cheapbstrd

New starter placed and started up twice and ran for about 50 miles. Early in that drive had an electrical glitch where the lights flicked off and back on for about a second. Parked it and went to start it the next day and have a no crank no start situation. Key is recognized as the dash responds and am able to turn the ignition switch. Fuse 52 is ok. I rented a relay tester and tested the relay next to fuse 52 (I think that is the starter relay) in the engine compartment and had two lights illuminated on the tester at pin 86 which I think is the control side switch. The instructions say you should not have both lights illuminated as this mean a short. Not sure this is the culprit as the switch might be inhibited from sending the signal to the starter solenoid. Next step is to jump 30 and 87 to see if I can get it to crank. Thoughts? Might it be DAS or SAM? Thanks.

EMRSddFnBaZzsao

I bought my 05 a couple weeks ago. Just joined the site and re: the car, just slowly drinking things in at the moment. You sound way ahead of me on the electro troubleshooting but I had an issue starting the car because the prev owner basically let both fobs die. It wasn't totally dead. Just wouldn't start. Replaced the batts. Car starts and runs, lock buttons apparently still need resyncing to work again. Haven't gotten to that yet as it's in a garage and only gets driven in large circles returning home. Fun car. Good luck.

David_Vash

So from what I have read is that you installed a new starter and it ran fine with the car for 50 miles and then now does not work at all. My first question is if you went ahead and got an OEM starter. If you did and it still didnt work after a day or so, then I'd say it definitely sounds like an electrical issue where somewhere along the way the starter isnt getting power. I would check the battery out and see if it has aged and failed the battery test. If it hasn't then I would look into wiring/fuses, which it sounds like you already started diving into. Each W203 comes with their own fuse chart that describes what each fuse does. It will be your best help in this case if power and voltage isnt the issue. These cars are very finicky when it comes to electronics. When my car battery was still allowing my car to start, it was so weak that the ESP module would often lose connection, my AC would no longer work, and my engine would have sever misfires. I thought my car was mechanically totaled until the shop told me the only thing they could find was a bad battery. After replacing it, it has solved all my problems. Keep this in mind. Sometimes complicated situations have simple answers.