Well,
went out this morning.
She was running fine last night.
Put the key in, dash lights up like normal,
turn the key, and ...............
silence.
Nothing....
tried putting it in Neutral and starting....
nothing.

What do you guys think I should look for 1st??
I think CPS, the car still turns over, and same with
fuel pump.
I don't even hear a solenoid clicking.

What could it be?
I checked the voltage, it's 12.9V and the battery's only about a year old, so that doesn't seem to be it.

Help!

 

wow that is strange i am sure you can get it going again

 

- Oh yes, the Norwegian Blue. What's wrong with it?

- I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.

- No no, it's resting... look!

- Look my lad, I know a dead parrot when I see one and I'm looking at one right now.

- No, no sir, it's not dead. It's resting.

- Resting!?!

- Yeah, remarkable bird the Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage, innit?

- The plumage don't enter into it - it's stone dead.

- No, no - it's just resting.

- Alright then, if it's resting I'll wake it up: "Hello Polly! I've got a nice cuttlefish for you when you wake up, Polly Parrot!"

- There! It moved!

- No he didn't. That was you pushing the cage.

- I did not.

- Yes you did. Hello Polly, Polly! Polly Parrot, wake up. Polly! Now that's what I call a dead parrot.

- No, no it's stunned.

- Look my lad, I've had just about enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased. And when I bought it not half an hour ago, you assured me that its lack of movement was due to it being tired shagged out after a long squawk.

- It's probably pining for the fjords.

- Pining for the fjords, what kind of talk is that? Look, why did it fall flat on its back the moment I got it home?

- The Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back. Beautiful bird, lovely plumage.

- Look, I took the liberty of examining the parrot, and I discovered that the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been nailed there.

- Well of course it was nailed there. Otherwise it would muscle up to those bars and voom.

- Look matey, this parrot wouldn't go voom if I put four thousand volts through it. It's bleeding demised.

- It's not. It's pining.

- It's not pining, it's passed on. This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot.

 

Starter motor, starter motor solenoid, bad earth, broken earth strap. LT failure from EIS. Interlock.

 

Glyn makes a good point, unless the coupe is nailed to the floor.

 

Is that a monty python skit?

 

Kniggit! Bring me a shubbery! Yes, a classic in fact, easily found on your tube.

In any case, funny you should mention parrots.

I took a look on the side of the battery and noticed, something has been residing in my car. While not a parrot, it looks more like a mouse nest or something. Too bad I didn't get a picture.

I tried banging on the starter, and did a quick visual on the fuses, but don't see anything.

My "parrot" didn't appear to eat any wires, but tomorrow, I'll pull the battery out, and remove the battery support, and see if anything is chewed up.

It's 11pm and about 90 degrees, easily the hottest night of the year.

I can't be sure the nest and my problem are related but it's definitely something I need to investigate.

Oddly enough, we actually have a parrot here, a Mulacan Cockatoo.
He's quite alive, and not nailed to his perch, but if he keeps making that horrible noise, that could change.

 

Like what Glyn had said, it's the starter motor.

Had the same thing happened to me before trading her in.

 

If its starter motor,... likely just electrical brushes that needs to be replaced (especially if your car has high mileage or lots of short trips). Relatively inexpensive to replace. If you're not familiar with how to do it yourself, a good indy-mechanic (electrical) can do it for you,... probably half an hour labour.

 

Tapping on starter with something like a screwdriver before turning the key might "encourage" it to start,....

 

Yeah he tried banging the starter to no avail. Still seems like the likely culprit, though.

 

I don't know about 'no avail'.
If you guys thinks that the issue,
I'll focus on that, right after I pull the battery support to
see if the varmint chewed any wires....
or before.
The starter isn't so easy to reach on a a M111.
But I did manage to get a piece of metal pipe onto the top and tap.

 

Im almost sure it is a battery issue.. If it was the starter it should at least sound like if it's going to start.

 

It's been so damn hot, didn't mess with it last night.

I'll try charging the battery for sheets and giggles to see if anything happens. I have manual seats so the seat modules aren't the problem.

