i have about 10200 miles on the car and it's due for it's next service. oil change was done at 1000. car has been driving perfectly until today.

after dinner, was driving home, car was warmed up before i do any spirited driving as i've done since day 1 of ownership. it was around 11:30pm and was on this stretch of road 3 lanes wide and pretty empty when a lexus GS zoomed by... soooo i caught up to it at a intersection and we both turned right and then we did like a rolling 40 and we took off... i was in S mode with esp off. no wheel spin. i got the jump and he was creepin, but all of a sudden, his car got super loud and just zoomed passed me... i was really impressed... i think the car had nos... either way, it was one QUICK car... then went back to normal driving and i turned around to head back towards home.

i was caught at a light by myself with no one around and i was still in S mode with esp off. i switched it to M mode and i decided to light up the tires just a bit. i didn't do a burn out... i just stepped on it while in 1st and right before red line, i went to 2nd but the red light lit up for a sec, and then i was still spinning a bit in 2nd and then went up to 3rd and just went on my way like nothing happened.

i drove for about 5 minutes just normally with some stop and go at a light and stop signs when i got into the neighborhood. i came upon the front of my house and just idled forward to park and came to a stop. right when i stopped, the car started to shake and the engine was bogging. i was like... wtf? and i just sat there in park while the car was shaking and bogging, and then the check engine light started to blink... i got nervous and shut the car off. i waiting a minute and started it back up, and it was still shaking, and the light was blinking. after a few seconds the light went solid... i turned the car off and called roadside service and they said all they could do is tow it to a dealership and wait until monday. i told them i'll just let it sit here and then see if it gets better tomorrow, if not, i'll call back and have them tow it first thing monday.

any ideas?

somethis is wrong with your car and dont drive it. get the car towed.

when you get a checkeng light that just goes on and stays on with out blinking you ok its nothing major. if the light blinks then its something major, anyway good luck and let us know whats going on and what happens .

wow, it sounds scary.

but no worry, it will be covered under the warranty.

best luck

sounds like the cam position sensor i had go bad in my car.

Leave the vehicle alone and get it towed to your local MBZ dealership w/service dept.

FREE TOWING for MBZ customers like you... call 1800-FOR-MERC in USA only... btw where are you located? See your owners manual to see where you can call for MBZ customers and towing

Any check engine light MAL (malfunction) with any vehicle 'shaking'/'boggin' and what not will need a diagnostic first to find out what is wrong.

Luckily you're covered under Mercedes Benz warranty. You did the right thing with the check engine light procedure, turning off the vehicle and calling for tow.

Stay patient and hopefully your local dealership gave you a rental. Sounds like they might have it for a while if it is serious. If not, your car might be there for a couple-few days. Not much help but yeah good luck and be patient.

yep, it's just sitting there... i'd rather have it with me until monday when they tow it and can actually service it... i don't want it sitting somewhere saturday night and sunday.

thanks for the tips... i really hope it's covered under warranty... and they don't come at me saying it was all my fault... M mode scares me now

I got the EXACTLY same problem! turns out my fuel level is too low and the Ethanol kicked-in the engine...after restarting the car in cold engine start, it's all gone but the CEL is still on (need restart obviously)

and the dealer take a look at the car, and they told me nothing is wrong, just too much ethanol on warm start engine.

But, I cant bet my car for your problem...good luck

Check engine light should be logged into the error recovery system on your car... MB should have an answer for you to what happened , shortly after they view these error logs. Good Luck!

I hope they don't read this thread. It would suck if they said you were ragging on it and told you to blow the warranty out your corn. You'd be surprised how many people view these boards. I may sound paranoid , but if I were you I'd have the mods delete this thread.

Best of luck

Ryan

A flashing CEL means something had a catastrophic failure. To me it sounds from what is described in the OP's post as a transmission related issue, but we all know it needs to be scanned.

Sounds like a coil pack. I'm not sure if the C63 has CPs but I'd blow them all the time in my 1.8T Audi TT. I had to buy some upgraded ones.

fuel level half or more...

seriously? does seeing the red light mean instant death? other than that, i don't see anything much different than what anyone else has done in their car.

great... now i should be paranoid too... maybe i'll just summarize my OP

the flashing check engine light means that there is imminent danger to emissions control systems, primarily your cats. This is generally due to a cylinder or cylinders that aren't firing due to a bad plug, COP assembly, or some sort of leaking injector. When you get a misfire, the raw fuel enters the exhaust, and can cause the cats to overheat, which is problematic in many ways.

That said, there are any number of problems that could cause this, including crank and cam sensors, COPs, plugs, etc.

i got same problem w/ my audi on the highway last time, then i just pulled over on the side, exactly the same thing as you described, as i know, the problem is because of 1-2 cylinder don't work (that's why the car shakes), due to 2 of the start coils down, then the service guy told me that is very common, so take it easy, your car will be fine..

There is a lot of good advice in this thread except for maybe NOMO's adding to your paranoia re your initial post.

Don't worry, you have done absolutely nothing wrong and Mercedes will fix your car whatever it turns out to be.

thanks everyone... gonna go meet the tow truck now... wish me luck

you want them to delete this post b/c he drove it above 55 mph and did a little tire chirping at the light? u gotta be kidding me...

dont worry, i know nothing to the extent of your damage, but you will be covered under warranty -

the last thing MBUSA is going to do is reject a warranty claim on a car that has an option to have the speed limiter removed b/c you drove it like you;re supposed to ...

+1 on betting it's a cam sensor issue. I had the same thing at about 2000 miles. It ran extremely rough at idle or low speed. Smoothed out around 35-40 mph. I never went above 40 on the way directly to the dealer.

fixed in bold

so i got to watch my car get put up on a flat bed...

dropped the car off at the dealership and got a loaner... they won't have any information about the car until tomorrow... also having them do service A while it's there...

*fingers still crossed*

Just wait... and have fun with the loaner

+2

Same here. +3 on that comment. Passed a car but some idiot switched lanes in front of me right as the gear change happened.

Same crazy CEL and misfire within minutes. I guess this was limp mode. I was unsure if I would get to my office a mile away. I got there shut down the car and then restarted a few minutes later without a prob. Data log confirmed it was a cam sensor that shut down 4 cyl. All repaired under warranty and no issues since.

Shift light does not mean instant death. There is a rev limiter. I hit a geear change in M mode and it did not switch one time. Dash went red, rev limiter kicked in. That is its job. I released the throttle and pressed the + lever. No worries. I wouldn;t do it on purpose to try it out but that is why the car is equipted with it.

i figured there was a rev limiter, but it's just something about a big flash of red that just scares you... and after what happened to my car, can you blame me... but that's good to know, i guess i can venture on into M again later on

Update: *drum roll please*

they need to replace my camshaft solenoid. part will be in tomorrow, hopefully i'll have my car by the end of the day.

thank you all