ASR light

[aocasio]

Can anyone help me? I have a 96' E320 and while driving today my ASR light came on and my car suddenly slowed down. It was as if I was unable to accelerate or drive. I turned the vehicle off and restarted it and it was fine enough for me to make it home.

Now everytime I go to start my vehicle and drive, the ASR light comes on and it slows down.

Can anyone offer any solutions?

Oh, there also is an ASR button that I tried hitting "off" on and it didn't work

 

[jberks]

The slowing down is your ECU putting the car into get you home mode. The ASR wouldn't do this if it detected a fault, so I suspect its the fault that is causing both the ASR and ECU to shut down. One thought is the throttle actuator or position sensor as they are both used in the ASR but an interrogation of the fault codes will tell for sure. Theoretically, a weak battery could cause all sorts of problems but you really need the fault code.

 

[aocasio]

Well I just wanted to thank you for your input. I had my car sitting all day and actually hit the ASR OFF button and drove around like that and after driving around, the car has not stopped or had a problem. This is not to say that it won't start happening all over again in a few days but if so, I will keep your message in mind.

 

[aocasio]

Hello again. Well I thought that my problems were all set but I guess not. I drove my car once again this evening and the car slowed. I even hit the ASR off button and it did not work.

The code that comes up on my dash is ASR very big in the center and then in the left hand corner it says: acc.skid control.

It seems as if this problem happens more frequently at night. Is there anyway that a the evening dimness has something to do with it? I know that it sounds crazy to ask but it's just because it has only happened already twice at night and it was fine this morning.

I would appreciate any feed back available

 

[aocasio]

jberks

Hello again Jberks. Well I thought that my problems were all set but I guess not. I drove my car once again this evening and the car slowed. I even hit the ASR off button and it did not work.

The code that comes up on my dash is ASR very big in the center and then in the left hand corner it says: acc.skid control.

It seems as if this problem happens more frequently at night. Is there anyway that a the evening dimness has something to do with it? I know that it sounds crazy to ask but it's just because it has only happened already twice at night and it was fine this morning.

I would appreciate any feed back available

 

[jberks]

Off the top of my head, I as above, I would suspect something around the throttle position actuator, though if I remember right, the ASR was the predecessor to the ESP and it didn't have a throttle retard capability, just brakes so I could be off beam. I'm afraid it could be one of many things. You could drive yourself mad checking and replacing things, or you can pop into your friendly local Merc specialist and have them pull the fault code off the ECU. Then armed with the knowledge of what is up, you can make a more informed decision.

Lots of people come on to these forums and get lots of advice and start spending time and money checking and changing components only to waste a lot of both and still have the fault. With some faults, they are common and easily diagnosed - brake light switches and duo valves for example. In the case of yours, all we know is that the computer has detected 'a fault' - so we rerally need the fault code so we know what it's thinking.

I do wonder though, you say it happens more at night. If you have a weak battery/alternator issue, then perhaps the fact that at night you have the extra load of the lights, this is dropping the current to the point that errors start to crop up. May be worth getting the charging system checked, cheap and easy fix if its below par. Alternatively try driving round with the heated rear window, lights, fan etc on and see if this causes it to become more common.