Urgently Required

[Ian B Walker]

Just had a call from Mercedes Blackpool. My 260E is very sick. They tell me that the ECU has gone and I need a new one. Price fron stealers £1600 plus vat plus fitting.

Has anyone or does anyone know where I can obtain one at a more sensible price?

Happy Christmas.....not

 

[Shude]

Has anyone or does anyone know where I can obtain one at a more sensible price?

I'm amazed that there is an ECU on it at all, I thought it had a much more primitive system. Maybe Dronsfields or The Garage could help you. If you want me to try my own stealership I might be able to get some discount for you, but we're only talking 10-20% so it'd still be seriously expensive (like worth more than the car! )

Good luck!

EDIT: have you priced up an engine swap? It sounds silly but it might work out as cheaper!

 

[Ian B Walker]

Just been in touch with Ricky aka V12. He thinks he can sort me out with one. Dronsfields and The Garage are also being contacted by Mb Blackpool (do I trust them?)

As for being worth more than the car, love my car

<Edit> Why worry when we have such superb people on this forum. Thanks Ricky you are a star, one call, problem solved at a fraction of stealers quote. Take as many nannas as this forum will allow :bannana: :bannana: :bannana: :bannana:

 

[Flyer]

Sorry to hear that Ian, hope you get it sorted at a reasonable cost.

<rant>
... but why do ECUs cost so much? £1600 for a simple (in comparison to a computer) box of electronics with interfaces is outrageous. I realise there will be custom programming and it will be optimised for a particular car/engine, but still!

Wouldn't it be great if all the manufacturers standardised on ECUs and it was only the firmware that changed with the application. Economies of scale, competition (not a proprietary format), independents becoming experts ... oh, look! A flying pig

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these type of posts in the coming years ...
</rant>

Good luck Ian.

 

[Shude]

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these type of posts in the coming years ...

There is about £6k (brand new) worth of computers in your car Flyer! The ECU is just one of them.

There was a comment about the ECU for the 500E/E500 on another thread. Surely this ECU is basically the same as the ECU for a 500SL/SL500 (where the engine/transmission came from). They say it is *rare* but the difference will only be the data, surely that could be pulled off a working ECU and then blasted onto another one?

It is time the ECU scandal got opened up for investigation!

 

[Vlad]

Ian,

Try Mercman on 02380-784444 (Southampton)....They have a mail order service.

I remember reading an article some years ago in a Merc mag that mentioned that one of the most commonly requested parts from Breakers is for good second hand ECU's, which tends to indicate that this unfortunatley is not such a rare problem.

Good luck

 

[Shude]

Try Mercman on 02380-784444 (Southampton)....They have a mail order service.

He already did, that's where Ricky works!

 

[lotusmark2]

Bit of a shock Ian!!, not just a sensor then
Glad you have a real world cost sorted out.

 

[stwat]

Bloody hell. Ive seen a few 190 ecu's going cheap on ebay recently and didnt buy them. Its always good to have a spare or two.


Stu

 

[V12]

Shude, you're right, we lent a S500 ecu to a customer who had an E500, and it ran the car almost perfectly, he noticed it held back at 4,000rpm, but it got him around till the new one came through from germany.

There are many companies now that will transfer data over, especially on 96 upwards cars, we have sold many V230 ecu's to c-class owners with this very intention...

Times are changing, and very rapidly, everything can be re-programmed to some degree now-a-days.

makes my job harder

Hope it's all sorted now Ian, the one i sent, actually came off a car that was taxed and mot'd when we picked it up, so i cruised it around for a couple of weeks while my car was in the bodyshop

Ricky

 

[silverarrow]

try www.bba-reman.com seems good not used them my self , yet

 

[V12]

All very expensive however, £475 from that site for the ECU Ian just bought from me...

One of the best places to get your ECU repaired is a company called black box, they generally have some waiting, and once yours arrives, they send one out and then fix yours for the next customer.

We sell them broken ones a fair bit, and they really know what they are talkin about, baffle the hell outta me!

Ooops, just losing myself some more business

 

[Ian B Walker]

Closing note, Got my baby back this morning, change out of £500 so wife can have Chrstmas prezzy now. I would just like to offer my thanks to everyone here who has helped and offered advice. Why cant the world be like this forum