My 1995 C280 was a faulty wiring harness that is put together with electrical tape. The car has shut off on me twice on the freeway while going 65+ miles an hour and once on a surface street going 25mph.

- Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Failure of the engine wiring harness that caused smoking and fire, caught in time. Wiring insulation is faulty, made brittle due to engine heat. Also caused car to stall and not restart without costly repair.

- Brooklyn, NY, USA

Engine wiring harness failure. It appears that, due to it's design using "biodegradable" plastic wire insulation, the harness is prone to shorting out and failing and even potentially starting an engine fire. My mechanic was able to diagnose this problem because, as a Mercedes Benz specialist, he has seen this happen over and over. The insulation just crumbles and flakes off of the wires, causing shorts and malfunction. In my case, the car lost power in a situation that put me danger of being rear-ended. The only repair is to replace the harness at a cost well over a thousand dollars.

- Brooklyn, NY, USA

Failure of engine compartment wiring harness with the rotting and cracking of harness has caused engine to misfire causing rapid power loss in intersections. Shorting of connections cause ECU related malfunctions and read error codes on vehicle. Premature degradation of wiring harness.

- Flushing, NY, USA

Engine harness and more wires have deteriorated totally.

- Jensen Beach, FL, USA

We just bought a 95 Mercedes Benz C280.we got it in dallas and drove home to austin. Everything seemed ok when we left but after we got home and started the car up for the first time the next day check engine light came on, SRS light came on, and the ABS light came on and they never turned off. All of a sudden three indicator lights the very next day. So I opened up the hood to take a look and after careful looking I could see that the wires going to connections on the engine were cracked insulations everywhere on all the wires. So I went to unplug one and all of the insulation on the wires just all fell off. Now there are four wires with no insulation from the connection to where the wires are wrapped tight. Completely bare. No insulation at all completely exposed electrical wires. I could not understand this so I unwrapped some of the wrap to see if the wires continued to show this degregation all the way through the harness and it does. So I stop there and separated the exposed wires so they would not touch others and create a short. The wire harness in these cars is a complete failure. This condition must be corrected before we can drive the car anymore. Wires in a car that cannot support the very insulation that is on them is not normal wear and tear.the last time I saw this problem was the first time I ever heard of it.and it killed hundreds of people on a pan am flight. Electrical wires with bad insulation shorted out and blew up the center fuel cell. If you look up this crash that killed everyone on board and look at the wires on another plane you can clearly see the exact defect. Insulation comes off and wires touch and then there's fire. All of these planes with these wire harnesses were grounded and had to be replaced before returning to service. Thank god Benz didn't put wings on these cars.

- Austin, TX, USA

Wire insulation on my engine wiring harness has disintegrated exposing the internal wiring completely, especially in bent areas. This is a result of normal operation of the vehicle. As this happens the engine runs worse, problems associated include surging in idle, stumbling of engine upon initial acceleration and stalling or running engine. The only course of action is to replace the wiring harness with a "newly" purchased harness from Mercedes Benz. The only problem with that idea is I will be purchasing a wiring harness manufactured during roughly the same time the vehicle was in production that uses the same defective, advanced degrading wiring.

- Cusseta, GA, USA

1995 Mercedes Benz C280. Whole engine wire harness is cracked and corroted.

- Woodhaven, NY, USA

My mechanics told me that I need to replace the engine wiring harness in my 1995 Mercedes C280 with 118K mi. It cause the cylinder misfired. I never heard or experienced this problem with other cars in my life. When I search the information on the web, it's a common problem for 1994 & 1995 Mercedes C280. I am very surprised that it has never been recalled. It will causes the car to stall during take off and on the road while driving.

- Oakland, CA, USA

My wife and I purchased a 1995 C280 Mercedes-Benz in August of 2002. The car had less than 20,000 miles and was garage kept. The car ran fine for a couple of years but began experiencing trouble with the car intermittently stalling out while driving, occasionally not starting, and ultimately leaving me stranded. In February of 2006 I took the car to a non dealer repair shop which specializes in Mercedes-Benz vehicles. After explaining the car's problems, the technician immediately said the wiring harnesses on this model and year are all defective. He opened the hood and showed me where the plastic coating had eroded from the wires. He rubbed the outside surface of a couple of wires to show me how the plastic insulation disintegrated in his fingers. I paid to have the wiring harness to be replaced at a cost of $2,354.76. Nobody was hurt nor did anyone die. I took corrective action before me, my wife or children became a statistic. The manufacturer knows this is a problem and should own up to it.

- Humble , TX, USA

Engine wire harness insulation is cracking and falling apart in areas. Caused intermittent power loss.

- Port St Lucie, FL, USA

The wiring harnest on my car is bad. This seems to be a major problem with this car and this year. This is very expensive to fix. The car can not be driven. When driving the car it speeds up very fast and its hard to stop it. The brakes get hard and takes a while to stop. I had to put the car in neutral and shut off the engine. Now the car starts but the motor races up and down all by itself.

- Elizabeth, NJ, USA

1995 C280 Mercedes. Engine wiring harness failure. Causing loss of power. Almost hit by truck while crossing a road due to engine almost quiting.

- Depere, WI, USA

Fax fm cory mccall (or) re a safety issue w/his 1995 Mercedes C280, engine wire harness is cracking and shorting, has filed a report w/NHTSA but an investigation denied. The faulty harness caused the vehicle to hesitate and surge. The insulation around the wires is disintegrating.

- Portland , OR, USA

Wire harness on my car is begining to short out, causing fire hazard, loss of vehicle power. Mercedes is aware of this problem as they admit to using an experimental plastic to insulate these wires which breaks down when the wires get hot. Being in the engine compartment on the engine they naturally get hot. A problem on all of these vehicles which is now showing itself as these wires are breaking down. Mercedes will replace the part at normal cost. Model years 1994, 1995 Mercedes.

- Portland, OR, USA

The wiring under the hood was stripped, which caused the engine light to stay on.

- Georgetown, DE, USA