Boom vang

Looked at your link and the prices that you pay is insane, $67,900 in 2006 for a 160hp c200. For $63,900 today you can get a 2011 C63, even cheaper in the US

Someone is making money downunder by marking up the price, MB or the dealers

anonymousmoose

Our government takes a huge percentage of all imports I hear. Also, the cars we build in Australia are sold cheaper in the US after we export them. So we pay more for our cars even if we send them overseas.

Same with petrol. We have our own oil and gas here but we pay going by the Singapore Market. Thing is, if we didn't pay a premium for our own resources, the oil companies would just export and not sell local.

Like our food. Our lobsters in Australian grocery markets are the leftover tiny ones, all the A grade food gets sent to Asia as there is more profit to export. Export is far more profitable then selling local so we gotta pay more or get left our alltogether.

I'm no expert if I am incorrect about certain aspects of this post, im happy to be enlightened :-)

One thing I do know for certain; any of the major German cars, like Mercedes, is considered a luxury vehicle which most people cannot affor new. So when you got a late model Benz, it's considered you got money over hear.

People who are not in the know; don't realise you can pickup a Benz like mine for little more then a locally built Holden, Toyota or Ford family sedan (the most common cars here) if you look hard enough and can get a good deal. I've already had friend thing I spent crazy money on my Benz due to the image over here. But they are quite surprised when I tell them what I paid... they might faint if I told them the USA price ;-)

ReggieBB

Thanks for the info Glyn M Ruck I'll have a look at that tomorrow fingers crossed if I unplug it and re-plug it without the power on it resets it?? I know there are fuses for the ESP am I able to pull them out without blowing or shorting any electrical parts to just to disable the ESP for the time being?

Boom Vang - Sadly it's expected with buying a second hand car, the one issue only popped up after 2 weeks of driving it and it's expected that electronics can go bonkers whenever they feel like it, for the new and old cars. The joys of owning a car I guess, selling the car would be the easy way out for me, but I'd love to find out what the issue is and hopefully learn something from this experience.

Many thanks again guys.

P.S. I had a look at the Aussie MB site/forum the last post was almost 6 months ago, and not much help.

ReggieBB

Oh Glyn M Ruck can I also ask you where you got that PDF information form? I wouldn't mind getting access to a technical guide to these cars.

Glyn M Ruck

Always a wake up for North Americans. As I always say in the US I would be driving an S600 & they would be driving a Toyota Corolla in SA.

Glyn M Ruck

Plug & unplug won't reset it but will possibly clean connectors. Your Yaw sensor is probably toast - not common though. You can get a new one or take it to a module rebuilder.

You can pull fuses without doing damage - POWER OFF!

Try turning the ESP off on the dash & see if the car behaves. Trouble with Benz is you can never really turn the nannies right off without disabling them totally.

Glyn M Ruck

Most of these pdfs are on the forum in related threads.

The source is the MB WIS (workshop information system) that some of us have. You can buy pirate copies in eBay. The WIS is tied to the Star diagnostic system used by dealers. Johnand & Karo personally own Star units. They are expensive.

Best source for the man in the street is the US available Service CD/DVD for the W203.

Carsy

Glyn,

Below is the reply from US MB after requesting CD's for the W 204:-

Thank you for your recent email.

Unfortunately, technical repair DVD's are no longer available.

The best source of technical information is the Mercedes-Benz technical
website, www.startekinfo.com (a fee-based site). This website is utilized
by Mercedes-Benz technicians worldwide and has a wealth of information.

We hope you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

Susan C.
Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC

Glyn M Ruck

I saw that on the W204 forum. I believe that W203 DVD's are still available.
Thanks JC

Boom vang

I just bought a Star DVD for the W203 2 weeks ago $62.50

Carsy

Could you please give me the contact details on where you purchased the DVD's & the proceedure.

Do they run on Windows 7 64 bit ?

ReggieBB

Glyn - Many thanks again for your time and wisdom. I unplugged it and gave the connectors a clean with electrical spray, they didn't look dirty but who knows. I unplugged the connectors from the yaw unit and ran the car for a bit, turned the car off and plugged it back in (my guess that does nothing haha) checked all the fuse, they are all the right amps and non are blown rest the steering wheel like you said 5x to the left and 5x to the right in park gear and drive

I can switch the esp off via the dash but it's after a good 30 mins of driving then the fault comes up with the car automatically popping on the front right brake for a second. What I'll do is later on tonight go for a drive and take a video might be easier to understand the issue. It's not causing any major issues with driving, but there is a sense of enjoyment when you know there isn't anything wrong with the car.
Sadly I need my car to work so it a matter of trying to find some time to pop it into the shop after I pop on new tyres, if that still doesn't fix it time to hand it over to the pros.

Carsy - I had a look at the site wow the prices are crazy for a technical guide, well that goes without saying everything on these cars are pricey Oh well its one of the down sides owning a European car.

Glyn M Ruck

I think you are heading for a new yaw sensor. Do you have a friend with a W203. You could try his yaw sensor on your car. This is where dealers have the upper hand. They can try things from the parts department.

ReggieBB

Hey guys if anyone is interested in knowing, the ESP issue seems to be fixed. What I did.

1) Open the boot and removed the ESP unit, switch the car on and let it run.
2) Turned the car off and cleaned all the electrical connectors with electrical spray
this included the top and under the car where the sensors connect up to the ESP unit.

This fixed it to a degree, however I checked the brake fluid and it was beyond full (due to previous owner). Got a syringe and got it to suck out the some of the fluid, every time I did turned the car on and pump the brakes to re check the level.

So far doing all this has prevented the ESP from going bananas, I have even tested it in the wet to try and get the car to break traction and good old esp. kicks in, even when it's switched off it will only slightly kick in as the esp. can never be completely switched off unless you go into dyno mode.

Well hope this helps, so in summary clean the esp. electrical connectors and check the brake fluid.




Also many many thanks to fellow MB members for your input honestly has gone without great appreciation

Glyn M Ruck

Probably a slightly dirty or corroded connector - Great!