Car Cutting out at speed E240 Avante G W210 2001

[simon@hypertec]

Intermittent but awkward problem. Engine stops dead and will not restart even when travelling at motorway speeds. Temp guage goes dead and shows no temp, engine radiator fan comes on. Display shows "ESP Program fault visit workshop"

Starter does not actuate - all dead but temp shows nothing and fan spins. Switching on an off does not guarantee restart. Sometime 20 mins. Sometimes 30 secs. If temp guage shows temp when ignition turned on, then engine will start. Disconnecting battery and reconnecting after 20 sec allows restart.

Errors do not show after restart in the error log.

Any ideas - this is a good car apart from this. Crank angle sensor replaced. Problems have occurred since HT leads replaced and exhaust downpipe removed - is there anything that could have been disturbed?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks Simon

 

[jberks]

Never heard of this before but..
I doubt the leads would do it, but perhaps if there was a trapped or damaged wire, maybe during the exhaust work, this could intemittently short and give the symptoms you see. Given even simple car electrics, let alone the complexity of yours, any number of random issues could occur. I would check the condition of the wiring all around the engine bay, (especially from underneath) and look for anything trapped or damaged.
Also, if it resets immediatly after you dis the battery, it may point to a dodgy relay somewhere.
What does your dealer/specialist think?

 

[simon@hypertec]

Thanks for coming back to me. My service chap thought it was caused by the crank angle sensor - which did indeed reduce the number of incidents dramatically. I favour your idea of damage caused when work was being done. The symptoms may be caused by noise spikes on the CAN network. I keep trying to look for patterns to it all and the symptoms did start after the leads and exhaust work - as strange as it sounds. My service chap - who is very good and technically a cut above - thinks it may be related to the relay sets - I think that this is his next port of call. He has Bosch diag kit but this is not helping. I'll let you know what happens next!

 

[kit820]

I had a similar problem on my C200 Komp COUPE, though the engine would start again as soon as I turned the key after the cut out. Initially the dealer changed a whole lot of things but the problem persisted, eventually, it turned out to be a faulty temperature sensor leading to the engine management thinking that it was being overheated, thus the cut out. Problem solved.

Mind you, it could well be a whole lot of things, like one of the previous thread said.

yours

kit