ESP inoperative and car on Limp mode (W211)

[Amo]

Hello all,

Yesterday Morning I started the car and it came up with above warning "ESP inoperative, see owners Manual" and car was in Limp mode, I drove it straight back to my drive and parked up. Restarted card 30 minutes later etc to see if it goes away to no joy. After about 4th restart of car, it came up with engine Management light.

I then spoke to Terry at Wayne gates who agreed to take a look. I drove the car as it was because terry is only 4 miles from mine and its stop start traffic anyway. When i was halfway I stopped to just give car a breather from running at 2k rpm and when started the issue went away and all was working fine again.

Drove to Terry anyway and put it on STAR and couldnt see no current faults and only 2 in stored events about Canbus issue. We then checked battery if it could just be battery and found nothing wrong.

But this issue has reoccured this morning and after about a mile and half i restarted car and it went away again.

Can anyone suggest anything I can check as its not storing any faults and it does go away after driving the car for 10 minutes or so.

Many Thanks
Amo

 

[peterbrod]

I had the same issue in my 2007 e220 cdi. It happened a few times and the dealer had no record of it when they plugged the car in. They said it was a faulty speed sensor and they were replacing the part.... but then they said the software was due an update in the car.
They updated the software and i have had no issues in the last year and a half.
Sounds to good to be true but it worked

 

[wongl]

Can anyone suggest anything I can check as its not storing any faults and it does go away after driving the car for 10 minutes or so.

Amo

Next time the fault appears, drive straight to a Star diagnostic machine without stopping or restarting the car. Make sure the Star diagnostic is put on the car without the ignition being switched off completely so that any fault codes could be read straight off.

 

[Lord-WYBMAnE220]

I'm assuming it's auto (could update your sig.)
Get the codes read and post them up.
(You can get perfectly good £10 code-readers on Flebay)
Sometimes a worn rack can throw up an ESP inoperative dash message, if it's with a steering module failure code.
With the engine off, turn the wheel from side to side and listen/feel for a knock from the rack where the shaft enters. It's reduced with the engine running.
Does the steering wander ?

 

[Amo]

I'm assuming it's auto (could update your sig.)
Get the codes read and post them up.
(You can get perfectly good £10 code-readers on Flebay)
Sometimes a worn rack can throw up an ESP inoperative dash message, if it's with a steering module failure code.
With the engine off, turn the wheel from side to side and listen/feel for a knock from the rack where the shaft enters. It's reduced with the engine running.
Does the steering wander ?

HI,

Yes its an auto.

Had this checked by Terry at Wayne Gates and found no current errors (at the time), it only showed 2 stored faults to do with lack of response from certain modules.

Fault has since changed. It was originally only occurring at restart after standing still for long hours, I recharged battery overnight and fault disappeared for a week or so (or atleast i thought it did) until i had to drive for over an hour of stop start traffic. This time it showed up when I was driving the car and couldn't clear with simple restart. I then came home parked up and restarted some 30 minutes later and no issues at all. This has come up few times since but only if i am driving longer than 45mins or so.

Battery voltage is ok as in service mode it reads 12.1 and at cranking it only drops to 10.9 which i believe is acceptable.

What am i listening to in steering column?

 

[Lord-WYBMAnE220]

What am i listening to in steering column?

In the rack ... a knock on turning the wheel to and fro.

 

[Amo]

Will do later today. Thanks for that..

Gearbox also doesnt seem very smooth, could this be linked too? As i heard Electro plates can also cause this and so does speed sensors.

I have recently put bigger wheels on with longer bolts which i thought may have triggered the sensors to error as they are behind the discs.

 

[Lord-WYBMAnE220]

If your rear wheels have increased in diameter, you'll get an ESP inop. message.
A lot of people don't understand that tyre aspect ratio is just that - a ratio - a percentage of tread width, not a dimension/measurement in cm/mm.
Google 'tyre size calculator' and if your new tyres are different by more than a few percent, you may have found the issue.
Put your old wheels back on to see if it resolves the issue.

 

[Amo]

my standard wheels were 18inch with 265 35 profile and new ones are 19inch with 235 35 so its not significant change.

 

[Benzowner]

It could be the brake pedal sensor on the way out, I had similar in my W245, everything was ok when I started the car and drove off, but after using the brakes a couple of times ESP and engine management light came on.

 

[Amo]

ok so i have tried turning the wheel and cannot hear anything loud but there is some noise (not sure if it should be present or not) but when engine off there is some play in the wheel however its very hard to turn it anyway.

 

[Lord-WYBMAnE220]

ok so i have tried turning the wheel and cannot hear anything loud but there is some noise (not sure if it should be present or not) but when engine off there is some play in the wheel however its very hard to turn it anyway.

Sounds fine.

 

[jghazanfar]

I w204 c220 cdi 57 plate diesel auto, yesterday on motorway , esp inoperative message came up - orange triangle came on and car slowed down, the car wouldnt rev above 2000. I had it towed to a Merc Specialist, they replaced 4th injector. Today i picked the car up from the garage and on the way home same problems as yesterday. The garage now says

 

[jghazanfar]

ESP inoperative, limp mode could it be the ECM ?

I w204 c220 cdi 57 plate diesel auto, yesterday on motorway , esp inoperative message came up - orange triangle came on and car slowed down, the car wouldnt rev above 2000. I had it towed to a Merc Specialist, they replaced 4th injector. Today i picked the car up from the garage and on the way home same problems as yesterday. The garage now says