Moto_Guzzi

Since this failure I do not use this car for trips further than 400Km radius, I am back to japanese for reliability reasons, but I still like the car, and its running good for now out of warantee. When it comes to modern cars, your car is probably going to be as good as your dealer capabilities, if you does not destroy it yourself.
If you a carefull driver and the car fail on you within 200 000Km, its a slap in the face for the money spend.

Colin G

Follow up:

My car has been at the dealership since last Thursday. Monday was a holiday here so they could not get to it till this morning.

My suspicions were correct and it is an ESL failure. EIS is ok and fine.

I knew it was the ESL due to the noise or lack of loud noise from the steering lock disengaging. When I first bought my car last year, theer was a quick, loud authoritative whir then clunk when the ESL disengaged when the key was put in.

lately, as I mentioned in my original post that the nose was becoming less loud and the lock disengaging less quickly. In the back of my mind I knew the motor in the ESL was starting to die.

It is going to be cheaper than I expected so I may just get the dealership to do it since the car is there.

New ESL- $750 CAD and about 1 week away

Labour - 1 1/2 to 2 hrs

Should cost me around $1000 CAD

I can get my car towed back to my house, buy the motor off Amazon and wait about 2 weeks for it to arrive then remove the ESL, crack open, change motor and reinstall. I'd probably save about $750 plus tax to do myself.

Only problem is my winter car was totalled last spring and I don't have another winter car yet so I need my car asap for getting to work ect. so I think I'll get the dealer to do it and save me at least 1 week of down time. Sharing a car with my wife is not so great since I work earlier than her and get off before she does also.

Is it worth it for me to pay the $93 core charge, keep my old ESL unit, replace the motor and keep as a spare? The likelihood of this happening again is pretty good I think. This C class will eventually turn into my winter car when I buy a new C class coupe in a few years.

So far in the history of this car, this is the only major repair it has had in its life time. I bought it from the dealership here where the car was originally sold so they have a complete service history on it.

ItalianJoe1

There's a startup procedure that unlocks the new ESL, so you can't just simply buy it and install it, maybe in your area it's different but here in the US, we can't sell the workshop programming keys outside of the dealership as it's a theft relevant part. I know people have programmers outside of the dealer but I have no personal experience with them.

1.5 hours of labor is very cheap, they are being quite nice if that's all they charge you. The standard here is 5 hours, which is excessive but that's what they hit people with.

Melburnian

I totally agree with you regarding reliability and mileage. The failures my C200 has suffered in its lowely 48,00kms is disgraceful and adding to the insult is the massive cost of parts and repairs. Mercedes Benz used to stand for reliability, longevity, and innovation but not any more.

B737

im surprised this hasnt been mentioned sooner, there is a member of this community who repairs these modules in Canada, Charles. I believe he can also remove / bypass the system by modifying it at his shop. there is also a shop in texas who provides this service. you send him the module and your keys. what i plan on doing when mine goes south.

Colin G

There is a place here in Canada that can rebuild the ESL and repair EIS (I think they can fix EIS) also but I forget what they are called.

Colin G

The lock was open when it failed so maybe that is why the labour is cheap. I am expecting it to be more but they did say it is an easy job and should not take too long.

I also get along with the parts and service guys at the dealership so maybe they are being nice to me.

Good point about the keys. I was unsure if that was just needed for EIS replacement.

Russell Ormerod

Esl is a very common failure. EZS fails very seldom. No whirring noise and you can be pretty sure its the ESL! and btw the key will ALWAYS turn in a w
204 even if you disconnect the battery or even use another key from another car. Key turning on a w204 means nothing in way of diagnosis!

Colin G

I got the car back Friday.

The bill was $1050 CAD including tax for ESL replacement. Cheaper than what I expected but still a hard pill to swallow.

domwild

If steering wheel is locked, you have to take the column out and cut off the 10mm bolt with a hacksaw.
If unlocked, see how Mikeyz in part 1 on Youtube uses a 13mm socket with a short extension and wheel for turning to unbolt the bolt holding the esl. Get a $5 esl and motor from aliexpress plus the handle and ***** at end to pull out 4 pins of esl clockwise to open plus cylindrical tool to open ignition lock. Follow YouTube to repair Esl. Save yourself up to $2000.

