1991 560SEL - Spontaneous loss of power.
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
'91 560SEL '93 400SEL
1991 560SEL - Spontaneous loss of power.
Had a rather concerning experience on the way home from work last night. Here again this may or may not now be resolved what with the new fuses installed and also the just below freezing temperature could have possibly played a role also. Not even a minute after I left the parking lot last night the car lost power. And since I was going downhill with traffic behind me I could exactly come to a screeching halt to put it in park and restart it, but thankfully there was an empty bank parking lot to make a rapid pull into, which was not easy since power steering was gone. Frankly everything was gone, engine, power steering, power brakes. The banks parking lot slops upward in the middle was that helped slow the car to just around 5MPH (wasn't thinking clearly or I would've drop it to low gear to further the slowdown) so I popped it into park, which doesn't seem to have caused any ill effects thankfully. Car restarted without any issue and after sitting a couple minutes to make sure it wasn't going to die on me again I continued my journey home without further incident.
So here's my obvious concern. I lost power to the brakes, steering, and engine all at once without any warning. This has happened to me once before with my other Mercedes-Benz, a 1988 300E (W124), except that car lost power at a red light where I was already at a complete stop and had been having an issue with not running smoothly for several days prior to experiencing power loss
My current car which this topic is regarding has a brand new battery, installed near the end of last month and has been running smoothly. Last night I installed all new fuses in the fuse box, as they just arrived in the mail yesterday while I was at work. And I also tested the battery just to make sure it was registering proper voltage and amperage.
Obviously I'm worried that new fuses in the fuse box may not be the resolution to this issue. There is possibly a problem with the factory alarm system in the car, which causes it to go off at random if the doors are locked. My doors were not locked when driving home though, and I've not read anywhere about the alarm system in these cars being capable of shutting the car off. Does anyone have suggestions or know what part(s) I may need to replace in order to resolve this issue?
So here's my obvious concern. I lost power to the brakes, steering, and engine all at once without any warning. This has happened to me once before with my other Mercedes-Benz, a 1988 300E (W124), except that car lost power at a red light where I was already at a complete stop and had been having an issue with not running smoothly for several days prior to experiencing power loss
My current car which this topic is regarding has a brand new battery, installed near the end of last month and has been running smoothly. Last night I installed all new fuses in the fuse box, as they just arrived in the mail yesterday while I was at work. And I also tested the battery just to make sure it was registering proper voltage and amperage.
Obviously I'm worried that new fuses in the fuse box may not be the resolution to this issue. There is possibly a problem with the factory alarm system in the car, which causes it to go off at random if the doors are locked. My doors were not locked when driving home though, and I've not read anywhere about the alarm system in these cars being capable of shutting the car off. Does anyone have suggestions or know what part(s) I may need to replace in order to resolve this issue?
#2
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
'91 560SEL '93 400SEL
Replacing the fuses was not the solution apparently. Car cut off again at lunch break as i was backing out of the parking space. No further trouble thankfully, but was still a bit disturbing.