 

everything lights up and no crank?

might be the ignition switch too. i've had that happened few times where the car does not read the ignition code from the key.

 

Haven't had a chance to mess with it still.
Fortunately my GF has been driving me to work...
kinda likin' it.

I hope it's not the EIS....and I only have the 1 key.

If I could get a voltmeter to the starter circuit, I'd at least know if voltage is being sent.

Is there an accessible place to test the voltage going to the starter?

This weekend is like this Giant music event in SF, Hardly Strictly Blugrass,
with all styles of music, and like 50-100 acts on 6 stages, hence the name, hardly strictly.
Not likely anything will happen with the car this weekend, but I'll
charge the battery, and try banging on the starter again.
Maybe she'll like the cooler weather.

Remember:
Mercedes builds the best Italian cars in all of Europe.

 

Dude,.... sounds more like you're procrastinating fixing the car because you like having your girlfriend spoil you.

Why not call Mercedes Roadside Assistance program? It's free, right? What's the worst that can happen,... some Mercedes tech will come over and try to get your car going for you. Fiddle with this and that,.. test battery,... test voltage here and there,.. make sure this or that part is working,... and hopefully tell you what's wrong. Or at the very least tell you what's working fine.

Then you decide whether to take it to stealership or fix it yourself,... and of course, we know you're gonna fix it yourself! But hey, you'll get some free advice from a Mercedes Tech.

 

Free? Really? You sure?

 

Roadside is indeed free though if they make any minor repair outside of a jump start, changing a tire, a little bit of gas - you'll have to pay. But it would definitely be worth a shot.

 

I'm betting on ignition, you wont know without a second key though! Happened to me one morning, key turned all the way, dash lights came on but engine didn't make a sound. Tried my spare key which worked, then my regular key and it worked, after that no problems.

 

So, thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I got thrown for a loop by the nest in there,
and when I first was trying to work on it,
it was like 100 degrees at night, and I didn't have the patience
apparently to adequately whack a piece of steel pipe
against the starter for the required length of time, or with the necessary force.

So, thankfully it was NOT the EIS, or the key or any of those expensive dealer required problems.

The starter is kinda hard to see in my car, but it's directly between the firewall and the engine.
I had a piece of pipe I use a socket extention for those really tough bolts.
A few well placed solid whacks was all it took.

Sigh, no more chaffeur. But thats ok, but I was paying her gas for 2 round trips a day in the ML350.

Problem solved! Well, now i have to pull the starter.
How hard is that?
I had a BMW 320i where the damn thing was so hard to get to, I just left it and kept banging on it till I sold it for like 2 years after the problem started.

 

Thank god it's not the EIS. A M111 starter is not too bad to pull from beneath. Maybe Karo or John can post the method for you. Refurbishing is also pretty cheap.

 

Yes, I was very happy. Money has become an issue for me lately, something I'm not so accustomed to, as in not having any laying around.
I was always under the mistaken impression my income would go up
not down as I got older....hmmmm.
These days, I'm just glad to be working, and even more that my car didn't require any major work.

i have a leaky head gasket, which is common on these engines just above the exhaust manifold. I would have had think hard about spending a thousand dollars, vs. just finding another C230 with low miles, moving all my parts over and parting her out.
Alas, I no worries now.

I'm keeping that piece of pipe in the car.

 

I once paid my indy mechanic to diagnose and "rebuild" a starter on my old Honda Civic. That's "rebuild" as in just change out the electrical brushes. As I watched him, I was like,... huh? I'm paying you to do that? That's so easy!

Anyways, until you fix it,... spraying liberally with WD-40 will help lub her up,... you know I'm talking about the starter, right! Just try not to spray WD-40 on the rubber parts.

 

Starter is rebuilt, but the car is still "resting" on jack stands.

Doesn't seem to be an accurate document that tells how to R&R a starter in
a M111 W230.
I'm about ready to pull the whole intake (arrgh, nightmare time, fuel injectors and all)
unless SOMEONE (I just can't be the 1st can I? to try to replace my starter)
can tell me it's not necessarily to remove the intake.