Aggressive

Hey all,

I wanted to put this post together for everyone because this seems to be a common issue with Mecedes-Benz. In short, I believe that the ignition switch
is bad.

Last night I went to the grocery store. My 2011 C300 started up fine and I drove to the store. I jump in the car to leave the store, insert & turn key, ........no response....no radio.....no idiot lights......nothing but the center of the speedo lighting up showing the display of time, temp, and mileage.

My first response was to go back into the store, purchase a new battery for my key and give that a try. No success....this made no difference.

My second response was to have my wife bring me my spare key. No success....this did not work either.

Hmmm.....What now?? ........I call Mercedes Roadside. Its 8:30 a night but they send out a tech for a jump start. (Clearly obvious to me that this would not work) However, I go to through the motions to follow their procedure.
Its a "no go" and tech states the car needs to be towed.

9:15PM - Flat Bed Tow truck shows up. Can't get car out of Park and he(nor I) want to drag the car onto the truck. 2nd truck comes with Dollies(Pretty Cool!!) Success, 10:30 PM I finally get to go home.

Mercedes-Benz is diagnosing at this time but they only have one of my keys and are requesting the other to fully diagnose the issue. I told them the problem is not with they keys. They don't have a loaner car available to me so I can't even go home to get the key. I got a ride with a co-worker this morning.

I will keep you posted on the progress. Anyone else have ignition switch problems??

LandSeaAir

this is scary, this happened to me last night but when I took the key out and wiped the sensor area of the key it worked fine. I hope that isn't a beginning symptom of an ignition failure especially because I'm out of warranty. Keep us updated.

Aggressive

I hate to tell you this but the same thing happened to me a couple times prior to this catastrophic failure. Might I mention......my car only has 8900 miles on it.

Sad to say but this is my second C300 and both had to be towed to the dealer at one time or another. Luckily, I was in a safe location in those situations.

LILBENZ230

Does sound like an EIS issue, good thing you are under warranty. Should note for future, batteries in the keys only used for the remote entry. Even without batteries the SmartKey will start the car. In my time here I have noticed EIS issues to be fairly rare in the later years of the W203 but then an uptick in the 2008 W204, but this is the first I've read of trouble with an 11.

Given that the EIS is found on all Benz cars - huge numbers - I'd say it has proven a reliable system overall.

Aggressive

Thanks for the info on the batteries in the keys. That is very good to know.

Just another note: there MB dealer has run some checks but they cannot go further because they need my other key. So, if you have this issue, take note that you need to give them both keys. I wish they told me that sooner.

LandSeaAir

Yeah, they probably want to see if the other key works to rule out the idea that the key may be bad.

Carsy

You can move the car out of Park by removing the cover around the auto gear stick & pushing a little yellow lever at the back of the stick.

Instructions are in your manual.

c3nthusiast

HAppened to me 4 months ago. Cost me $2k. The steering wheel lock sensor and key sensor went bad. same symptoms you have. Took them 2 weeks to figure it out.

mac911

Wow. It's scary how often this has happened to you guys. Good luck in the future! I have my fingers crossed for myself too!

joshg1001

every time this happens to me, I just remove my key and reinsert it and it works. I know its only a matter of time, and my warranty runs out this october. I am seriously considering getting and extended warranty because at $2000 its a ridiculous amount of money to spend on one issue. They really need some sort of TSB for this problem.

Aggressive

Just an update about my car. It was the EIS and the dealer replaced it. Took them atleast a day to diagnose a few days to order the switch and then a full day for install. Hope this is the last time my C300 ever has to be towed.

Aggressive

Thanks! Good to know. I will call the dealer and let them know that their only certified towing company(RENO's) did not know how to get the car in neutral. I wish I knew because the tow truck did scratch the underside of the bumper. If they had known how to shift the car then they would not have done so. Not sure that the scratches are bad enough to complain about. You can't see them without laying on the ground and looking closely.

RLE

I'm 2500 miles away and I can see the damage from here. At night.

Of course you should show the dealer the damage.

juice619

does anyone have any idea what error dtc watchdog detected mean? my 2010 c300 has key stuck and it wont turn any of the lights on, using engineer mode i was able to pick up that error on the screen

C300-2011

I have a C300 2011 with 22 K on it. Last week it didn't start at all when I put the keys inside. Before this incident it didn't start on random occasions where I had to take the key out completely and put it back inside till it started. The dealership said the EIS has to be changed and it takes two week to get it fixed since they don't have the part in stock.
I was wondering if this might happen again after they fix it or it's a one time error?

C300S 6MT

C300-2011, I'll recommend that you get it replace while it's under warranty.

C300-2011

It's already in the dealership for replacement but I was wondering if even after replacement it would still have problems or is there anyone who has changed the EIS and they saw the same problem happening again after the replacement.

katuga

Questions for those Technically inclined who paid for the EIS replacement.
Did you get the chance to keep the old EIS and investigate if it is repairable?
Just curious if it might be a good idea to keep a known good spare.

Big Daddy

No it is supposed to be not repairable
This module contains all the anti theft data for the car. if it was made repairable /replaceable out side of a MB garage your car would be an easy mark for the less salubrious of our society

Having said that this site claims to have an eis repair kit for MB cars

http://www.eckind.com/product_375430...epair-tool.htm

dan87951

These BS issues that Mercedes is aware of is keeping me from pulling the trigger on a C300. It boggles my mind why a manufacture doesn't do something about such an obvious problem. Makes me wonder what other issues they don't care about as well.

Sorry to hear about your car hopefully it won't happen again? (doubtful)

tanktube67

It happened to me last night, after owning the car for 5 ½ years, the car was tow to the dealer I’m thinking is the ignition switch, will let you know what the problem was and how much damage to my wallet.

tanktube67

The steering lock was replaced.

spyked

Is steering lock different than EIS system? What were your failure symptoms? Under warranty/recall hopefully?

Steering locks seems like SAFETY issues to me....surprised the government hasn't been involved with this issue.

tanktube67

Same symptoms as post# 1 my warranty expired 18 month ago.

tanktube67

Now the command controller will not scroll, I just talk to the service advisor and they said that the steering lock has nothing to do with command controller.