ABS defective, ESP defective, Service Brake visit workshop???????

lieutenant gruber

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All these messages came on today, scrolling one after the other, and stayed on till I stopped the car. I left it parked up a couple of hours before restarting, at which point only the "Service Brake visit workshop" message came up........until an hour into the home journey when they all came back up again.

The brakes feel normal and the engine isn't in limp mode. None of these messages are in red and the car drive normally.

Any idea what the problem is?????
 
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lieutenant gruber

lieutenant gruber

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neither if you go to a normal garage , its not a specialist repair by any means but you need to get it plugged into first pal
You can buy fault readers 'ont tinternet can't you, are they any good?
 

bembo449

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you need star or MB2 pal , I was thinking about your issue and it may turn out to be the ABS ring on one of the front corners , they tend to corrode , I used MB2 to find which corner but only physical examination provided the answer to what had actually failed
 
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lieutenant gruber

lieutenant gruber

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you need star or MB2 pal , I was thinking about your issue and it may turn out to be the ABS ring on one of the front corners , they tend to corrode , I used MB2 to find which corner but only physical examination provided the answer to what had actually failed
Bugger!
 

Cole@MBS

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I would guess rear ABS ring, doing them every week now, ring is cheap but labour to fit is a few hours........
 
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lieutenant gruber

lieutenant gruber

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I would guess rear ABS ring, doing them every week now, ring is cheap but labour to fit is a few hours........
I usually do all my own maintenance. Is this a DIY job while I'm changing the rear pads?
 
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lieutenant gruber

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All jobs are DIY if you know what you're doing ;)
Drive shaft out, remove old ring, which should virtually fall off if it's cracked, and tap/glue new ring on. :)
Thank you for that. I'll get it on a star asap.
 

DIYMAN

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Thank you for that. I'll get it on a star asap.
Hello, just had mine on Star (£100) for exactly same problem, reported rear near side ABS ring & sensor required estimate £559 by main dealer including £109 + vat for sensor.
Looking on eBay I can see sensors from £15.99 and up to £130 !!!
Did you get your car fixed ? I have exactly the same model and would like an idea what the job should cost with an independent please.
 

Submariner1

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Hello, just had mine on Star (£100) for exactly same problem, reported rear near side ABS ring & sensor required estimate £559 by main dealer including £109 + vat for sensor.
Looking on eBay I can see sensors from £15.99 and up to £130 !!!
Did you get your car fixed ? I have exactly the same model and would like an idea what the job should cost with an independent please.

Interested in this.
Can STAR deferrentiate between a Sensor or a Reluctor Ring problem?
My penultimate star report said
FR , RL and RR Sensors need a “visual inspection”
Codes 5112, 5122, and 5132.

What were your Star codes, and does it specify whether its Sensor or Rings?
 

DIYMAN

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The codes in my report are:- P1861, C2472 and C146E check component L6/3 (Left rear speed sensor).
The quote they gave me was to change both the ring and the sensor.
From what Cole @ MBS posted it seems like it is usually the ring that needs changing, I am wondering if it would be worth buying one of the very cheap sensors off eBay just to try before asking a local garage to change the ring.
 

LostKiwi

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Interested in this.
Can STAR deferrentiate between a Sensor or a Reluctor Ring problem?
My penultimate star report said
FR , RL and RR Sensors need a “visual inspection”
Codes 5112, 5122, and 5132.

What were your Star codes, and does it specify whether its Sensor or Rings?
No.
 

LostKiwi

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Remove the sensor and clean. Wire brush the ring and inspect for corrosion or splits. If all good clean off well and reassemble.
 

Submariner1

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The codes in my report are:- P1861, C2472 and C146E check component L6/3 (Left rear speed sensor).
The quote they gave me was to change both the ring and the sensor.
From what Cole @ MBS posted it seems like it is usually the ring that needs changing, I am wondering if it would be worth buying one of the very cheap sensors off eBay just to try before asking a local garage to change the ring.

OK
That makes sense as I didnt think it could differentiate.

If I was you, I wouldnt risk the evaluation based on a clone ... i.e. do they work?
But you might as well get a real MB one and try that first in case it fixes it.
Only takes 30 mins to put a new one in , and road test it.
 
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Submariner1

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Thanks Alistair, its just OP said Star reported “required the ring and sensor”.

