Table 1 shows one common electrical system related problems of the 2004 Mercedes Benz C240.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Electrical System problems |
Passenger seat caught fire when using the seat heater. Fire protruded through the side seat panel and burned driver and clothing. The driver was operating the car for about 15 minutes on a city street and pulled off the road to extinguish the fire. Portions of the seat melted.
After driving 1 mile from home, the air conditioned system suddenly shut off and smoke started to come out from the driver's vent into the cabin. I left the car uninjured and called 911. Firemen came 10 minutes later and I could see flames coming through the left vent. The driver's side of the dashboard melted completely, the windshield cracked, and my insurer declared the car a total loss. I'm glad there was no personal injury, though the incident was really scary. I had recently taken my car (3 months ago) to the mercedes dealer for a service that cost me more than $6,000, and the car was supposed to run like new. The ac had never failed before this.
The srs and numerous other malfunctions come on. The headlights and dash lights along with the blinkers are turn on and off by themselves. At first turning the car off the malfunctions went away only to come back a few minutes later. I find this to be very dangerous since the air bags, seat-belts wont work in a accident. Along with if lights go out while driving at night. This problem has happened to me twice before after paying thousand to have it fixed it reappears after a year. I have researched and it seems that everyone is having this same problem due to faulty wire and sensor.