Active grilles/ air-panel/ luxury grille not working properly

2015 MERCEDES BENZ C300
44,000 MILES • 2.0L • 4 CYL • TURBO • 2WD
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KEVIN ERIAN
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I have a 2015 C class with the luxury trim line. So it has an active grill with flaps that open and close whenever I turn on the car or turn it off. However these flaps have been permanently open for a couple of days now and they are not closing. Does anyone know how to fix this or an explanation to this? The weird thing is that the car is running perfect fine and there are no malfunction messages popping up or anything weirdly happening.
Sep 8, 2019 at 11:35 AM
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BMDOUBLE
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What I usually find with these when they are not operating is #1. physical damage #2. actuator failure. I've replaced lots of them for the #1 reason because they hang very low and parking blocks are it's worst enemy! But there are times when there is no physical damage at all but the actuator fails, this will generate a trouble code in memory and doesn't necessarily turn on the service engine soon light.
Sep 10, 2019 at 7:33 AM
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M
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@BMDOUBLE How do you replace the air panel grill? can't find a single video or article. This thread is the closest I've gotten. I have one "slat" of my air panel that doesn't shut like the rest. They call my car "toothless" at work because it has a gap when its off. I can't get the grill off, but when looking it, it looks like there is a plastic stop underneath that doesn't allow the slat to go any farther down. I'm about to just break that stopper off. That's how fed up I am. Do you have any help?
Nov 21, 2019 at 11:48 AM
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STRAILER
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I cant find anything on this nothing has been released to the aftermarket platforms ie Alldata- Mitchell-1 Can you please shoot a quick video with your phone so we can see what's going on, that would be great. You can upload it here with your response. Then I can walk you through the repair.
Nov 26, 2019 at 1:16 PM
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ANONYMOUS
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To KEVIN ERIAN - I also have a 2015 C class with the luxury trim line, so the car has the active grill with the flaps that open and close whenever I turn the car on or off. I have the same problem you had - these flaps are remaining permanently open and are not closing. I am very interested in knowing how you resolved your problem. Please let me know. Thank-you
Feb 2, 2026 at 7:49 AM