"ESP Not Available" and car goes into limp mode
 

Okay... This has now happened to my wife twice within the last 4 weeks, or so, so I guess it's time to get to try to figure out the culprit. Hate to get another call from her about the same issue...

Please note that all the information is second hand information because the issue has never happened to me, of course, while driving her car.

So... She is driving down the highway when all of a sudden the "ESP not available" message appears on the dash and the car slows down to a crawl no matter how much she presses the gas pedal. Supposedly no other warning lights are on while this is happening. After pulling over and restarting the car everything is back to normal again.

I've done some research on this and haven't found too much info related to W204s, but some on W203s and W210s and the issue has been related to steering angle sensor.

Anybody in here had something similar happen to their W204? If so, what was the remedy?

I did also see a post from Glyn where he suggested resetting the sensor by turning the wheel lock to lock five times. That's what I then did a little while ago, but it's kind of difficult to know if it helps because of the intermittent nature of the issue so far.

So, any help and suggestions are appreciated. :y

See below. This is for W203 but same applies to W204 (module numbers could be different for W204.)

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...rs-manual.html

I am worried that the car is going into limp. You could have some implausible speed sensor data from the transmission which could be a conductor plate issue.

Please read fault codes with a Star or Snap-on Solus or equivalent that is capable of reading Benz transmission codes.

Thanks, Glyn! Much appreciated. :y

Yeah, the limp mode thing is definitely worrying since she says the car will slow down to about 5mph and will not move properly again until it has been shut off and started again.

Kind of scary when that happens on the highway and traffic around you is going 60-70mph+... :eek:

Conductor plate issue does not sound fun, that's for sure. Especially since the car runs and drives fine otherwise.

I guess I'll visit the local indy shop to see if they can pull any codes from it and go from there.

ESP and Limp mode.
 

Hello TexFinn, Exactly the same thing is happening to my 02 C320 right now.
FZor me, it only happened at altitude after driving up to the mountains (a 3hour journey, half way on a strait freeway, then half way on a winding climbing freeway) here in northern california. But it doesnt happen down at sea level ?? Weird.

Did you ever get to the problem ? Find a Solution ?
I've driven the car when it happens and the worry for me is, my wife driving our kids about on the freeway with two young kids in the back as the car dies on her in fast traffic.
Any help appreciated.

So far things have been quiet since I did the steering angle sensor reset. Been almost two months now. Not sure if that would be the solution also for W203, but I guess it doesn't hurt to try.

Never took the car to a shop to check for codes. The closest indy shop doesn't have Star or Snap-On and the next one charges 100 some bucks to check and requires to have the car for the whole day. No thanks...

This may sound odd - how old is your battery? This happened on my 204 a few years ago, I searched here for some posts - a marginal battery can cause this. I installed a new battery - problem solved.

Good point, nyca! The car does stll have the original battery from 2008, so...

Batteries do tend to cause all kinds of weird things in these things, so getting a new battery might not be a bad idea after all. Five years is a long time for a battery here in the hotter than hell Texas...

That's your easiest/lowest cost option to try. I looked for a bookmark, somehow I did not save it. But I know it is on this site if you search, this exact same problem someone else had and described it - I read it here when my car did it, and changed the battery to solve it. I use a Valentine1 radar detector - it's very sensitive to intermittent low voltage conditions on the lighter socket (the laser alert alarm falses). I am on my 3rd battery in my car (I have 92K miles) - when I see the V1 falsing on a consistent basis in the car, I know the battery is getting marginal (even though the car starts) and I just change it to avoid problems like this - its cheap insurance to keep a fresh battery in the car.

