More electronics fail

[Zebo]

Most of you know I think new cars are fitted with too much with gizmos and gadgets so none of us can work on anymore. Dealer only $$$. Someday i'll be like "Demolition Man" where everything deemed by the government to be bad for you is banned, including salt, leather seats, maybe even driving.

Anyway here is an example of that tonight - Lights were left on on my wifes SLK I go to jump start it like manual says hook positive to charged battery of unrunning vechile, other positive to object car, negative to charged batteries cars metal, other negative to object car metal. I wait about 10 min un hook cables and start up the slk. Slk does not let you see battery but has a red cap you remove and their is a terminal of sorts..

No problem right?
Wrong.
Next thing you know I get this "EPS malfunction take to work shop"

So I search net for solutions....

And they have weird solutions in various forums such as: turn wheel end to end three times to "fix" this code. Or roll up windows and keep rolling up for 10 sec after rolled up. You know various hocus pocus trying a "reset"

Did not work. None of it.

So I cram myself in this little box and go for a drive thinking it would go away.

Uh oh. Top speed 10 MPH, great! Just wonderful.

I shut her down on the side of the road for about 10 min and play a game on my phone (blocks)

Start it back up and EPS code is gone. Alright, now were making progress! Get her up to about 65 and check engine light comes on! Fuck! And "EPS malfunction take to work shop" comes on again. I'm getting pissed at this point, all I did is jump start the damn car like manual said. So I shut down again, start, drive for a little home same two problems after a spell.

This POS goes into dealer Monday still under warranty but it's pretty ridiculous jumping causes faults.

Tonight I disconnected battery, which is totally buried under plastic fairings and stuff that needed to be removed before accessing battery to see if this clears faults.

I long for my 68 Chevelle... Or at least a "free country" where they have normal cars, at half the price mind you.

 

[dawp]

maybe next time don't by a merc? I had to jump my 2004 toyota recently with a bad battery and didn't have any issues other than having to replace a 3 year old battery.

 

[Zebo]

Not my choice.

I had a 4runner once too no problem. Fords no problem. Ive jumped 100s of cars/boats/motorcycles no problems and w/o taking precautions like reading manual like I did tonight because I was concerned about crap like this.

 

[brainhulk]

I heard about this scam with luxury cars when it's time to change the battery, the cars throw a CEL once the battery is disconnected so you have to take it to the dealer. I'm wondering if the OBD II readers can clear these CEL's. I know the AAA guys plug in a separate battery when changing batteries on cars so the CEL doesnt occur.

 

[Bartman39]

I heard about this scam with luxury cars when it's time to change the battery, the cars throw a CEL once the battery is disconnected so you have to take it to the dealer. I'm wondering if the OBD II readers can clear these CEL's. I know the AAA guys plug in a separate battery when changing batteries on cars so the CEL doesnt occur.

X2...ditto...

 

[Doggiedog]

That sucks.

About one month into owning my 335i, my stereo stopped working. It just wouldn't turn on. Once in a while, it would turn on in the middle of my ride but then just shut off. I'm thinking to myself. How can this car's upgraded stereo not turn on while cheap little cars with manual knobs always turn on?

It was apparently some kind of software glitch that I had to get fixed at the dealer.

 

[Zebo]

I heard about this scam with luxury cars when it's time to change the battery, the cars throw a CEL once the battery is disconnected so you have to take it to the dealer. I'm wondering if the OBD II readers can clear these CEL's. I know the AAA guys plug in a separate battery when changing batteries on cars so the CEL doesnt occur.

:|
Problem is this is a safety hazard, say my wife is going on a road trip, and leaves lights on at hotel. Gets jumped and gets back on hwy car only does 10 MPH. Middle of the night, middle of nowhere. No towing.

Car is going into some fault tolerance mode according to road side assistance I called. They let you drive for 10 min then fault tolerance. Shut down car and wait a bit and you're good for another 10 min. I guess to drive it on and off tow truck after jumping.

 

[Zebo]

Guys in Mercedes forums say ODBII scanner will not reset code(s) - dealer only.

 

[Zebo]

That sucks.

About one month into owning my 335i, my stereo stopped working. It just wouldn't turn on. Once in a while, it would turn on in the middle of my ride but then just shut off. I'm thinking to myself. How can this car's upgraded stereo not turn on while cheap little cars with manual knobs always turn on?

It was apparently some kind of software glitch that I had to get fixed at the dealer.

I was in thailand about 10 years ago for 6 mo with my former employer and we got a range rover we rented and drove all over hell and back. Range Rovers there are nothing like here. Same general look, but no seat belts , no 20 air bags, Not one even, and when you open hood you what what looks like and engine instead of tons of plastic modules hooked into engine for dealer bilking you or EPA mandates. We beat the shit out this rental, sunk it many times with it's snorkel, towed, jumped it, and everything worked flawless. It still had manual buttons on radio, 4x4.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Do you mean ESP? or does Merc. call it EPS?

Check the battery voltage. A quick Google suggests that a low voltage may cause the ESP to fail to initialize properly throwing a ESP light/CEL error.

 

[Zebo]

Yes ESP. Where'd you find that PLasma? Thanks....breaking out multimeter...

