W211 Estate Load Cover

[television]

My cover also intermittent. Checked battery voltage at the terminals 12.33V which seems OK. Have put a charger on to see if that makes a difference. Never had any warnings about low volts. Battery is original from 2007 so I guess is nearing the end of its useful life.

Nothing to do with the battery, that reads just fine.

 

[neilto]

1 hour later - charger has got to full charge and terminals reading 12.76V. Load cover still not working. Guess it might be switches or magnets so I will have to live with it. Its not the most important feature of the car anyway.

 

[Gastro]

W211 Estate Load Cover issue sorted!!

The unbearable racket from the load cover transport mechanism (when it was working) finally drove me bonkers and made me seriously look for a solution. I fixed it a week ago and it has so far worked faultlessly.

This is what I found without any manual or wiring diagram.
The mechanism works via fuse no.11 in the nearside loadspace trim which powers the tailgate soft-close mechanism; this in turn activates the load cover in the appropriate direction depending on whether a sensor in the nearside rearmost pillar trim detects the magnet in the nearside lug of the load cover bar when it is in the down position. (Check it out - nearside lug has magnet, offside lug is hollow).

To get to the sensor you need to remove the nearside access cover to the warning triangle/fuse box, pull off the rubber door seal slightly to aid removal of the black plastic trim forming the lower part of the side of the tailgate opening (retained with three black torx self-tapping screws and a press-fitting clip). Then unscrew the two silver torx screws at the bottom of the grey pillar trim and pull the lower bit of the grey trim away from the pillar to disengage the transport mechanism from the driving sprocket which remains fixed to the pillar. Give the grey plastic a smart tug downwards to disengage the driving rail from the rest of the pillar trim (velour'y bit with the light) and separate the entire mechanism, which will also have a long white plastic tube attached leading downwards into one of the holes in the bodywork which stows the rail when the luggage cover is down. You will then notice two thin black wires still connecting the transport mechanism to the pillar. If you follow these behind the black sound insulation you will find the connector block allowing you to disconnect and remove the transport mechanism from the car. There is no need to remove the insulation, just fold out of the way.

Now look at the underside of the transport mechanism and you will see the two black wires leading to a small grey rod about 2cms long x 4mm diameter. That is the little s*d which causes the problem.

Here I came upon a snag. I rang several main stealers and scrappies and those that understood what I wanted told me that it is not possible to buy a replacement sensor. However, the stealers would sell me the entire transport component, trim and all. And that's what I did (I told you it was driving me insane). For £41 including postage I had the "RAIL" viz. part no.A21181003277D43 in 48 hours. Assembly is reverse of the dismantling.

The whole dismantle/reassemble process took 20 minutes in total. It's that easy! Astonishingly having put up with the insane noise and erratic functioning for well over two years, I'm finding it weird getting used to it working properly!

Hope this is of some use toyou guys still having this problem...

S.D.

Be aware that the D43 at the end of the part number denotes the colour of the trim. D43 is Grey/Black so if your interior is a different colour check the parts catalogue before ordering. By the way it now costs £61.80....!

 

[Gary Danks]

Count me in for any info please Malc.

Hi. You can buy something similar from RS components
RS PRO Reed Switch Cylindrical 90V, NO, 1 A
Stock no.:530-8911

 

[Gary Danks]

1 hour later - charger has got to full charge and terminals reading 12.76V. Load cover still not working. Guess it might be switches or magnets so I will have to live with it. Its not the most important feature of the car anyway.

the magnet is similar to this one. check it out RS components!
RS PRO Reed Switch Cylindrical 90V, NO, 1 A
Stock no.:530-8911

 

[Hedley46]

My load cover was intermittent, wasn't sure if I was switching something on/off without realising. Then it stopped completely. Came across this thread, checked that the magnet in the load cover was working, then followed the excellent instructions in Post#11 to access the micro switch which is a reed switch. Removed it from its clip on the plastic panel. It has the following part no. on it Meder MK3-1A66-BV10464 VN/2. I put a multimeter on the terminal block and waved a magnet in the vicinity of the switch and found no reading, suggesting the switch was stuck open. The problem (in my view) with the replacement suggested in the post above, #25, is that the switch is a slightly smaller diameter and probably wouldn't seat securely in its clip. However I found a company called Farnell who seemed to stock a similar switch of the same dimensions and they confirmed that the functions and specifications are same. So I cut the plug off the old reed switch, leaving a decent amount of cable to play with, and soldered it to the new reed switch cable, insulated the two joins with heat shrink and refitted. Reassembled everything and it has all worked so far (7 days). Total cost £13.50. Out of interest I then re-tested the old switch and it worked correctly! Hopefully that confirms it was an intermittent fault. Here are the links to Farnell:
https://uk.farnell.com/standexmeder/mk03-1a66b-500w/reed-sensor/dp/1079476?
Datasheet : https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1865533.pdf
I hope that helps someone in the future.

 

[eeny]

HI all. Is the luggage cover in the W212 controlled by a magnet as well? last couple of days mine has stopped lifting on my 2014 E250. I've checked both pins and both are hollow. I'm assuming the magnet has fallen out at some point. Can anyone confirm which end it's in? is it the NS (Left when facing the front of the car!) Is the magnet available as a part from Merc? If not I guess I'm buying a magnet from Amazon and gluing it in place!

 

[Hedley46]

HI all. Is the luggage cover in the W212 controlled by a magnet as well? last couple of days mine has stopped lifting on my 2014 E250. I've checked both pins and both are hollow. I'm assuming the magnet has fallen out at some point. Can anyone confirm which end it's in? is it the NS (Left when facing the front of the car!) Is the magnet available as a part from Merc? If not I guess I'm buying a magnet from Amazon and gluing it in place!

In my W211 estate, standing behind the car looking forward the magnet is in the left-hand side pin. As you say it sounds like yours has fallen out.

 

[Charliecloud]

Thread resurrection - Does the W212 wagon have a magnet in the left side pin ? Can someone with a W212 or S212 confirm - Thanks