My car is unable to start and the EIS is the supposed culprit. This is a Theft Relevant Part, and therefore can only be ordered from Mercedes as it is matched to my VIN as I’ve been told. This part is on back order with no ETA and I’ve been told it could be months or more before a replacement is available. Does anyone have thoughts on alternate options?

 

You sure it's the EIS and not the ESL? Lots of stories here where dealers are swapping out the EIS when they didn't have to.

Describe your problem here so the group can decide. May not be as bad as the dealer is making it out to be.

 

The diagnosis was done at a European Car Shop, not the dealership. They said they could not say for sure whether it was the ESL or EIS and the repair note says to replace both. The head mechanic said that out of all of the times they’ve seen this issue it has been the EIS except once. The plan was to replace the EIS and if that didn’t work then replace the ESL. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on the ESL failure clicking when trying to start, which mine does not, and also tapped on the steering column to try and get it to start, which it didn’t. My car ignition system has been showing signs of failure for a couple years now, requiring me to remove the key and try again. That worked up until recently. The symptom is when I insert the key, the ESL does not unlock, a message reads “please remove key” and the instrument lights light up. When you turn the key nothing else happens. The ESL is in stock, but the repair job on that is 1500$ and I don’t want to spend that money if the EIS is that actual issue. Since my steering is currently locked, the column will need to be removed and break the ESL to replace it, which makes the job harder.

 

Interesting. Those symptoms around these parts it’s the other way around. It’s almost always the ESL, with EIS being the outlier.

 

I have a 2014 C300 (W204) and mine failed at the end of December 2022. I was told the exact same story and the factory told the dealership "sometime first quarter of 2023." My car is still at the dealership awaiting the part.

 

I ended up rolling the dice and replacing the ESL. Luckily that did the trick and the car start fine now. I called multiple dealers and they all said the EIS may not show up for months if at all…

 

so what's the difference of symptoms between an EIS and ESL failure ?

 

I never got a straight answer on that…

 

The problem with the Mercedes ESL is that it has a plastic move arm inside the unit. There is a guy in Toronto that can come right to your home and open the unit and replace the part. There is another way around this and that is to install an ESL emulator which takes away the moving part but does the same work by sending a signal that the key is in the slot or near the car. This emulates the movement of the plastic part and replaces it with a signal instead.

https://vepro.ca/product/mercedes-w2...gaAlxUEALw_wcB

 

The explanation Cosworth provided is a common issue with the ESL and you can typically diagnose this with a clicking noise. However, such as in my case, not all ESL failures are due to the mechanical failure of the unit. In these occurrences I was unable to get a straight answer on how to diagnose whether ESL or EIS has failed.

 

My car demonstrated the EXACT same symptoms that Carl described. I really hope I haven't been waiting 3 months (and still waiting indefinitely!!) for a part that isn't the culprit.

 

Its pretty simple with the right tools..
ESL failure always has a fault code that relates to the signal to the lock. Sometimes the relays will click inside the ESL if the motor has failed and the lock is already at its ends stops. Either fully locked or unlocked. When the motor fails and the lock is not end at its end stops the ESL detects the fault and completely disables the lock never to work again. Only way is replacement. 95% of the time its the ESL at fault. But I have seen lately the EIS units are starting to fail as these cars age.
a quick check of actual values on xentry combined if any faults will quickly tell you which part has failed.
Good luck

 

They replaced the EIS on myne(Most expensive), it was not that then replaced the ESL which solved the problem, I could see dates on invoice, under gurantee. It took 3 weeks to do this. 2008 model. It was probably in the early days of this very common later (Class action type failure). This failure completely destroyed my trust in Mercedes, so will never buy one again, went back to Japanese.

 

Well for future reference for anyone - always replace the ESL first because it's the culprit 95% of the time.

I replaced the motor for $20 and about 2 hours in my driveway but most people do the emulator.

