I've been reading the thread on the longest lasting wiring harness.

It has me wondering if there is a specific year span to avoid, or only certain models within certain years.

Brian in Austin

as far as I know,w140s 1992 thru 95

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

I'm pretty sure the 124's were suspect also. I had to replace the harness on my '95 E420
However, my '93 320CE had no problems. Go figure.
Anziani

The mid 90's ish R129 SL had problems too.

The wire problem goes back further, I had a late 80's Volvo 760 and the engine wiring insulation was coming apart.

While investigating what SL year ranges had wiring issues, a multi make dealer parts guy told me 90's Jaguars had insulation problems too.

The wring harness issue turned up in many European vehicles when the Europen union mandated bio-degradeable insulation materials. The materials degraded faster than expected when exposed to heat. AFAIK this affected vehicles produced starting in model year 93 and continued for 2 or 3 more years depending on the manufacturer.

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Resistance is Futile.

Can anyone lock down the specific time periods? I guess MB won't because they don't acknowledge there is a problem. Could the problem be traced to a specific set of build dates?

All Mercedes Models between late '92 and mid '96
Barring those with M103 engines which were still being carried on in '92.

The biodegradable wiring issue affects the whole car. It's just that being exposed to excessive heat in the engine compartment area, the wiring there is the first to show problems.

Another "Green" issue is the solder of circuit boards. "Non lead" solder was used and this has issues.

As Ivanerrol states, +1, sadly.

I just had to replace the Hella-branded headlight assemblies on a 1998 E320 because the wires and associated insulation turned to dust. Only conclusion I can draw is that they must have been manufactured with disintegrating wire as a batch when the W210 model first hit the market in mid 1995. Mark