Mileage going up on it's own! W221 S Class

[Sam87]

Hello everyone

Me again!

As some of you know I have been restoring a Mercedes s class w221 S600 for the last few months.

I have asked a few times questions regarding this car.

Now I have a new problem.
The abs/esp light has been coming on most times when i first start the car up. It goes off as soon as I pull away.
Sometimes the lights come on and the power steering doesn't work. I turn it off and on again the power steering works but abs/esp light goes off as soon as I pull away

I read on another forum that someone had a problem with the wheel speed sensor and most of the time it's the osr that goes faulty.

The other day the car looked itself with the key inside and engine running.

Now this is where things got interesting, as I was waiting for my father to bring me the spare key I noticed the car symbol in the sat navs was moving, as if the car was driving! I thought that explains why the doors locked because it thought the car was moving. While it was doing this the abs/esp lights were on abs/esp inoperative and parking brake warning light on.

I decided I was going to change all four wheel speed sensors. I changed the front ones today and cleared all the faults and took it for a quick drive. It all seemed good. I plugged the car into the computer again to see if there were any new faults stored and this is when the abs/esp light came on again and this symbol ( ! ) was flashing. On top of all this the car clocked up 400 miles in few mins as it was plugged into the computer but the car wasnt moving or engine running, just ignition was on! The car symbol in the sat navs was moving again as if I was driving the car.

I will change the rear wheel speed sensors as I'm waiting for them to arrive but in the mean time, has anyone come across this problem before?
It's driving me crazy and I've thrown thousands and thousands of £ to this car this last few months.

Can I get someone to clock back the mileage to what it was, I know it's only 400 miles but its 400 miles I didn't drive.
Main battery in the boot was completely flat today too and I used the car Friday last time so it hasn't been parked for long. When I went away for 2 weeks, it started straight away but now I left it for 2 days only and battery was completely flat

 

[bob6600]

Has to be the speed/abs sensor/fault. It seems like it's sending a false signal telling the ECU the car is moving and hence the miles going up.

 

[Sam87]

I hope its one of the rear ones, as the front ones didn't make any difference. I read that they all go at some point and it's not just the s class that has problems with the wheel speed sensors. Instead of replacing them one by one I just thought I'd change all four. I hope the rear sensors will solve the problem. If anyone has any other idea what could cause all this warning lights and battery to go flat please let me know

Another thing, the rear camera doesn't work, hasn't worked since I bought the car and it was the only thing that I couldn't clear with the computer. Could this drain the battery?
This were the fault codes

8510 - reverse camera cabling error
8520 - reversing camera component not calibrated
8521 - steering angle sensor component not calibrated

 

[MWCLS]

Hi Sam, bizarre one that, I have never heard of a car adding miles stationary. I hope you get it sorted and the miles put back especially after spending alot of time effort skill and money on it

 

[Dodipops]

I seem to recall some cluster issues with these where they would add miles. Then it will probably start blacking out and then gone.

 

[bob6600]

If you can/have access to STAR, check the mileage in the ECU. There has been a member who found a can blocker on his S65 W221. Hopefully not the case

 

[clk320x]

If you can/have access to STAR, check the mileage in the ECU. There has been a member who found a can blocker on his S65 W221. Hopefully not the case

What’s that bob?

 

[Sam87]

Thank you for the suggestions guys.

I don't think it would have a mileage blocker as the man that had it didn't seem like the type of guy that would do such a thing and was well off but then again you never know. The car has been at the same dealership it was bought from all its life until I got it and its has full service from mb and every mot was done there too

I was reading regarding the instrument cluster going faulty on this cars and i noticed when I first turn on the ignition the cluster is a bit dimmer and then its bright after 3 seconds. I don't know if they are meant to be like that or if I'm paranoid now or if the cluster is going faulty

 

[bob6600]

What’s that bob?

Can-bus blocker. The mileage was changed and was incorrect in the ECUs (999999 I think) but the blocker prevented it showing the correct mileage on the cluster, only the altered one (20-30k less).There is a thread on t'other side.

@Sam87 could just be a faulty cluster but as said never heard of one. Has there been any water ingress?

 

[Sam87]

No, nothing like that. I did clean the interior thoroughly but the abs/esp have been coming on from when I got the car and it would go off as soon as I pulled away. It just got worse now and on top of all this the oil cooler pipe decided to split, there's a small hole and its leaking oil. I ordered the part but it has to come from Germany. I can't test drive the car until I get this sorted. Its annoying because I done 2 oil changes in a week to flash the engine ( i know I'm a bit ott) using non genuine parts and one day before the oil cooler pipe started to leak I changed the engine oil ( 3rd time ) using genuine parts and Mobil 1 oil.
Maybe I'm not meant to own a Mercedes because even my CL500 gave me headache

 

[mersum1es]

If you check EIS and instrument cluster mileage, you may see few hundred km difference, because they are synced in different intervals. Now when clearly some voltage problems, or speed sensor problems together, may cluster been incapable of recording correct mileage. When you plugged computer, EIS updated mileage. Just speculation...