New Battery is in
 

Hi Guys.
I replaced the battery after 'O'reillys' put a tester on it (BAD BATTERY)
Now I am very curious, because the 'Check Engine' Light went out after installing & restarting.
I wont really know about the issue of the car going into the ESP Warning and resulting Idle/Limp mode until I make the same drive and see if it happens again.
But I will for sure post what does happen.
IN the meantime, Thanks very much for the input as I knew I needed to get round to replacing it eventually, but you tipped the scales and it got done.
Cheers

Unfortunately the limp mode in itself doesnt tell too much. Pretty much anything that goes wrong will trigger this. I have had the same for a failing turbo & egr valve on my last Merc and have had the same for a high pressure fuel pump & injector failure on my W204.

Its all about getting the actual fault code from Merc diagnostics

The original poster said it was an ESP message. What's happening is that the ESP thinks its on, like its driving on ice - you try and press the accelerator and the system reacts by stopping power to the wheels. I don't know what you mean by "limp mode" isn't that what happens when your transmission fails? This is something different, its the ESP engaging because the marginal battery is causing some sensor or ECU misread related to ESP. That's what happened on my car.

But yes, the only way to know if this battery solution works is when the problem does not happen again. I have a 2009, I have replaced my battery twice already (92K miles) - not that I am complaining mind you, as long as it keeps the car running well I am fine with it.

You get the ESP messages with 'limp mode' which is not just for transmission. It is a self protection mode that the car goes into whenever it detects a fault that it is programmed to avoid further potential damage. All I am saying is it may be your battery but if already replaced twice, I doubt it.

I have seen the same warnings & limited power for a variety of reasons. Most recently a faulty injector.

I recently got that message on my dashboard as well but I was involved in a accident.. I read your guys comments but I got no idea what the ESP message stands for. I got into a fender bender accident in my w203. Any ideas what it could be??

I had the same issue happen 3 months after I bought my 2009 C300 4matic (brand new). Every time it happened I was driving on the highway above 75-80mph. I took it to the dealership and they couldn't figure it out. I ended up replacing my stock wheels with 19in AMG wheels that don't have TPS sensors in them.

It has been 5 years without any issues. I believe a possible cause of this problem could be as simple as having lower air pressure in one of the tires. This would cause 1 wheel to spin slower than the others and trip the ESP into thinking the car is slipping or something to that effect. Again, this is just my hypothesis.

I been doing some research around here and it seems like a lot of times the problem can be the battery and one thing I did noticed was that when they towed my car they left my stereo on for a whole day... When I brought it home and turned on the car it sounded like it had a low battery. 2 days later I try to turn it on again and the battery is dead.

Highly doubt it. I would bet a few bucks that the TPMS system would notify of the tire pressure issue before ESP would come into play.

I would imagine that something like you are describing to happen, the tire would probably need to be almost completely flat before making such a big difference in the circumference of the tire that there would be noticeable difference in the wheel speed.

Then again... I'm no automotive engineer, sooo... :naughty:

Anyway..., been about 4 months now since I did the steering angle sensor reset and so far no issues. :zoom:

Jan
 

I had the same problem, and had my MB C220 CDI at two dealers who found nothing wrong, they reset the fault codes and it worked for a while but the ESP problem kept on coming back, after reading all the issues on the internet I found that the boost pipe was torn, a local mechanic replaced the boost pipe and the problem is solved.

I own a 2008 mercedes C200.

A week ago I got a check engine light and got it checked on a computer at the mechanic. It said something along the lines of faulty fuel sensor, they rest it and noticed one of the little pipes from the turbo was broken and fixed it. The light went off.
It worked fine, but today while driving on the motorway I got the dreaded ESP not available and check engine light and car lost power had to drive to the hard shoulder, restarted it and worked fine.
The check engine light is still on, I checked that pipe and it's attached just fine. Any advice would be appreciated?

