Andredpaula

Good afternoon I made the exchange of the burned motor of the W204 as described in the previous posts however it did not work, after much research I saw that the circuit needs of the electronic plate after many faults stored in the memory it is in the status of lock, needing to do an unlock of it, does anyone have a clue how to do this?

domwild

Take ESL, ignition lock and key to a locksmith with the electrickery to mate the lot together again.

VegasWhoa

When changing out the ESL Motor, was the ESL in the unlocked position? If so, did you take off the negative cable to the battery prior to the procedure?

I exchanged mine and it worked successfully after completion.

domwild

Yes, I did. Great to read you got yours going. Unlocked position means the two grey pins must be pushed in at the two limit switches to fit the lid in without breaking the circuit board. Yes, I took the power off as the first step. There is a rumour out on the web, that the NEC security chip counts the number of attempts of a dying motor and then locks the system electronically? Merc has the excuse of not selling you a new ESL as it is part of its policy of not selling anti-theft devices, a case of German over-engineering to count the number of starting attempts? And modern Mercs no longer lock the steering. As the Chinese sell you the motor via Fleabay and Aliexpress in lots of ten and tools to repair, it looks like Merc used Chinese parts already in 2007. In my case I started too many times until it locked my steering and I had to take the column out and cut off the 10mm mounting bolt of the ELS to take it off.

I will now have to find a local locksmith with the electrickery to mate the NEC security chip of my "fixed" ELS with the ignition lock and key. One ES one claims they, not I, will repair the ESL for them giving me a one-year warranty and even sell me a "new" case as I had to drill out the four pins holding the ESL together, not knowing that Aliexpress will sell the tool to pull out the pins for re-use later.

VegasWhoa

Gotcha!

I wonder what will be cheaper? the method you’re speaking about or the emulator bypass?

domwild

Good question! In my case the steering was locked and the car did not start. With a burnt-out US$4 motor, an emulator will not be able to drive the locking pin back into the ESL allowing the car to be driven. Some people are lucky and catch this fault in time, use MIKEYZ's video on Youtube to take out the ESL (unlocked) without taking out the column with a short 13mm socket and handle, change the motor and find car can be started again.

Sending the dead ESL/ ignition lock and key off to a locksmith will cost about AUS$400 and I do not have yet any costs from Australian experts with emulators. It also needs the sending off of the whole shebang.

Cody Lawman

Ok so I have the new motor in the esl and zip tied it to the column. New key fob batteries. Still receiving the remove key message. Dealer wants to replace eis as per some Mercedes letter... Feeling duped for owning this car at the moment need help finding a reflash!!!

domwild

The web tells me it is rare to repair/replace the ignition lock (EIS/EZS), so this might be a "cash flow maximisation scheme" from the stealership! You and I will have to go the way of emulator OR reflash and in both cases it will need the delivery of ESL/EIS and key to experts, cost around AUS$400. American Merc owners are furious and are talking class action. I wonder if Merc already in 2007 used Chinese motors as Fleabay and Aliexpress will sell you those motors and tools by the tens.

VegasWhoa

Did you press down on the Micro switches prior to putting everything back together?

the original DIY posted on here mentions that if your ESL was in the locked position prior to disassemble, you need to do that.

domwild

Hi Vegas,
MIKEYZ on Youtube and others mention turning the wheel to get it unlocked and that is the position you may or may not putting it back into the column, else it will not go. In the unlocked position the two grey pins at the limit switches have to be pushed back at the two posts to allow the lid to fall back onto the motor. Tricky operation, as the two contacts of the motor have to go in at the same time as the two grey pins.

wentjr

This is my first post on the ESL problem which I experienced in October 2019 when the steering on my 2008 C350 would not unlock and the car would not start. I did get the car started 2-3 times. The third time the car started after the problem first occurred. I promptly moved the car into the garage to store it for the winter and get the problem fixed this spring or summer. I did try to start the car in the garage a few times over the winter but had no luck doing so. I assumed the ESL would need to be repaired or replaced before I could get the car started again.

On May 2, 2020, after storing the car for the past 6 months, I acted on a whim and tried again to start it. To my surprise, it started on the first attempt without any difficulty. I immediately moved the car out of the garage on to the driveway to get more room to work on the car to effect the repairs needed. Before doing so, however, I have decided to see if the car would continuing starting every day for the next 2 weeks to see if the ESL would continue to work problem free. Today is 9 days after that May 2 start and it has started first time every day since. I have even take it for a drive making sure I don't turn it off before I return home. Then yesterday I accidentally turned it off at the grocery store. When I realized what I just did, I started it gain successfully and headed home immediately.

The reason for this post is to ask the experts on this forum if it is possible that the ESL may be just fine and the original non-starting/steering not unlocking problem may not have been ESL related at all or whether my ESL may still be problematic.