 

[Sam87]

I just saw this video on YouTube. Same issues as my s class and mileage is going up and the car is stationary. The mileage on mine was going up faster as the speedo was showing 160mph

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[Sam87]

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to give a little update.
From doing some more research online the offside rear wheel speed sensor always goes faulty in this cars and other Mercedes too. I read online and watched a few videos of people having the same issues and mileage going up on it's own with the car being stationary, just like the video above due to faulty wheel speed sensor.

I bought 4 genuine Mercedes sensors and thought it's best to change all four as if I changed one the other 3 would go eventually too.

So far the lights have been off but I haven't driven the car much , just a quick short drive as one of the oil cooler pipes has a small hole and car started to leak oil so I patched it up just for a test drive and the lights stayed off but then again I'll find out when I go for a proper drive. Seeing how things have gone for me lately I wouldn't be surprised if they come on again.

As for the oil cooler, I hope no one has this issue as I found out it's quite expensive and you can't change one pipe. Mercedes had to order the pipe from Germany, £300 later and a week to get it, it finally arrived but unfortunately because the oil cooler is aluminium the threads came off with the oil cooler pipe so I had to order an oil cooler too, that was another £400+ and it arrived yesterday but I prepared myself that that other good pipe wouldn't come off easy and of course I was right! The threads got damaged on that too and got stuck inside the good oil cooler pipe. Had to go to Mercedes for the third time and order that too which was nearly £250 plus 10 liters of Mobil 1 oil ( forth oil change in 3 weeks!) Talk about flashing the engine!. I have to wait a week for the pipe to arrive and then have lots of fun trying to replace them. Looking at it, I think they are harder then the engine mounts were to change.

I knew it wasn't going to be cheap as no V12 car is cheap to run and I'm not complaining but £1k for 2 pipes and a small oil cooler is a bit much. Has to be done though and for anyone thinking of getting an S600 keep it in mind that nothing is cheap for this cars but when it's running right the performance more than then makes up for it just don't look at the mpg. For the last 700 - 800 miles I'm averaging 10.4mpg

 

[merc85]

Re Oil cooler been there and done all that lol, Great design Steel connectors on aluminium.

 

[Sam87]

Re Oil cooler been there and done all that lol, Great design Steel connectors on aluminium.

Tell me about it! What a stupid design!
I haven't tried to take the pipes out yet, just undone the bolts but it looks very tight under there. I'm a bit concerned if I'll have to take a lot of things off just to get them out

 

[Edwardbrabuss]

Hi mate so in the end was it the speed sensors? As am having the exact same problem with the mileage going up while stationary however my abs/esp dont go off when i try to drive, its stuck

 

[Sam87]

Hi mate so in the end was it the speed sensors? As am having the exact same problem with the mileage going up while stationary however my abs/esp dont go off when i try to drive, its stuck

Hello mate
Yes it was the wheel speed sensor that was faulty. I've read that it's always the offside rear that goes faulty and when I plugged it in it had 15 faults on the abs/esp system because of the sensor so I just went and ordered 4 genuine Mercedes ones and changed them all at the same time. If I remember right, they are just over £90 each from Mercedes.
Last day before the car broke down ( oil cooler ) even the abs/esp were playing up more than any other times. The lights would go out as I drove off but the car wasn't stopping properly, the brake pedal was juddering when I braked, the same judder you get when abs kicks in and after driving the car for 20 mins or so the abs light came on and brake pedal was normal again but with the light on it just meant the abs said, ok there's a problem somewhere and I can't deal with it so I'll just turn off .

I hope it's just a sensor for you as well. I think it will be just that especially if the mileage is going up on it's own.

Let me know how you get on and if you need any help or advise for anything don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Edwardbrabuss]

Did all your speed sensors come up? As on the diagnostic tool, all four come up for me? And did your car ever go into limp mode? Mine goes into limp mode sometimes i have to turn the car off for about 5-10mins and then works again normally so im a bit confused

 

[Sam87]

Did all your speed sensors come up? As on the diagnostic tool, all four come up for me? And did your car ever go into limp mode? Mine goes into limp mode sometimes i have to turn the car off for about 5-10mins and then works again normally so im a bit confused

Yeah all 4 speed sensors came up faulty and my car would go into limp mode too. If I would leave it running in park it would then start to idle lumpy or idle just over 1000rpm and if I tried to rev the car it wouldn't rev and wouldn't go in gear. I'd have to turn the engine off and on again to get the car to go into gear. Sometimes it would go to gear but wouldn't rev, wouldn't move. The whole car goes crazy for one little sensor!

 

[Edwardbrabuss]

Im definitely going to start changing them tomorrow. Can i buy the abs sensors on ebay? Or should i go mercedes? As im a bit short on money due to putting so much into this car