I had the condition of "lower air pressure in one of the tires" and SUV went into limp mode. It didn't do this right away, but happened the same day the tire pressure monitor alerted me. It happened the first time I made a fairly fast turn and went down hill. (Yeah, I have a lead foot). It stuck in 2nd gear. I hope your hypothesis is correct that: "This would cause 1 wheel to spin slower than the others and trip the ESP into thinking the car is slipping or something to that effect." I've only had the 2014 ML350 for about 5 months and this is the only time this happened. After I restarted ignition, problem went away. I took the car to the dealer the same day. Dealer said there were no error codes. RPM was stuck at about 4500 RPM and nothing else worked excepting turning off the ignition. Very scary. Otherwise, car is fabulous.

Did that torn boost pipe cause any other issues? I ask because my C220 suddenly started to sound different, like if it had a hole in the exhaust. The noise is not the typical clatter but like a change in the tone of the engine and is louder. I have been told that it may be a cracked boost pipe bout they seem (from the top of the engine bay) fine.

Esp not available - car goes into limp mode
 

Hey You all

I have a w204 C220cdi A/t
On Sunday 14 December 2014 i took the vehicle on the long road to Pretoria. I have only had this car for 2 weeks and was very exited to see what it does. While i was driving with the cruise control on 120km/h i suddenly heard a beep and the car lost its power and smoking way too much. It read on the screen Esp unavailable see owners manual. So i parked the car. Switched it off and the n started it again. It drove fine for about 93km. Then it started all over again the whole day long. It was extremely heavy on diesel and it iterated the living ..... out of me. So being the stressed out person that i am i started to Google possible faults. I read about injectors, EGR & MAF sensors and all that sounded like i was going to lose all my possessions because i would have to go pawn everything to get it fixed. So i read on this blog about turbo boost pipes and thought to rather first inspect them. It didn't even take half an hour for them to spot that the one boost pipe had a crack in it. We took it off, sent it to a guy who deals with turbos and he built me a new turbo pipe at the fraction of the cost that the dealers ask. And now i can say i am so proud of my car. Good consumption, fast and no smoking. If any of you have the same symptoms please inspect.your boost pipes first. I hope this helps. Highway consumption went down to about 6.1 Litres/100km.

I had the same problem. Happened last week when I took my parents to the farm. Was quite hot outside and was aware of a boost pipe hole somewhere.

Car would give ESP error, go into limpmode and be fine after restart for a while.

Took the bumper off today to check my hooter, and then saw the tear in the passenger side boost pipe at the intercoller mouth.
bevill084, I sent you a PM as to whom rebuilt your boost pipe. Merc Stealers wants a R1000 for it!

So its been 10 Months later.
I replaced the boost pipe with a new one purchased at Mercedes. Car ran extremely well. Now, I am exhausted with this car.

It was standing at home one day, But the Diesel was very low. When i started the car it showed "ESP Unavailable" Please see owners manual. I Drove to the petrol station and all was well again. So i Thought it was because of the low fuel .

I Drove the car for a month with no stress. Took a long distance trip also with no problems. Then i left my car standing for a whole week without driving it. That is when it started. Constantly and it is irritating me allot.

I Started the car and drove it, With the "ESP Unavailable" Please see owners manual warning, But then it doesn't boost at all. I Took it to a Mechanic, They plugged it in, Erased all faults and then the second i drove it it reoccurred. They then took it to Mercedes and they cleared all faults but said that they cant see anything wrong with the car. I Should take it to a auto electrician because they think it might be a wiring problem.

Then suddenly it just stopped doing it. Drove nice for a week. And the it started again, But now as soon as i accelerate it goes into limp mode. Now it is at the auto electrician, It has been there the whole day, And they cant identify what is going on with the car.

Has anybody had the same problem, And also if you did, What did you do to sort out your car. I need to know where to look for the problem.

I Would really appreciate it. Only thing the computer said was that the engine control unit cannot communicate with Can something. But they tested both computer boxes and all is well there.

having similiar problem with limp mode... u ever fixed yours?

It sounds like there is a loose conection inside your steering wheel. This can be that your controle spiral is faulty inside your steering wheel. This will effect your ESP and your SRS could follow shortly if the spiral inside your steering controle module gives problems.