 

Same thing happened to me. I've been without a vehicle since Thanksgiving 2022. Mercedes Benz of Melbourne has had my car, couldn't give me an ETA on the part, promised me a loaner, and never gave me one. I called MB of USA, they called my local dealership and were able to get me an ETA within 24 hours of my call to them. ETA is April 14tb, 2023 (which is 5 months since the car first gave me a no crank no start problem, after spending hundreds of dollars troubleshooting myself, ie., New car battery, key fob and battery, jumpers, etc, and 2 tows, ) had it towed to my MB dealership Jan 10th, 2023, end of March I called MB USA to find out about the delay on parts and they did get me the ETA From MB of Melbourne who never even contacted me with that APRIL 14TH ETA Until 8 days after MB USA did, and it was in a text , never in 4 months did my service advisor call me or anyone from local MB. 2 texts only and only after prompted. When I called a couple weeks ago to find out why I haven't been given a loaner I asked them , " Have you still not gotten any of your loaners back"? Service Advisor tells me oh yeah , gotten plenty back but we've loaned them back out right away. So my part is supposed to be in this week, whether I'll get my car back this week or not is another story. $2,987 is the quote they gave me to replace my ignition switch. That's criminal. I'm sick of people taking advantage of women, like we are so naive and ignorant. I could have it repaired in Orlando for $1,100. Almost have the cost. But then I would have had to pay to have it towed 70 miles. So me and my car have pretty much been hostages to MB of Melbourne. And they want another $700 for a 2nd key. Never again will I take my car to these people. Ever. I had no problems at all, none. Car started fine all the time ran great. This problem happened I'm guessing because AAA improperly unlocked my car and activated my anti theft system when I locked my only key fob in the trunk with all the doors locked. The next day was when I had the no crank no start issue. Lights, doors, sunroof, dash lights all worked but nothing else. And there were no warnings or stalling or occasional starts. Just started fine after AAA jimmied my door even though he told me it wouldn't be a problem, drove it home that night and next day , nothing . Sudden death.

 

Last week I was just given an ETA of April 28, finally. Mine has been at the dealership since December 2022. I was quoted $3100. But my dealership has given me a loaner for the entire time so, there’s that.

 

I'm happy that you were given a loaner, as I know how difficult it has been for me to be dependant on others . I had to register my 9 year old for the school bus , which was not something I wanted to do, I've always taken her and picked her up. My husband has a work truck for his business , which he always is using and I don't have relatives or friends close by, so getting around has been minimal. My SA told me he had me down for the next vehicle loaner that was returned and when I inquired as to why I hadn't been given one , he just said he gave them out to others. What State are you in? The $3100 quote you received is that for The EIS part/programming /replacing ? So I guess my $2800 quote isn't as obscene as I thought.

 

I've been without a vehicle before too, that's rough. I'm sorry!! I'm in Illinois. I'm told the 3100 is for EIS, 2 new FOB's and labor.

 

I just spoke to the parts manager at my dealership. Apparently there are over 600 orders for the EIS right now that are on back order. He said "we have 2 facilities in Ukraine that aren't there anymore." Mercedes had to cancel a bunch of the orders. Luckily, mine wasn't cancelled but currently there is no lead time on the part. Crazy.

 

2009 C300...towed on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving 2022) to a local foreign repair business we have used many times before. Cannot get part as only available for repair at MB dealership. So it was sent out for re-built which they said they had done before. Well after 2 different times of trying, the car was towed to a MB dealership. They had it for several weeks and when I questioned about a loaner they wanted us to tow it back home since there was no ETA for the part. So now we have a car that has been out of commission since November 23, 2022 and no date when it will be driveable (now its June 2, 2023). I feel that MB should not charge us for the repair...we should get some compensation.

 

We've been waiting for the part since November 28, 2022!! We had to tow the car back home since there was no ETA for the part.

 

just swap the motor or do emulator...

 

It's June 2023, and i still have not received my car back from the local dealership. They have had it since 1/10/2023, waiting on an ignition switch from Germany. Still no loaner vehicle for me either. Spoke to my SA few weeks ago and he told me that Germany was holding on to some parts because of shortage. So what exactly does that mean? They are hoarding parts to pick and choose who gets them? I have been without my car (2014 C300 4 Matic 70k) since Nov 2022. At this point I'm seriously considering doing the emulator thingy. Can anyone tell me anything about it and , outside of my steering wheel not locking anymore which I don't care about at this point, is there any other undesirable effects to this?

 

MY car has been sitting on the dealerships lot since January and it's uncovered, out in the open under the hot Florida sun, and we had a bad hail storm about 1 month ago and they won't call me back to tell me if my car received damage and if so, are they going to take care of it. It's just bad business doing people this way.

 

After 7 months, my car is fixed and back home! They told me that they couldn't provide a loaner because there is no ETA on the EIS. I think it turned some heads in the shop when I returned my loaner and had to Uber home because the next morning they called me and said they replaced the ESL and it was fixed. I believe someone who knows what they're doing got wind of what was going on and made the suggestion. 7 months for what could have been 1 day.