RE: Several malfunction warnings all at once

[AndrewCS]

Greetings,

Yesterday morning was not a good motoring day. I started up my (2005 W169 180 Cdi Auto) and it sounded a bit of a struggle at the first turn. It has been parked up for a couple of days, it’s been really cold and lots of flooding, wet roads. I live out in the country.

I reversed about 5 meters to turn out the parking and stopped to go forward. On selecting the D position the dash lit up like a Christmas tree. First was - Transmission visit workshop error, with three other errors – ABS faulty visit workshop, ESP faulty visit workshop and BAS faulty visit workshop.

So the car was immobile but with engine running and revving okay. I let the car heat up for a few minutes and switched off the ignition, left it for a few minutes and restarted (started fine) and now only three malfunctions came up (no Transmission visit workshop error) and was able to drive round to park just outside my house, left it running and about 5 minutes later switched off, re-started and the Transmission visit workshop error came back and couldn’t select gear. Switched off and after a few minutes re-started again and back to only three malfunctions came up (no Transmission visit workshop error). So with a deep breath I took off on a 35 mile journey and the car was okay (in terms of transmission). Drove back again in the afternoon – no problems (in terms of transmission) and still with the three other malfunctions.

Car is booked in tomorrow for diagnostics.

I am seriously hoping that it is nothing serious.

Any input appreciated and TIA for the same

Andy

 

[EmilysDad]

Battery on its last legs perhaps? It does seem that a lot of cars these days are very sensitive to low voltage batteries ....

 

[AndrewCS]

Battery on its last legs perhaps? It does seem that a lot of cars these days are very sensitive to low voltage batteries ....

That makes sense - I'm going to head into town later to have the battery tested. It did feel a bit sluggish as it started first thing yesterday but was fine in the afternoon (excepting the 3 other warnings).

Cheers

 

[McDonald]

Wouldn't it be great if the dash lit up with the message, 'Low voltage, check battery.' Instead we get a catastrophe indicator suggesting everything is faulty.

 

[AndrewCS]

Wouldn't it be great if the dash lit up with the message, 'Low voltage, check battery.' Instead we get a catastrophe indicator suggesting everything is faulty.

You're singing my song ! I'm not ruling out some sensor or something the likes just yet

 

[peterws1957]

Battery on its last legs perhaps? It does seem that a lot of cars these days are very sensitive to low voltage batteries ....

Probably this, but could be faulty alternator as well. They don't make batteries like they used to , blah blah , whining OG chunters on....

 

[rifiki]

Similar with my CLK. Always started, instruments, lights etc not working. New battery solved the problem.

 

[ZZZZ]

Have a look at Forrera page and check his YouTube videos - he knows everything there's to know about W168 / W169 / W245.

Also on Forrera's advice, with regards to CVT - I never shift the transmission into gear, until the revs drop below 1000rpm - usually takes a minute, two max when it's really cold.

 

[Taffy7hfa]

Had a similar thing happen with the ML, seems that batteries now can have enough power to start the engine but not necessarily enough to power all the other gubbins, anyway fitted a new battery and normal service was resumed.

 

[AndrewCS]

Update:

Took my car to my Indi garage yesterday and he hooked up the diagnostics. First time there were a lot of codes stored so he wiped them.

Second run it came back with front driver’s side ABS sensor. The agents wanted £70 for the sensor but garage managed to order 1 for third of the price so waiting for it to arrive to fit.

What do you think? Could the ABS sensor cause these other malfunctions / codes?

 

[mioba]

yes. because your abs sensor is also your speed sensor- go figure

 

[AndrewCS]

yes. because your abs sensor is also your speed sensor- go figure

ah - speed sensor also, interesting

Thanks

 

[Wighty]

Update:

Took my car to my Indi garage yesterday and he hooked up the diagnostics. First time there were a lot of codes stored so he wiped them.

Second run it came back with front driver’s side ABS sensor. The agents wanted £70 for the sensor but garage managed to order 1 for third of the price so waiting for it to arrive to fit.

What do you think? Could the ABS sensor cause these other malfunctions / codes?

What did he say about the battery ?

 

[AndrewCS]

What did he say about the battery ?

Crap - forgot to ask about that

 

[Wighty]

Crap - forgot to ask about that

It was just in case the battery was causing a lot of spurious codes

 

[AndrewCS]

Update:

I had the battery tested this afternoon and the reading was that it is at 100 %

 

[AndrewCS]

Update:

My car went into the garage today to install the ABS / speed sensor on driver side / front.

I am happy to say that after installation and wiping the error codes that there are now no malfunction codes showing.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[Wighty]

Update:

My car went into the garage today to install the ABS / speed sensor on driver side / front.

I am happy to say that after installation and wiping the error codes that there are now no malfunction codes showing.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Back in the game buddy

 

[Botus]

Battery on its last legs perhaps? It does seem that a lot of cars these days are very sensitive to low voltage batteries ....

they were always sensitive, its just in the good old days if it started and the alternator light noticed it was going round, there was little record of the event.....

now a few nasty / basic computers have a temper tantrum and want to advertise the fact they are having a bad hair day... even storing a load of meaningless mumbo jumbo the garage can use to put the frighteners on and the service costs up

 

[rorywquin]

@AndrewCS

I'm also getting weird happenings when I use Waze on Apple Carplay. It seems to disable "lane departure assist" and warnings if I want to change lanes and there is a car in the way, and one or two other things. Will be doing further investigation tomorrow