DrivingForce

D'oh, had the failure today on my 2011 C300 Sport ~104k miles.

Despite being fully aware of the EIS/ESL problems on the W204, At first I was confused about what happened. I put the key in and didn't hear the whirring and of course the car wouldn't start. Then I put the key in and took it out a few times. All I could hear was a very faint turn signal like click sound so I knew it was recognizing the key. I started kicking around the steering column with my feet and that didn't seem to change anything. Then I took the key out and flipped it over. I don't know if this fixed anything, but the car magically returned to normal. I even took the key out a few times and it was working fine.

Nevertheless, I knew that I was just testing my luck and that I should use the Covid quarantine (not having to drive to work or pick up the kiddo from daycare right now) to my advantage and just take the car to the dealer. That's where she's at now. The service advisor says the techs are going to do diagnostics, but worst case it could be a $1600 repair to replace both the ESL and EIS.I was surprised at how low that figure was.

Strange thing is, I'm actually relieved it happened when it did. I was on the way to get a state inspection, so I wasn't in a huge hurry to get anywhere and I was also able to drive it to the repair shop. And from what I'm reading, other than the ESL/EIS, the W204 C300s are fairly bulletproof!

ItalianJoe1

Should not require an EIS. They do tend to release a couple times as the motor fails, it will often work a few more times even if they get towed in, I usually would knock the steering wheel back and forth a couple times just to get it to release so I could drive the car into the shop and remove it in the unlocked position.

DrivingForce

So if the dealer tells me it needs an ESL and EIS should I insist on them only doing the ESL?

ItalianJoe1

I would ask for a very good explanation of why it needs both parts.

DrivingForce

Update, dealer said they were mistaken. It's actually 1650 for just the ESL. But that they still can't replicate the problem, and they recommend I wait until it the problem happens again. I told them I'm certain it's the ESL and that when it fails next time it's not going to be convenient for me to bring it in when I'm stranded trying to get somewhere! At least I got them to knock 10% off.

​​​​​I'm a little concerned the dealer won't actually replace anything and just take my money. I asked them to give me the old part and they said they would try but in my experience that rarely happens!

Tom in Austin

What a pile of dung! If my ESL goes out, I'm putting in an emulator and throwing the ESL in a dumpster.

I'm about a hundred times more concerned with being able to have my car start reliably than locking the stinking steering wheel.

ItalianJoe1

Part is around $600 and should be no more than 4 hours of labor, especially unlocked. That quote sounds quite high to me.

DrivingForce

An hour of dealer labor is about 200 bucks around here, so it seems like 1488 is not off the mark!

Got the car back and the ESL has definitely been replaced! A much faster "zip zip" sound as others have described! I will post a video so people know what a new ESL should sound like

dboyrusky

Mine failed at 87k miles cost $1300 us

Shimee

Happened to me a few weeks ago. Dealer quoted me $1400 to replace the steering column since the ESL failed in the locked position. I opted to remove it myself and send it out for repair. Cost $200 instead.

But the motor the guy put in the ESL was garbage and didn't have a straight shaft. So each time the ESL would lock/unlock it would vibrate the entire steering column and was loud as hell. I ended up buying another motor and replacing it myself, much quieter now.

I would've done the repair myself but I read that if the motor in the ESL fails for good and the ESL detects a motor failure, it disables itself which then requires programming.

Jay orr

​​​​​​Hey I got a 2010 C300 the column won't come out not enough room is there a way to manually shorten it?

Shimee

Remove the gas pedal and brake pedal. I had the same problem with room. Once I removed both pedals the column came out without any struggle. Plug everything back in and use the position adjuster to retract the column completely before trying to remove it.

Jay orr

​​​Thank you so much! What do I plug back in? where is the position adjuster is that the long screw looking piece on the right side it has a black ring around it?

Shimee

Plug everything back in that you disconnected. You must have disconnected both adjustment motors otherwise you wouldn't be at the step you are at. Use the adjustment stalk on the side of the steering wheel to then retract the column. The same way you would do it when the car is fully assembled. There really is no easy way to do it manually.

Jay orr

​​​​​​You are awesome thank you for you help