Mercedes-Benz C 300 Recalled Over Improperly Secured Wire That May Overheat

Said bolt secures an electrical wire to the pre-fuse box. An improperly secured wire, on the other hand, results in high electrical currents flowing through said connection. This, in turn, increases the risk of a fire. A loss of propulsion cannot be ruled out either, increasing the risk of an accident.

Merc blames the recall condition on a deviation in the production process. The Stuttgart-based automaker learned about said condition back in 2022, following two field reports from markets outside the United States of America. In both cases, the nuts were not torqued to the specified value during a rework action at the Bremen plant.

You can easily tell whether or not your Mercedes-Benz or Mercedes-AMG was produced in Germany from the first character of the VIN. The 206-series C for North America comes from Bremen, which means that said character should be the letter W. Back when Germany was divided, W used to be the short way of saying West Germany. In East Germany, the likes of the Wartburg and Trabant carried VINs beginning with SNE and SNT.

Turning our attention back to the recall, Mercedes identified another field report in February 2024. Said vehicle had been subject to a corrective measure targeting the aforementioned connection during the assembly process, which prompted the German automaker to dig a little deeper. Two months later, MBAG finally determined that all reworked C-Class vehicles had to be inspected.

Dealers will first check the connection of the wire to the pre-fuse box. If necessary, the connection will be reworked at no charge to the customer. A change in the production process for the 206-series C ensures that said issue can no longer occur from August 21, 2022. The iffy bolted connection bears part number A0070035099 in the parts system.

Owners can look forward to Merc-branded envelopes arriving via first-class mail no later than August 13, 2024. As you might have guessed by now, the easiest way to determine whether or not your vehicle is affected is running the 17-character VIN on the Mercedes-Benz USA recall portal.

The fifth-gen C is a four-door sedan in this part of the world. Other markets – including Europe – get a more practical five-door wagon. Even the 671-horse C 63 S E Performance can be had as a wagon. Speaking of which, all versions of the 206-series C are powered by four-cylinder turbo engines. There is no sixer or eighter to speak, which is a bit of a shame compared to the previous C 43 and C 63.

In the United States, the C 300 is $46,950 from the outset, with 255 ponies and 295 pound-feet (400 Nm) to its name. Only the C 43 and C 63 feature hand-crafted AMG engines, namely the M139, with outputs ranging from 402 to 469 horsepower.