ABS and ESP lights keep coming on - power steering goes too

[philchave]

Morning all,
I've had a brake juddering issue for a little while.
An MOT pass last week had 2 advisories. The front discs and pads need replacing.
The mechanic said the inside of the discs were pitted and corroded. I've asked him to go ahead and replace.

The ABS light keeps coming on. Is this related to the juddering and defective discs?
The sensors were replaced last year, but still they come on.

What's most curious, is that after the ABS comes on, within about 5 miles the POWER STEERING also goes.
Driving is naturally very heavy afterwards.
Start the car after a little stop, the lights go out and the PS is back.
Is this normal? Are the two connected? Perhaps in the computer?
Thank you for looking
2007 S320 88k
Kind regards
phil

 

[LostKiwi]

It suggests you have a bad wheel sensor.
When they were replaced did you use theirs party if genuine?

Power steering will be related if it has speed sensitive power steering fitted.

 

[ajlsl600]

It suggests you have a bad wheel sensor.
When they were replaced did you use theirs party if genuine?

Power steering will be related if it has speed sensitive power steering fitted.

Prob. But if discs, pads and some sensors replaced I suspect some crap lying in around reluctor ring. Icarsoft will tell you which one. However for me the jury is out on wss as I hav one mb and 1 fb on my car at moment I am yet to be convinced that mb at near 140 is any better than fb at, memory!! About 40 I think. Which I buy next depends on which of those fails first either way. How does something with no moving pts fail so often. Dtf is my opinion. Its a great little dealer earner.

 

[Submariner1]

Prob. But if discs, pads and some sensors replaced I suspect some crap lying in around reluctor ring. Icarsoft will tell you which one. However for me the jury is out on wss as I hav one mb and 1 fb on my car at moment I am yet to be convinced that mb at near 140 is any better than fb at, memory!! About 40 I think. Which I buy next depends on which of those fails first either way. How does something with no moving pts fail so often. Dtf is my opinion. Its a great little dealer earner.

All those issues sound like a wheel speed sensor has failed. My Originals did 9 years and 44K miles. All replaced 3 were dead, and the other had a short historic blip.

Then surprisingly last month one of the replaced front ones went in 5yrs and 9K miles (newer part no.).
Had that fixed and Star checked the others. Just come back from hols to see the f*cking ABS ESP warning, and MB Carsoft shows another rear different one has died, 300 miles after the other. I swear these little buggers talk to each other

Course they look fine, no chaffed wire, no scratches on the probe bit … just failed.
Noticed they now have an even newer part no. So hopefully they had an intermittent quality issue … and have solved it …. yeah I am dreaming.

Call me a grumpy old goat but MB Quality is nowhere near what it was 15 years ago.

Lost this one 30 seconds, after doing a 12 point uturn, on a narrow road with high curbs.
So like any good cult moron I will take out the faulty probe and clean it … on the deluded half chance, the constant to and from the U Turn may have picked up a glob of dirt sending it mad.

Puzzles me as to what fails, I assume its some kind of wound copper coil for induction, embedded inside the sealed plastic probe. No moving part to wear out.??

 

[ajlsl600]

They must be rubbish qlty. How hard can it be to make a reliable inert copper coil and encase it in some cheap plastic. The dtf team must have worked hard on that
And why ecm can't average the others when one fails???

 

[Botus]

someone posted they pulled one apart and found a budget chip that dies - I guess that's more reliable failure method than just hoping the copper snaps

 

[Submariner1]

They must be rubbish qlty. How hard can it be to make a reliable inert copper coil and encase it in some cheap plastic. The dtf team must have worked hard on that
And why ecm can't average the others when one fails???

Agreed, the rears are now £115 plus vat = £138. Mfg cost circa £5.

 

[ajlsl600]

Agreed, the rears are now £115 plus vat = £138. Mfg cost circa £5.

R. B.,s I used febi on front and benz on rear left. We see which has longivity.. Think febi was around 40 quid. Memory shot really

 

[robmc52]

Can I join in? I have a similar set of intermittent error messages to the OP on my W220, Pre Safe, ESP, ABS, and just for the complete bingo prize, Airmatic visit workshop..
This means heavy steering, that does lighten up as the engine revs rise, and if the Airmatic error is present, the suspension stiffens up, the car still runs level though.
The i carsoft points to the right front strut, the errors all seem to be voltage issues and I'm leaning towards the problem being the wiring or the connector block that goes through the strut tower in the engine bay.
If I turn the ignition on and there's no errors, I can get them to appear just by wiggling the cables at the connector.
Now I would like to strip the connector down and squeeze the pins a bit to tighten them up, and also examine the cables as they do seem slightly 'stiff' where they come out of the block, but I can't see how the block itself comes apart, (it's easy enough to remove it from the strut tower) Anybody know how it can be dismantled without being broken into various pieces?

 

[LostKiwi]

Have you tried hitting the connectors with contact cleaner, joining and separating a few times then repeating 4 or 5 times?

 

[Botus]

of the four new genuine ones I fitted on mine inside 4 years and 15k miles, one rear already totally died and so I've put back the non dead original - and when checking, I saw both fronts now look to me to be misreading quite a lot

when I swapped back to the 16 year old part (whose resistance came out like a new one), the 4 year old one I took off was still looking like new but now had zero continuity across the same pins, whilst its electrical connections were 100% clean, dry and looked as if the socket, plug and terminals were all brand new

got to love the bilge quality of genuine parts

 

[robmc52]

Have you tried hitting the connectors with contact cleaner, joining and separating a few times then repeating 4 or 5 times?

Oh yes, several times. they are also smothered in dielectric grease.

 

[robmc52]

Just to draw a line under my version of the OP's problem, I managed to disassemble the multi pin connector on the wheel arch and remove the pins. Three of them were covered in what you would call Verdigris, green corrosion inside and out. Once cleaned up all the errors have disappeared and normal service has been resumed.
I do intend to replace the wheel sensor and strut cable at some point. I think they are probably the originals and the orange rubber gaskets seem to have worn down somewhat, possibly letting moisture to get into the connectors.

 

[ajlsl600]

of the four new genuine ones I fitted on mine inside 4 years and 15k miles, one rear already totally died and so I've put back the non dead original - and when checking, I saw both fronts now look to me to be misreading quite a lot

when I swapped back to the 16 year old part (whose resistance came out like a new one), the 4 year old one I took off was still looking like new but now had zero continuity across the same pins, whilst its electrical connections were 100% clean, dry and looked as if the socket, plug and terminals were all brand new

got to love the bilge quality of genuine parts

Pretty clever stuff getting an inert coil encased in plastic to "just" fail eh... How ffs
..

 

[Botus]

What does an IC chip do?

An IC can function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer, counter, logic gate, computer memory, microcontroller or microprocessor. An IC is the fundamental building block of all modern electronic devices.

 

[Botus]

here it is

Bench Testing ABS Wheel Speed Sensors

The W203 ABS Wheel Speed Sensors have an IC chip (Hall effect) inside. It's not possible to bench test them with a meter on Volts or Ohms. Attached is a simple circuit showing a way to test them. Please note this is to test them on the bench not connected in any way to the car. Avoid bringing...

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