[Vincent Rapide]

After two years of sharing the ED's charger with my Spark_EV and having it always somewhere or other under foot, I decided to finally stow it in its official spot inside the ED's rear hatch. Returning from my next shopping trip I found the rear window electric release had died. Ok, the first failure after 8k miles so I'll just use the other doors for now. But then I realized I had no way to charge the two EVs. 8^((

So here is where you drill the hole so you can poke in easily and pop open the rear glass:

Push down on the white bushing on the far right side to release the latch. This is where to drill the hole and ultimately install some sort of push button or lever actuator.

This car is 2016/May and later in the same year Daimler switched to the new 453 body style which has a nice lever built into the door for your pleasure.
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[Yinzer]

Thank-you for your destructive sacrifice to show the rest of us where this "emergency" release is! However by "down" do you mean the white part is pushed toward the ground, or horizontally inward toward the latch?

 

[BDFuqua]

I nice little emergency 'pull wire' may be a future project for my 2014 ED .....

 

[Vincent Rapide]

I answered Yinzer 3 days ago (poof??). So again: pushing down on the round white bushing on the far right, approx midway on the driver's side, releases the latch. Very little force is required. You can see the coil spring under the arm that pulls up on the cable. The cable goes all the way to the door bottom where the solenoid is housed. Diagrams emailed from my local dealer were generally helpful but limited and confusing since they are blow-apart sketches with everything out of alignment. So I had to guess which side to drill the hole on (couldn't). So the whole top had to come off. Not sure where BDFuqua should set up a 'pull' wire. My plan is to find a rubber bushing that can just grip onto a pencil or dowel which can poke down on that white bushing. Or just drill a hole big enough for a finger. Main thing is I can now safely carry the charger in its proper place if I choose to, and fagettabout the electrics.

VR PNW USA
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[Yinzer]

So the hole should go on the top of the plastic enclosure, about 2/3 of the way from the glass. Make it large enough to poke a pen or stick into the hole to open the window.

 

[Vincent Rapide]

Here is a more of a north pole photo. Drill a small inspection hole first to better locate your release mod .
You want to push down on the round white bushing approximately midpoint on the driver's side. Light
finger pressure is all that is needed so a 3/4 inch hole and a panel plug might serve.

VR PNW USA
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[Yinzer]

Thanks. I drilled a hole large enough to poke a pen or any sort of stick into the hole to open the window.

But this brings up another issue - how do you open the tailgate if its electrical actuator fails? That might be something to look for on the Smart Evilution site.

 

[BDFuqua]

Possibly two more holes near tailgate releases or some pull wire attached to the link where the two tailgate cables meet.

 

[Vincent Rapide]

how do you open the tailgate if its electrical actuator fails? [Yinzer]

On my 451 luckily the two side switches still work. But why would you have two separate failures occurring simultaneously? That would be like the single fuse to both solenoids blowing but no engineer would produce such a design and we already know that neither circuit has fuses, likely protected only with fusible links. But maybe wait until some owner actually has such a failure!?

453 - Since the 453 solved the glass release with that new lever, check whether that magic lever also might open the tailgate by turning it beyond 'glass release' into a 't/g release' position. Did Daimler solve only one failure and forget about the other possibility?

VR
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[Vincent Rapide]

I figured out what originally caused this failure and now present the evidence for our resident sleuths:

 

[hallcp]

So what originally caused the failure?

 

[Vincent Rapide]

Ok, not evidence so much as a clue. And a clue that has been staring me in the face since my first posting (this one).

And if you are not a resident sleuth then I don't know who is? Cogito, ergo sum.
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[BDFuqua]

A Tesla charger 'skeered' it into failure?

 

[Vincent Rapide]

No, LOL, look closely at the car itself.
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[jwight]

What is this, 20 questions....

 

[ca smartone]

I see it...

 

[Vincent Rapide]

Compare this to your car, any differences?
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[hallcp]

Yours has a big white square on the window.

 

[ca smartone]

The left tire is going straight, the right tire is turning to the left...

 

[1983JZR3W]

All of your car's rear badging is missing.