BAS ESP Visit Workshop (W208)

Bybuys

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Hi All. Thought I would post summary of recent problem I had with the BAS ESP, how it has been resolved and recommendations for H E Lock, Merc Indy in Rushden, Northants.

Since owning 2001 CLK2300 Convertible (w208) I had overlooked a few issues didn’t appear to cause any long term problems. These were as follows;
1) BAS ESP amber light in bottom left of dash would illuminate about every couple of months or so and would go out and stay out once I had stopped and restarted.
2) Occasionally after starting, would reverse down drive and engine would ‘hunt’ or rev up and down a little on its own but would stop within about 10-15 yards.
3) Noticed recently that as speed increased above 55-60 mph the speedo would ‘click’ forward instead of smooth progression. Bit like the difference between a Rolex and a Sekonda!

You’ll understand later why I have outlined these but none of them alarmed me unduly although did visit this forum on several occasion to look them up, but did nothing.

Anyway, this all came to a head last week when BAS/ESP came on with an alert on instrument panel to visit workshop. I had no response on accelerator and engine revved between 800 and 2000 revs causing me to ‘kangaroo’ down road with little control. I stopped, switched off, removed key and restarted and it was absolutely fine and drove 5 miles home. Odd I thought!

Following day car started but same fault as above occurred immediately and for several further occasions until, after several stops, key removals and restarts it did again run perfectly. As seen on this forum I replaced the brake pedal switch but the same fault re-occurred a couple of days later and I decided to take to H A Lock in Rushden. It should be mentioned here that I had been before and had quite a lot of work and parts so had spent about £700 with them so they knew of my car. They put me on star and spent about 30 mins (with engine running perfectly) discussing the issues and the numerous stored codes and agreed to clear all and for me to bring back when the fault reoccurred. Young Mr Lock then went back into workshop and as I reversed away the car stalled (Its automatic!) and would not start so he came back out and needless to say it started immediately and I left. I got about 200yards down road and car felt like it had gone into limp home although misfiring so returned again and it was put back on STAR. It showed misfiring on all cylinders and some other info I didn’t get to see but car was chugging as if firing on 3 cylinders and engine rocking around. After poking and pondering and removing various connectors he removed the connector on the Throttle Actuator and the car immediately ran smoothly- replaced and removed connector again with the same result and advised the unit probable faulty and either needed replacing or he would reset it through STAR but this could ‘kill’ it altogether. Agreed to the reset and, at the moment of truth, it started perfectly with the wiring connected. I took the car away and it is now running as well as it has ever done in 7 years of ownership and, the speedo now moves like a Rolex.. It may be the faults will return if the acenuator (About £600) is on its last legs but has been perfect since so am regaining confidence that it won’t let me down.

As of H E Lock; how much did they charge for their time (about 75 minutes) and the STAR etc. Absolutely nothing!! Now that’s a deal. There are several postings about Locks on this website but I cannot praise them highly enough. Yes they eccentric; they have hundred of all sorts of old Mercs scattered around their two yards and workshops and ‘Health and Safety in the Workplace’ doesn’t seem to feature! They do not take kindly to anyone wanting to mooch around their old cars (even if you can talk the talk) or who want to buy bits off them; that said, if they are doing work for you and your vehicle needs a difficult to obtain part that they can salvage from one of their vehicles then they will do so to get you sorted. They are about £35 and hour for labour, do a great job but don’t expect a sparkly showroom and free coffee because it ain’t gonna happen!

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully will be of use to someone in the future.
 

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