. Ive read several posts about the hoses breaking in the tailgate or where it passes through the grommets by the hinge and some about a joint becoming detached behind the side trim within the car. Mine though appears to have broken somewhere at the top, witnessed by a visible wet patch in the headlining at the back and water running down behind the adjacent side trim.

To get to the hose it looks like i will have to partially pull down the headlining at the back and then remove the interior trim at the side of the headlining. That looks especially tricky as it seems to include the mechanism on that side for the retractable load cover.

Has anyone done this, any pointers please before i break anything doing it the wrong way ?

 

[Not_Anumber]

Oh, not surprising ive not had a response because someone has mysteriously decided to move my post to the Electrics, vacuum, ignition and ECU" section.

Fixing a windscreen washer hose isnt rocket science - Im looking for advice on how to remove the headlining and side panels without breaking anything to get to it. Looks like i will have to post again and ask the question a different way

 

[Not_Anumber]

Anyone know how i can pull down the back part of the headlining for access on a S212 and remove the adjacent D pillar upper interior trim (seems scary as it looks to include the moveable channel for the retractable load cover). Ive got to get into these areas to work behind them.

Hopefully someone who has done it can advise me the right way of doing it before i permanently break any fixings .

 

[Blobcat]

I’ve merged your threads and moved them to the bodywork and trim section for you.

Plastic trim tools are very good at popping sort the trim clips without damage. Normally it’s a case of removing the plastic trim around the outside then letting the headlining drop a bit to gain access.

You can probably find an exploded parts diagram on line @AMGeed has some links to some

 

[Snake Charmer]

I have an S211 and recently located a disconnected rear washer hose in the right hand side of the load area. A bit of Googlefoo found THIS for the headlining removal on an S212 and information on forums about damp headlinings.

 

[Not_Anumber]

Thanks for the advice and the link. Ive dismantled the various pieces of side trim but am now limited by a large clip near the back of the headlining that isnt shown in the video. The clip looks to be something that needs to slide out rather than be pulled down.
Has anyone encountered this and found a work around as it would seem a bit extreme to have to remove the whole headlining front to back when all thats needed is to drop it on the one corner to provide enough room to access.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

This should help:

 

[Not_Anumber]

Thanks Malcolm, indeed thats the video i started with and Snake also linked to.

Mine doesn't have a sunroof -this shouldn't make any difference to the fittings right at the back but it is completely different from the one in the video. Mine has a pair of mighty looking clips in the rearmost section that aren't visible at all on the headlining in the video when it is being removed. The video carefully describes separating a pair of magnets above the rear seat area and notes that these are replaced with a single magnet and velcro on non sunroof cars - but nothing mentioned about how to wok with the two humungous clips that are present at about 3 inches forward of the back edge of the headlining

 

[Not_Anumber]

Lousy photo i know but thats as good as it gets in the space between the headlining and the metalwork. If i can get this off without destroying anything it should allow enough access to get to the tube to replace the damaged section. Any thoughts on how it can be released please ?

 

[Snake Charmer]

Looks like the white clip is glued to the headliner and slides out of the black part. Hard to see from the photo.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Looks to me like you will need to undo the front and side fixing points and pull the headlining forward to release those clips - probably there to aid the assembly line

 

[Not_Anumber]

I ended up carefully separating the clip from the headlining then gluing it back on. How immensely complicated the trim on these cars is. Ive changed engines in less time than its taken to do this silly washer hose and refit the trim

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Good solution!

Sometimes it’s better to stand back and think about it it can save a lot of damage

 

[Snake Charmer]

I ended up carefully separating the clip from the headlining then gluing it back on. How immensely complicated the trim on these cars is. Ive changed engines in less time than its taken to do this silly washer hose and refit the trim

What did the hose problem turn out to be?

 

[Not_Anumber]

The hose had snapped inside the hinge bellows.

I bought a new original hose for £ 25 and a 4m hose joiner for about £ 3 which arrived quickly, that was the easy bit.
In service though the hose doesn't look at all like it does in the packet. The hose is continuously wrapped to the adjacent wiring with cloth tape both within the body and tailgate and even inside the bellows. The tape has to be carefully cut away so that the hose can be separated in order to move freely enough to pull it out.
I found there is very little space inside the bellows/ conduit thing to pull a fitting through it so I took the step of cutting off the fitting on the new hose for the car end (dont cut off the fitting for the tailgate by mistake) and then taped the new hose to the end of the old one and carefully moused it through the bellows. I then re taped the new hose to the loom with some cloth tape both where it runs above the headlining and within the tailgate then pushed the main headlining back in place. At the side i chose a place where the hose run was most accessible, cut the new and old hoses, joined new to old and then reassembled all the various sections of trim.

If you do this try to avoid removing the C pillar cover/ adjustable rear seatbelt point as its a PITA to refit correctly.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Good repair and writeup, should help future S212 owners.

 

[Not_Anumber]

That should have read 4mm hose joiner ! I used a VW one I happenned to find on Ebay which was perfect but any straight joiner made for 4mm internal diameter windsreen washer hose will work