Going downhill (starting issues, ESP malfunction

Jul 10, 2015 | 04:18 PM

mcmxciii

Thread Starter

Newbie

im at a loss.. its been two months since ive bought my 2005 C230 kompressor and i love it to death, such a sleek and sporty sedan that still turns heads.. but its making me shake mine -_-. When i got the car, i drove it home fine in May. it got cold here not long after, and one morning leaving work it didnt want to start. so first thing i had done was get the battery tested seeing it still had an original battery. And sure enough, it had 195 cold cranking amps. which is VERY low. So i got the battery replaced. Drove and started fine for a couple of days.. then the starting issue began again. No crank/no start, all electronics worked, no dimming in the lights when trying to crank/start. nothing happens. eventually after letting it sit for awhile because i was inexperienced, it would start.

then we started having rain season. when it wasnt cold or raining it would drive fine, but after it did rain, it wouldnt start again. it would never fail. And thats where ESP malfunction started also. Along with no start, when it did, it would have trouble shifting (feels like limp home mode) but would kick into gear(hard) eventually. after reading on here many times in frustration, i replaced fuse #52 with a 20amp and checked for blown fuses. All were good. still having issues. Then i moved to relays. i started removing relay R and putting it back, cycling the key and trying to start got the engine going countless times. it doesnt seem to matter if its freezing out or burning up. now at this point without messing under the bonnet, or front SAM.. just sitting in the car cycling the key back and forth to get it to start works. or holding the key in the start position for seconds until it does. could this be the starter? one time i held the key and the start position and i heard it try and start for less than a second, but didnt start till i cycled the key and tried holding in the start position again.