Familiarisation, Engine Bay
Battery/Fuse Compartment
One of the first things that comes to mind is, if you are buying a used W169 ensure you get the Owners manual and the two sets of keys that were issued/sold with the car when New
Without the owners manual you will find it difficult to get the best from your newly purchased car, and may even remain unaware of some of the features that you car could have fitted when built by MB.
Another tip which is worth following up and which I myself did because the garage I purchased from was not a Mercedes Garage, was to contact Mercedes Customer services for your Country and ask them to send you the build specification for you car using the Vin number.
The exercise proved very useful in my case as it had two major features on the car of which I was not aware when road testing.
You will have to provide Mercedes With evidence of purchase and supply other documents before they will send you the information but it is all worth while
If living in the UK as in my case telephone 00800-17.77.77.77 and select option two.
I found as with previous calls to Mercedes UK they are most helpful and will help where they can, unlike most branches where you are not made welcome if you purchased your Mercedes else where.
Also ensure you contact the MB branch where the car has been serviced or any branch of Mercedes-Benz and inform them that you are now the owner of the Vehicle, providing the registration and Vin Number, this will ensure you are informed if there are any 'Recalls' ( Calls where a fault has been discovered and the manufacturers need to Contact you the owner to arrange for the fault to be put right.) it may be difficult for you to get this information as the service book issued with my recent purchase remains without any records of service, in fact there is no provision for the recording of services undertaken, it all now being retained in digital format by mercedes, not helpful to any new owner who wants to check on service history, as Mercedes will not discuss these matters until you are the legal owner and prove such. Mercedes Mobilo have confirmed confirmed it has a full service history and the 1st MOT was done by them. The car is also covered by Mobilo (Mercedes Own Breakdown service) until next April 2013 which would continue after that date IF I was to continue getting the car serviced by MB based on previous experience this is unlikely .
Before attempting to start the engine familiurise yourself with the vehicle. It is prudent to check the services under the bonnet, firstly release the bonnet release lever by pulling the red lever located inn the car down, on the underside of the dash, right hand side, this will alter if your car is left hand drive.
Locate the bonnet catch lever on the underside of the now partially open bonnet, at this point it is still secured by the bonnet catch.
Pull the catch towards you , this action will release the bonnet which can now be lifted take care being metal is is quite heavy.
Release the bonnet stay from it's clip and place the in the housing provided in the underside of the bonnet.
You can now locate the various services and components in the engine bay.
Each of these services will be covered more fully later.
Locating the main battery can be difficult if you have not had an 'A' Class previously, it fact it is under the drivers feet.
First remove the carpet if fitted.
Locate the release screw in the removable panel . Turn 1/2 turn ease the panel up with a suitable tool.
remove the padding to display the battery.
As can be seen the main fuse board is located next to the battery.
