SBC Hold unavailable

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JustIgnore

Active Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2015
Messages
65
Location
Frankfurt, Germany
Car
E55k
Hi.

A lot of topics on this matter, but none that could give me a definitive answer.

Basically I picked up an E55k yesterday, and whenever I would like to use the SBC Hold feature, it comes with the SBC Hold unavailable.

From what I found, it may be a switch at the gear lever, that is not giving the correct signal of its position?
What would be the cost in repairing it if someone has had the some problem here?

However, is there also a possibility that this error comes up when the break switch is not working properly?
Hopes are not high tough, as I know when the brake switch is faulty, it will disable the ESP and Cruise Control as well.

Also, the SBC tends to vibrate and sound noisy for a couple of seconds at lower speeds. I read that it is normal and a damper should fix this, but if I leave it as it is, there won't be any harm, will it?

Thanks for any help.
 
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Some Sbc pumps or louder than others, some go off more than others too.

Is that the only error? do you get "convenience features unavailable" ? As that could be the Aux Battery and or Main Battery.

Yes a friend of mine had SBC Hold unavailable and it was the Gear lever mechanism, He bought a 2nd hand one from a breakers and it cured his problem.
 
sbc hold was also written out of many cars following a merc benz software update .
 
sbc hold was also written out of many cars following a merc benz software update .

It was and is on my 2002 e55k, Doesn't even give you a Option, My 2003 car did and worked however.
 
Mine works & is a 2003.
 
its never worked on my 2004 e class , its had a new sbc pump , so god knows whats gone on in the past with mine ?? i find pressing the brake and put car in neutral just as easy . some ideas are just overkill like sbc detecting rain and pushing the pads onto the discs to keep them dry :dk:
 
hold should be available in european models (in US it was disabled :doh:), stop function was removed in updates.
 
its never worked on my 2004 e class , its had a new sbc pump , so god knows whats gone on in the past with mine ?? i find pressing the brake and put car in neutral just as easy . some ideas are just overkill like sbc detecting rain and pushing the pads onto the discs to keep them dry :dk:

In traffic laden ,car Hating Bristol it is a godsend. What I do find is that you must come to a complete halt, then press the B/pedal a quite firmly for it to apply, very useful indeed.
 
I used to have it on my 57 320cdi, my mate has it on his 03 320cdi as well. It's something I don't really want to miss.

May have to go to my indy and get it connected to a computer..
 
I got the same fault, it should be the gear selector module N15/5.

My stops working after every MOT but usually works again after a few days, however, this year it has completely stopped working after it's MOT. STAR points to the N15/5.

I think it's £300-£400 for the part, so I am living without it for the time being.
 
Also check the brake lamp stop switch above the pedal.
 
I've owned a dozen W211s and, for some reason, two of them that had SBC would come up with the same message, I always just assumed there was a disable option in STAR.
 
It's been a while, but finally I came around in fixing my SBC Hold.

I used to get the message "SBC H unavailable. See Workshop or User Manual".

A lot of sources told me to grab a new part, but didn't want to spend that much just to have that feature, until I found a german board, where the same problem is described and a solution that has worked for many.
The gear leaver has a lightsensor, that tells the SBC unit which gear the car is in, as SBC H only works in D, P and R.
Over the years, dust and debris gets inside the unit and the gold contacts get dirty and the signal cannot be transmitted. Just clean them and SBC H will work again.

The job is pretty straightforward, took me about 2 hrs in removing the gearbox, middle panel and assembling everything back together.

Attached is a german guide, but let the pictures do the talking.
I will upload an English pdf later..
 

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It's been a while, but finally I came around in fixing my SBC Hold.

I used to get the message "SBC H unavailable. See Workshop or User Manual".

A lot of sources told me to grab a new part, but didn't want to spend that much just to have that feature, until I found a german board, where the same problem is described and a solution that has worked for many.
The gear leaver has a lightsensor, that tells the SBC unit which gear the car is in, as SBC H only works in D, P and R.
Over the years, dust and debris gets inside the unit and the gold contacts get dirty and the signal cannot be transmitted. Just clean them and SBC H will work again.

The job is pretty straightforward, took me about 2 hrs in removing the gearbox, middle panel and assembling everything back together.

Attached is a german guide, but let the pictures do the talking.

Thank you for taking the time to update the thread and not just dissapear like a lot of members. :)
 
That’s really interesting and a little late for me unfortunately- I had this problem with my SL500 and no matter what I tried I could not get to the bottom of it (neither could my Indy). The message I got was intermittent and very random, I theorised cold weather, hot weather, battery state, load and all sorts!
 
Holy crap... exactly what I need.

STAR diagnostics keeps pointing to the gear lever to for my car. I have been putting this on my things to do list for 3 years lol (like you, I did not want get a new gear lever box).

I will give this a try, thank you very much.
 
Excellent, thanks- I’m keeping this on file now , you never know what might appear on my drive :)
 
+1 I’ll definitely be picking up either an E55 or CL55 in the future so will keep this saved ;)
 

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