Mercedes-Benz E-Class – NHTSA Investigates Airbags

The wiring harness for airbags of the 2005 and 2006 Mercedes Benz E-Class is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The reason for the investigation is that there lies a possibility of the harness preventing the airbags from deploying in a collision.

About 100,000 vehicles could see recall notices being issued due to four complaints made to the NHTSA about the wiring harness. Thankfully, no reports on injuries have been made.

Robert Moran, Mercedes’ spokesman, informed Bloomberg that the when drivers telescoped and raised the steering wheel fully, the defective harness could possibly pull itself out of the airbag deployment connection causing the airbag warning lamp to be illuminated and one of two diagnostic codes to highlight the problem.

In December 2005, Mercedes had initially sent out a TSB to address the issue by replacing the harness with a longer one, which covers MY 2003-2009 E-Class and the MY 2006-2010 CLS.

However, the 2005 and 2006 E-Class is currently being investigated.