mb240
Active Member
The car is a 98 E240. It uses the SmartKey thing with infra-red and radio and is a black fob with a sliding emergency key on the side.
Last week, the car failed to start, quite suddenly as 5 minutes earlier I parked it. All it did was turn over for around ten seconds and then the electronic fuel pump thing obviously cut in and it just stopped. A few hours later it started up fine and I was ookay until Tuesday.
On Tuesday it failed to start again, this time never recovering and I had to get it towed (well, not really, just hoisted onto the truck). Same as before: press the unlock button, central locking opens, sit in car, key in ignition and kerchunk as the wheel disengages. Position 1 fine, Position 2 all the lights SRS, ABS and so on as usual come on and can hear pump. Position 3 for ignition, just cranks for 10 seconds and stops. It sounds like any non-auto if you just hold the ignition too long. No abnormal sounds or weird noises, just like it never "catches" and then gives up.
So I was busy and took the bus and left it locked in the carpark. Now, over recent weeks I have ended up standing almost a foot or 2 from the drivers door and can only open it from there. No longer can I zap it from 30 feet away. Yesterday, before the tow truck came, I went to open it up to get some papers and the key didn't do anything at all, not even open the car - I had to use the emergency metal key to get in. No red light flashed on the fob at all with any press or the battery test so it was obviously dead.
I replaced the batteries (The CR2505 ones), could get in and out, but the starting problem remains,
My question is: could this be an immboliser thing? Or something wrong with the RF receiver on the roof control panel? Or is that just coincidental to a starter motor problem?
I have a vague recollection of the RF and IR portions activating and deactivating different features like the IR does CL and fuel cap, etc., but RF is needed for immboliser, but I can't remember where. The car is *very* well serviced and the only recent change is that I only drive around 4 miles per day over the past month and that is in 5mph start-stop traffic.
Any ideas of such a problem and likely causes?
Last week, the car failed to start, quite suddenly as 5 minutes earlier I parked it. All it did was turn over for around ten seconds and then the electronic fuel pump thing obviously cut in and it just stopped. A few hours later it started up fine and I was ookay until Tuesday.
On Tuesday it failed to start again, this time never recovering and I had to get it towed (well, not really, just hoisted onto the truck). Same as before: press the unlock button, central locking opens, sit in car, key in ignition and kerchunk as the wheel disengages. Position 1 fine, Position 2 all the lights SRS, ABS and so on as usual come on and can hear pump. Position 3 for ignition, just cranks for 10 seconds and stops. It sounds like any non-auto if you just hold the ignition too long. No abnormal sounds or weird noises, just like it never "catches" and then gives up.
So I was busy and took the bus and left it locked in the carpark. Now, over recent weeks I have ended up standing almost a foot or 2 from the drivers door and can only open it from there. No longer can I zap it from 30 feet away. Yesterday, before the tow truck came, I went to open it up to get some papers and the key didn't do anything at all, not even open the car - I had to use the emergency metal key to get in. No red light flashed on the fob at all with any press or the battery test so it was obviously dead.
I replaced the batteries (The CR2505 ones), could get in and out, but the starting problem remains,
My question is: could this be an immboliser thing? Or something wrong with the RF receiver on the roof control panel? Or is that just coincidental to a starter motor problem?
I have a vague recollection of the RF and IR portions activating and deactivating different features like the IR does CL and fuel cap, etc., but RF is needed for immboliser, but I can't remember where. The car is *very* well serviced and the only recent change is that I only drive around 4 miles per day over the past month and that is in 5mph start-stop traffic.
Any ideas of such a problem and likely causes?