 

[pcgeek11]

Germans over engineer Everything. I work for Bosch and I know...

 

[halik]

Are you sure it's EPS and not ESP? The latter would be for stability protection - probably can't read one of the spindle sensors. Usually when you pull the battery, you get an ABS light till the car gets couple readings from the sensors.

For random controllers like that you need the Mbenz STAR diagnostics, as it's not part of the OBD standard.

Audi/VW/Bentley/Lambo all use the same system for which you can get a ~$30 scanner cable. I actually much prefer the computerized stuff, as it limits the guesswork. My S4 has some random misfires and lean condition during overrun, so I just log the injector pulse corrections, throttle position and rpms and see what the car is doing.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Yes ESP. Where'd you find that PLasma? Thanks....breaking out multimeter...

A quick Google threw up these forums, they have quite a few threads about SLKs and ESP faults. One of which said that the battery was reading low and the owner was recommended to buy a new battery which fixed the problem. So it could be that your battery has gone slightly too flat and won't be fully juiced by the alternator (I presume that is all you did - jump it then run it for a while?). It's easy to check the voltage, so I thought I might as well mention it.

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?

Of course it could be that you just have had bad luck and a wheel speed sensor has gone, or a brake light bulb has gone...

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

I'm wondering whether the manual stated that the car jumping needed to be off while jumping your Mercedes? I have the motor of the jumper car running when I do this to ensure the jumper car can still run afterwards.

 

[Zebo]

Ok Battery was fine when I checked with multimeter last night. I tried to drive it this morning and got same 300 yards or so and car just died this time, something is fucked up. Called merc and they put it on the flatbed and towed it away. My wife can drive the ford 500 in the meantime. No word yet on problem.

 

[kornphlake]

Electronics embedded in a mechanical device are a mixed bag. Look how much more efficiency and reliability we get out of modern vehicle. Back in the 60's many people knew how to work on cars because it was easy and because cars needed constant repairs, new technology has made vehicles more difficult to work on but it has also extended the interval between repairs.

Jump starting a vehicle shouldn't cause problems though, that alone suggests poor engineering, or if you want to spin it the other way, over engineering.

 

[Shaotai]

Ok Battery was fine when I checked with multimeter last night. I tried to drive it this morning and got same 300 yards or so and car just died this time, something is fucked up. Called merc and they put it on the flatbed and towed it away. My wife can drive the ford 500 in the meantime. No word yet on problem.

You can't check a battery with just a multimeter. A dead battery will probably still show 12v, but can't provide any amps/current. If you pulled the battery and took it to a shop, then can put a load test on it to see if it bad or not...

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I'm going with bad battery.

 

[exdeath]

Electronics embedded in a mechanical device are a mixed bag. Look how much more efficiency and reliability we get out of modern vehicle. Back in the 60's many people knew how to work on cars because it was easy and because cars needed constant repairs, new technology has made vehicles more difficult to work on but it has also extended the interval between repairs.

Jump starting a vehicle shouldn't cause problems though, that alone suggests poor engineering, or if you want to spin it the other way, over engineering.

Ill take solid state sensors and a data log showing me exactly where the problem is over manually checking over miles of vacuum hoses, diaphragms, and sticky worn out crusty mechanical actuators and best guess divide and conquer troubleshooting any day.

Anyone who dislikes current EFI systems because the are too "complex" needs to work on a few cars from the 70s/80s.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Ill take solid state sensors and a data log showing me exactly where the problem is over manually checking over miles of vacuum hoses, diaphragms, and sticky worn out crusty mechanical actuators and best guess divide and conquer troubleshooting any day.

Anyone who dislikes current EFI systems because the are too "complex" needs to work on a few cars from the 70s/80s.

I worked on my 3rd gen Trans Am's and they were easy to diagnose and they were OBDI.
New cars suck. There are sensors everywhere. Brake systems tied into electronic servos for traction/stability control, tire pressure sensors, Some cars now have electronic steering assist.
Give me a SBC with vacuum hoses and hydrolics anyday over this new stuff.

 

[BoberFett]

You can't check a battery with just a multimeter. A dead battery will probably still show 12v, but can't provide any amps/current. If you pulled the battery and took it to a shop, then can put a load test on it to see if it bad or not...

Sure you can, but you need a meter with a bit more accuracy than single digits. On a battery that's "fully charged", there's a huge difference between 12.1v and 12.7v.

 

[pcgeek11]

Sure you can, but you need a meter with a bit more accuracy than single digits. On a battery that's "fully charged", there's a huge difference between 12.1v and 12.7v.

This is incorrect.

The Only way to test a battery is under a load. A multimeter will not and can not load a battery for testing.

 

[Zebo]

Alright now I'm pissed!!! Car is supposed to be under warranty and they charged us $386.20.

$87.50 tow
$337 for " Performing software update in motor electronic control module" Short test codes 1108,0190,0217, 0551, 1916 etc all relating to throttle actuator blah blah blah.

PS buy American, old preferably.

I'll get tow money back from my insurance but gotta fight merc for the rest. My wife can write the letters I did my part. Paid. Would not have paid had I'd been there.

 

[SSSnail]

If you can start the car and drive, and it dies, it's not your battery. Check alternator.