Thanks.

domwild

Sorry to disappoint you here. The web is full of ESL failures if the battery is still OK. Some are lucky and fix it in time before it leaves you with a locked ESL. I have laboriously taken off the column and cut the bolt the ESL was attached to and cut open the ESL motor. It is the carbon brushes of my German motor which failed after 130,000km or 12 years and I cannot see the Chinese US$4 motor to last another 12 years. I doubt it is possible to buy a German motor, in fact, you cannot even buy the ESL from stealerships as they are considered to be a "theft avoidance" product, which is bovine excrement as you can surely identify yourself as the owner of the vehicle, but US$1,300 or AUS$2,000 is a powerful incentive to not sell it directly.

Use MIKEYZ's Youtube video to remove the ESL without having to remove the steering column, but try to find the paragraph where a contributor correctly claims you do not have to take of the steering wheel, air bag, various panels, etc. Just take off the "foot plate" or fire wall, get a 12mm (?) socket with a short extension and a wheel to turn it and screw the ESL off. Then get a motor off Aliexpress plus the tool to open the pins on the lid of the ESL and the cylindrical tool to remove the ignition lock. If you make a mistake during the changing of the motor inside the ESL or during the installation (connect ESL with power last) like I did, then you will have to send the ESL, ignition lock plus key to an electronic locksmith like Australian ECU Repairs ($500).

If you keep on starting until the steering locks, you have to take the column out and make more mistakes like I did. But I saved myself AUS$1,500 so far.

prktkljokr

just fit one of these cheap emulators and program with your obd II
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Emulator...7401b077508339

domwild

Thanks for that, Joker. Are you sure a standard OBD II will do the flashing of the security information? I have a dearer iCarsoft MB2 diagnostic, but have not come across an option to flash the emulator. Tell us how you did it, please.

I asked one of those Chinese resellers of emulators a very simple technical question and never received an answer back.

prktkljokr

I have never used one of these ESL emulators but have seen a few installed, I have been told by a tech that it can be done with the half decent scan tools that are around, plus in the listing they say it can be done

VegasWhoa

it is possible it the ESL can work sporadically after its first fail.

my experience happened out of no where in a mall parking lot. I banged on the steering column and was lucky enough to knock the ESL into working order. After this, whenever I would drive and needed to park, I would park at a distance and turn the car off but leave the key in so the ESL would engage. This was done on grocery type runs.

I myself was able to buy the ESL Motor off eBay and assemble it correctly by not going thru the airbag. The video Above helped as
a guide.

wentjr

Thanks for your response. I had a similar experience last fall shaking the steering wheel, turning it as far right or left as I could and banging the steering column to free up the ESL pin and start the car on the 3 occasions I got it started.

I was feeling somewhat optimistic the last ten days when the car suddenly started easily after being in storage for six months. But I am indeed fearful it will stop starting again without notice and leave me stranded if I inadvertently turn it off somewhere other than on my driveway.

I will heed your advice and repair the ESL after I acquire a replacement motor. Thanks again.

Tom in Austin

I am curious ... how concerned are people about locking their steering column really? I mean there's plenty of anti-theft in the car already ... the door locks, the EIS to safeguard the engine starting, etc. etc.

Unless you leave your doors unlocked or live in some dangerous area, is it really all that vital to keep this kludgey contraption working? There was a time when you could start a car without the transmission being in park, without your foot on the brake, etc. etc.

wentjr

What brand of ESL motor did you get? Online, there are a lot of motors from China and a few from the USA That said, I suspect most of the USA units are sourced from China.

And to respond to a later post, I want to keep this feature in my car. If anyone wants to steal it, they will have to tow it away which a professional thief would most likely do. My car is mostly original spec except for a backup camera and front and rear bumper sensors.

VegasWhoa

shipped from USA Made in China is what I went with and of course the reviews

VegasWhoa

How do you recommend taking care of this along with reprogramming??

VegasWhoa

How do you recommend taking care of this along with reprogramming??

wentjr

As best I know, no reprogramming is required if I replace the ESL motor with the lock opened. If i disconnect the battery etc when the engine is running and the ESL is open, I should just be able to just replace the defective ESL motor with a new one and re-assemble the steering column..

I am confident I can complete this project successfully.

Tom in Austin

Here's a company others have used to replace their ESL with emulation ... https://www.pressertech.com/mercedes...waAqqTEALw_wcB

I'll probably use their solution when I get fed up with mine and it's ready for the dumpster ..

domwild

Just make sure the Chinese motor is advertised to fit either W204 OR W207 OR W212 or whatever your model is. I still managed to get the motor out of China as the quarantine started. The original German motor lasted 13 years or 130,000 and if you, like I, stick with a motor exchange, you may find the problem re-occurring much earlier as German motors cannot be bought, in fact, the entire ESL unit cannot be bought from Merc as they claim you are a "thief". Locksmiths, who change the motor give you one year warranty, while emulator specialists give you a "life time" warranty, a least one Aussie one I contacted. He saw my report on a Merc forum, that Australian ECU Repair has claimed emulators are brittle and this is why they exchange motors instead and they claim, they had customers with emulators returning to them???