Mercedes-Benz A-Class
2004–2012

Illustrative — for orientation only.

Location

RHD (New Zealand and Australian cars): driver's footwell, tucked up into the underside of the lower dash trim above the pedals, immediately alongside the bonnet release lever, behind a small plastic cover. LHD: mirrored to the other side of the column, again high above the pedals — directly above the clutch pedal on a manual car — and again next to the bonnet release. The position is the same on every W169: three-door and five-door, A150 through A200 Turbo, Classic, Elegance and Avantgarde, and it does not move at the 2008 facelift. Do not confuse it with the lift-out floor hatch in the same footwell that covers the battery and the main fuse box — that is a separate panel under the mat with a coin-turn plastic screw, and it sits on the driver's side on a right-hand-drive car and the passenger side on a left-hand-drive one.

How to access

Small plastic cover set into the underside of the lower dash panel, right beside the bonnet release handle. Flip it down or pull it away with a finger — no tools needed. The 16-pin connector is visible immediately behind it and sits high enough that you will be working by feel from the seat or crouched in the door aperture. If you are going to pull the EIS fuse for a bench-style connection, it is fuse 6 (15A) in the main box under the floor hatch — that fuse feeds the ignition switch control unit and the steering column lock control unit together, which is why pulling it kills both.