Hi all, this is my first ever post.
I have joined the forum, because I visited here when I was having problems with my ML350, and read some good stuff on lots of topics, so I thought I owed the group a feed-back now I have solved the problem. I now want to alert everybody to a potentially dangerous situation, caused by a very basic...perhaps really silly thing ?
My ML350 (05 plate) had been cutting out a lot recently, often when I went over a speed bump, or when I went around a right-hand bend a bit quickly.
I eventually called the Mercedes breakdown service as I thought it needed fixing sooner rather than later, and I was worried that I might lose control and hit a pedestrian, or crash into another vehicle. Reason being that as the engine cut out I lost steering and servo-brakes as well as all lights etc.
Anyway, the chap diagnosed the car and said it needed to go in to the service centre for investigation, as he couldn't read anything on the computer screen that would have caused the cut-out to happen.
Of course Murphy's law was in force, and when the service centre had the car it didn't cut-out ! I was not happy, because I still thought I had a dangerous situation.
A couple of days later, it happened again and I called them about it. They agreed to come to my house with the diagnostic unit, and they agreed that we could drive around and hope to read something on the screen when the car cut-out again.
Anyway, today the chap came and sure enough the car cut-out 3 times. (Murphy's Law wasn't in force for that time).
The diagnostic said 'Ignition turned off' and nothing else.
Anyway, to get to the point, it turned out to be my VERY HEAVY KEY RING !!
I had always carried a lot of keys on my key-ring, and the weight of this produced a lever action on my ignition key and actually switched off the engine.
For those of you who are familiar with the key ring, it is one of those that have a button to fold-up the key into the plastic housing.
What had happened is that the engine would not cut out when I put the key in the ignition 'against the fold' that is if the key was folded it would fold upwards. However, if put in the other way, the weight of the key ring would cause the key in the ignition to fold downwards, then the weight of the keys would act as a lever action and turn the key when I went over a bump, or around a right hand corner too fast.
This explained why the service centre couldn't find a fault. This was because, I had given them JUST the car key, and took the rest of my keys home. Hence no weight, hence no cut-out !
Anyway, needless to say, I have got rid of most of my other keys off my key-ring, and I hope everything is okay now.
On a technical note, my son's car a VW Golf (53 plate) has a similar key fob, except his does not fold unless you press the button. It is very strong, whearas, my key ring for the ML350 folds even if you don't press the button.
If Mercedes, re-designed the key-ring so it doesn't fold without pressing the button, this situation wouldn't occur.
I feel there is still a risk for all Mercedes drivers using this type of key ring, if they have a lot of weight on their key-rings, so hopefully, this article can be of use, and may even save an accident from happening ?
Thanks for reading my post !
Rgds
Gullwing.
I have joined the forum, because I visited here when I was having problems with my ML350, and read some good stuff on lots of topics, so I thought I owed the group a feed-back now I have solved the problem. I now want to alert everybody to a potentially dangerous situation, caused by a very basic...perhaps really silly thing ?
My ML350 (05 plate) had been cutting out a lot recently, often when I went over a speed bump, or when I went around a right-hand bend a bit quickly.
I eventually called the Mercedes breakdown service as I thought it needed fixing sooner rather than later, and I was worried that I might lose control and hit a pedestrian, or crash into another vehicle. Reason being that as the engine cut out I lost steering and servo-brakes as well as all lights etc.
Anyway, the chap diagnosed the car and said it needed to go in to the service centre for investigation, as he couldn't read anything on the computer screen that would have caused the cut-out to happen.
Of course Murphy's law was in force, and when the service centre had the car it didn't cut-out ! I was not happy, because I still thought I had a dangerous situation.
A couple of days later, it happened again and I called them about it. They agreed to come to my house with the diagnostic unit, and they agreed that we could drive around and hope to read something on the screen when the car cut-out again.
Anyway, today the chap came and sure enough the car cut-out 3 times. (Murphy's Law wasn't in force for that time).
The diagnostic said 'Ignition turned off' and nothing else.
Anyway, to get to the point, it turned out to be my VERY HEAVY KEY RING !!
I had always carried a lot of keys on my key-ring, and the weight of this produced a lever action on my ignition key and actually switched off the engine.
For those of you who are familiar with the key ring, it is one of those that have a button to fold-up the key into the plastic housing.
What had happened is that the engine would not cut out when I put the key in the ignition 'against the fold' that is if the key was folded it would fold upwards. However, if put in the other way, the weight of the key ring would cause the key in the ignition to fold downwards, then the weight of the keys would act as a lever action and turn the key when I went over a bump, or around a right hand corner too fast.
This explained why the service centre couldn't find a fault. This was because, I had given them JUST the car key, and took the rest of my keys home. Hence no weight, hence no cut-out !
Anyway, needless to say, I have got rid of most of my other keys off my key-ring, and I hope everything is okay now.
On a technical note, my son's car a VW Golf (53 plate) has a similar key fob, except his does not fold unless you press the button. It is very strong, whearas, my key ring for the ML350 folds even if you don't press the button.
If Mercedes, re-designed the key-ring so it doesn't fold without pressing the button, this situation wouldn't occur.
I feel there is still a risk for all Mercedes drivers using this type of key ring, if they have a lot of weight on their key-rings, so hopefully, this article can be of use, and may even save an accident from happening ?
Thanks for reading my post !
Rgds
Gullwing.
