Interior detail/Auto box water ingress

[slippy]

I need some urgent advice for a friend of mine who lives in the UK.He has done an interior detail on a CLK 320(1999 or 2000 model he thinks).He detailed the leather and vinyl/plastic with woolite/water mix,used a carpet extractor for the carpets and mats etc.



Now,the customer picked up the car,paid and was very pleased.When the customer started the car and tried to engage `drive` in the autobox,the gear selector would not move from`park` to `drive`.He was able to engage `drive` eventualy,but whilst in `drive` the reversing lights came on and remained on.He also said that the car displayed a `visit workshop urgent warning`on the dash when he first started the car after the customer droped it off.



The upshot of this is my friend received a call today from the customer,claiming that he has had a Mercedes Dealer inspect the car and they have found water has got into the Autobox.The customer is claiming the damage is a result of using cleaning products during the interior detail, and that water has got into the Autobox through the selector mechanism.



Can i get your opinions on this,do you think that it is possible for this to happen,just from an interior detail? are there any Mercedes experts/knowledgeable car guy`s that might be able to help me out.

[Showroom Shine]

Never owned a Benz, but had an experience with similar problem with my own vehicle.

Years ago before cars got all technical. I rinsed the engine of my 1992 Cadillac. Did not think I got it that wet. Turned out I got water on and in the gear shift module under the hood.. I could move the shifter but my reverse lights stayed on and it caused other minor problems that I did not like. It could happen, or the person could have spilled a drink or water in the console themselves. As a rule I spray products on a rag to clean around gear shifts , dash board electronics, so this will not happen. Mine was $175, almost 10yrs ago. Good luck with the client. Let us know what the outcome is!

[todd@bsaw]

I believe this is entirely possible if too much water/solution is used. I`m no M-B tech, however, so take this as just one opinion.



I had a C6 Corvette that had a light come on for the brake system after a detail. The brakes just sensed low efficiency because of water in the calipers/sensors, but the light went off after the brakes dried off. Water + electronics = trouble.

[D_Nyholm]

I`ve gotten interiors of cars pretty wet in the past. I`ve never run into any problems, but a last ditch effort may be to unplug the battery for a while and reset everything. A lot of time, soleniods will reset themselves when you hook up the power again and it may fix the problem. As far as teh check engine light, hopefully that will reset when you power it back up, but may need a service visit to reset it.