Mine just said inspect the sensor, and as you pointed out its wise to check the ring.
Thats a either a huge job on mine, to effectively see the ring properly, or just go by what little one can see through the hole to recieve the sensor.

Sadly you confirmed what I thought was the case.

Seems very very odd three might have gone at the same time!
Makes me wonder if it is in fact the EPB light switch, that apparrently can throw spurious sensor errors. Sadly on the CL500 its not the usual “£15 no brainer change it on spec. Switch” but £95 plus vat. Or in light of my battery issue actually all down to under-voltage :-/

If one gets this diagnosis wrong, the job with 3 sensors and rings would make a major ABC job look cheap!
I’ll definitely let my experienced Indy help make the call on this one.
 
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Submariner1

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MOBILO TECH. IS PRETTY SURE HE HAS FOUND THE FAULT :):)

Mobilo came out this morning. Battery low again (finished a full 10 hour charge at 11.30 last night) .

He is pretty certain all my problems are in fact a bad ground from the ABR/ESP Controller .
FA46FA77-C7BA-4DF5-886C-5FF6AF2D1CE9.jpeg

Basicalły first star test showed 4 faulty wheel sensors, and the dash had all the messages!

The second STAR test, said one wheel was doing 278km per hour.
And then when he went to interrogate the controller, the controller went off line! No HW or SW or even an MB Number details etc. Just a big “!”
He noticed a green corrosion line on the harness spade ground ... and so went to clean it up.

And the nut would not undo! Rock solid - so it must be corroded quite badly.

We sprayed it with WD40 Specialist Penetrant Oil , he then tried some freeze stuff. Still No joy

He took the cautious route, and didnt apply serious force, as its a welded stud to the body. He said it was well and truly stuck.

He tested the spade to earth ... at one time it got 12.48V (the then voltage of the battery) then it dropped down to 0.07V.
I few more tests really pushing the probes showed serious resistance between the terminal spade and ground.

The more penetrant oil, the better it got, but still not enough to even see the Controller on the Network.

Cars being recovered tomorrow ... health and safety ... if I got it running he reckoned it could go totally offline at any moment.

His prognosis was :-
85% chance if they get the nut off, and clean it up ... all is sorted. :)
95% chance they get the nut off , clean it up and replace that bit of wiring and the pin into the plug. ( if the wire is corroded) ... all is sorted. :)
5% chance, clean up the earth undertake the mini harness repair, and the resistance may have damaged the Controller itself. Thats £674 plus vat MB remanufactured. :(:(

He also reckoned this could explain my spurious intermittant weak battery. I.e. it wakes up periodically and keeps trying to find the Controller. During that time it could be 5-6 Amp draw.

All seems logical, namely 4 wss sensors and or 4 reluctor rings don't fail intermittantly at the same time.
Likewise the undervoltage masks the true problem. Namely high voltage and it overcomes the bad connection, low voltage makes it worse and also throws up “red herring” undervoltage faults.

So maybe my initial suspicion about the Controller Plug needing de-corroding ( hence earlier post ) was not far off. I too didnt like the brown stain on the top of the earth wire and had sprayed it with normal WD40 .
At the time this obviously temporarily curred the problem for 15 starts.

Naturally till its fixed ... all the cards are on the table.

The downside is due to H&S he would have to advise me not to drive the car, in writing. And I am with MB Insurance so if it failed totally ... you get the picture.
So I have to low load it to my MainDealer.

So I wont be paying MBS’s very reasonable rates! :(

It will be OK if they accept all these Star Reports, and just sort the siezed nut and a clean up solves it.
Factoring in the pertol to Southampton (£60) if its an hours labour thats not too bad.


But the mobilo guy doubts if it needs more work, if they will clean the ESP controller plug, as technically contact cleaner strips off the protective anticorrosion stuff on the pins, leading to faster further corrosion. And MB have recently issued a warning not to do that! And of course its a brakes issue!
So if it moves onto replacing the Controller itself. Then the Labour part gets horrible!

Yes I do service it at the main dealer, but I always use an Indy for all repair stuff.
My view is at MBS and Welwyn you get a really top technician not a junior trainee and for half the cost. Plus I also trust them to repair it sensibly .. not just slap on new Control Modules till its solved!

Maybe I am wrong, but I suspect if a main dealer has two cars to work on .. and one a £160K, 3 month old S65 AMG S Class coupe and an 8 year old CL500 ... then their top guy will not be working on mine LOL :):)
 


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