DCX Engineer

Today while driving to work (60mph) all of the idiot lights on the dash illuminated. These included the Check Engine, ABS, BRAKE, ESP and others. They only came on for a second. The roads were real slick, but I believe the engine stalled for a second. It has only happened once. I searched the board for other occurances and could only find one from dmichael in July 2002 with no updates. Please help.

lars

Here's an off-the-wall suggestion. If the engine stalled first, that would probably account for the light display. Then, at 60 mph, the rear wheels refire the engine and all is well. So why would the engine stall? Others have posted on the possibility that an overly heavy key chain could momentarily disable the ignition. Is that a possibility?

Matt230K

This isn't quite the same, but one time I was clipping the other half of my keychain back on my keys and accidentally pushed the key and turned the car off. Most cars would refire the engine as long as it's in gear, but I had to turn the key off and back on before it would do this. It is just like if you stall it and you can't just turn the key, you have to turn it off first. So I don't know if it would refire or not after the engine stalls. I think that shuts off some electronics that have to be reset by cycling the key off and on. But I don't know what would happen if it stalls on its own at speed.

speedfrk

Someone had a bad coil pack that did this. The dealer should be able to get a code and tell what the cause was.

Outland

If the ECU registered a code, wouldn't the MFD display a "malfunction" message?

WyattEarp

This has happened to me intermittently about five times now. If you have a manual tranny then it's no problem the car starts right back up but if you have an auto then you stall. Someone else on this board can't remember his name ended up returning the coupe because of this problem.

Try this thread

Mike T.

I think the only possible explanation, if the car is not throwing a code, is the ignition key assembly. If the ignition switch tells the engine it's off, hey, presto, it's off and the Christmas tree lights up, without a code. Ditto for the "restart".

Ask that the switch be changed, and ask for new keys too.

DCXdynodog

I remember more than one person having this trouble, I can't recall how many, but it seemed a bit too common for my taste.

Today while driving around before work, I took 2 1-2 mile trips for errands and the Check Engine light came on both times and stayed on, then the 3rd time I start it it goes out and stays out.
First time for me and it's pretty irritating considering my cheap little Honda went 10 years and 180k miles without ever turning a diagnostic light on.

speedfrk

DCXdynodog, check your PM

mctwin2kman

This is the reason I have a seperating key chain with only the Benz key on it when in the ignition switch, I tell my wife to do the same to eliminate this as a cause of any problems. It really is a poor design for a switch considering most people have a few keys on there key ring. Too much weight there and who knows what can happen, I have had the ignition stick in other cars with a normal key and too many keys on the ring. I am not saying this is the cause just a simple suggestion to eliminate this as the cause. Plus the fact I like only one key hanging there as I do not want my Saturn to get jealous of the Benz..... It may stop running right, it already seems like the tranny is slipping in the Saturn, with only 20,000 miles on it I may add. And people think the Benz's have problems. But it is a Saturn and a Balloon Payment deal so the lease portion is up in a year and a few months, and my wife does not want to take the lower finance rate to keep the car as it will be out of warranty and she really does not like it that much to keep it. Looks like SUV time in a year. Anyway, if you have multiple keys on your ring try just the Benz key and see if that gets rid of the problem, if not call the dealer and see if it threw a code. Hopefully it did. That is the one thing I do not like about that ignition is the fact that if you stall you have to turn it all the way off and then restart. This could be dangerous if on the highway or driving through the city at a busy time. I have not tried to see if dropping the clutch again after a stall requires you not to cycle the key, I would assume you do not have to but who knows, it seems yours started back up. Quick question, were you shifting at the time, did the car stall while you had the clutch in like the RPM's dropped to far and the car did not go to idle?

jlm

I don't believe that this is caused by extra keys pulling on the keyring. It has happened to me once so far (4K miles) and I don't keep my MB 'key' on a key ring, it's not attached to anything. Now, whether or not the communication between the key and the ignition switch might be briefly interupted for some other (electrical?) reason, I have no idea.

jlm

DCX Engineer

I was cruising at 60mph in 6th gear at the time. The car appeared to stall for one second or less then restart automatically.

My car goes in for service on Thursday. They will check the computer for codes. My service advisor has not seen this before, but I have a small dealership.

Thanks for all of the input. I'll keep you posted.

WyattEarp

Having other keys on the keychain has nothing to do with it. I have never had another key or keychain for that matter on my benz key. I carry the key by itself without anything else attached to it.

mctwin2kman

I only mentioned it as it seems it may cause a problem over time. I have seen many vehicles with many keys on the ring and them keys get all tangled together and actually switch the ignition to start mode and cause all the lights to come on. This of course did not stall the car but it did turn the wipers, radio and other electronics off at the time. A bump caused the key to turn from the weight shift of the keys. My wife used to have it happen all the time on a car we owned a few years back. It was a POS but still. I do notice when she has here key ring attached to the benz key that the key moves a little more in the switch so that is why I mention it.

DCX Engineer

I picked up my car today and the tech replaced the fuse box under the hood to correct the stalling issue.

It was returned to the shop later in the day because there was a problem with the steering wheel buttons. They replaced the -/+ botton on the right side of the wheel due to cracking and the new buttons act just like the up/down buttons on the left side. This means I have no volume control. Both sides change radio stations. They are going to look at it tomorrow. I will also talk to the technician about the fuse box he replaced for the engine stalling issue.

I will have to drive their E320 4Matic on our snow covered roads another day.

Wheens

Boy-
I'd have a few words also about releasing the car with the wheel buttons wrong. Nothing subtle about checking this "fix"; it's a go-nogo....volumeup/volume down!!! Hey!! I fixed right/ I fixed wrong quick test!!!

Outland

That's pathetic that the guy doesn't even check that they work. I assume that the buttons have some definate software/programability behind them, considering they don't seem to be hardwired. Idiot must have installed them to the wrong port or something.