Yesterday I went to the track "Zolder" in Belgium for their drift school. The day starts with some simple lessons like drifting on an open piece of tarmac around some cones in second gear, maybe 20mph, 180° turn and back to starting place. The tarmac is very wet and slippery, so very easy to get the car sideways, without being hard on the car.
My first few attempts were no problem, I think it was after about 5 attempts, with ESP completely off and in manual mode the car went into safety mode.
I could feel the traction control kicking in (I had it turned off) and on the dashboard I got a CEL, ESP not available, tire monitoring system not available. When I tried to leave, I gave it some throttle and the car was just idling, I gave it full throttle and it took about 10 seconds before the car was doing 2000rpm.

Turned the ignition off, started again, throttle respons was ok, CEL stays on. New attempt, same problem.

Disconnected the battery for 15 minutes, tried again, same problem.

Put the car in service mode (rolling road-mode) so this puts esp, abs, ... off.
Same problem.

Went home, CEL is already out, car runs ok. Did some 150mph+ sprints, no problem. Not able to attempt drifting without the neighbors calling the police

After my problems with a lot of smoke (oil burning) after 10 minutes that I had the previous trackday, I am pretty sure that you can not call a c63 a sports car. More a luxury cruiser with a big engine.

I am not hard on the car, I take good care of it, let the engine warm, let the engine cool, very punctual on oil changes, ... I am not abusing the car, I'm just using it like it should be used... This is a car with a V8, brembo brakes, LSD, lowered suspension, ... A little bit of spirited driving shouldn't hurt it?

 

Did you see what was going on with oil temps while drifting?

Odd for it to turn on traction control by itself... With it completely off this shouldn't have been an issue.

 

Oil and water temperatures were perfect. Water was about 95°C oil 99°C

The day had just started, I did about 5 attempts to drift (about 5 times 30 seconds).

The rest of the time, I was just waiting at idle, about 2 minutes. I think we were with 8 cars in our group.

 

I have to say, once I had a CEL on public road with (more or less) the same conditions. I was waiting in heavy traffic, going 2 mph. This took about 15 minutes. I got at an intersection and gave it full throttle and a CEL came up.

The car was driving fine, CEL disappeared after a few days.

 

The CEL should be stored, see what it is.

 

Car goes to the dealership next week. Pretty sure they will find nothing (like the last time).

I'm starting to get a hate/love relationship with my car :-/

 

Get a OBD reader or monitor to read it your self.
Gotta say , I'm new to the "computerized" sports cars and have recently loaded Dashcommand to my phone and use a wireless OBD reader linked to it so I can try to understand the tuning. Pretty impressive. Used it on another car to see the cause of the CEL.

If i were having your problem I'd give one of the OBD readers a try to see if you can see the cause instead of the dealership saying its nothing.

 

Even with ESP in the off position, if the car goes into "emergency mode" ie hard braking that engages ABS, etc. the ESP will turn itself back on. The only way to turn everything off and keep it off is through the Dyno mode menu.

This is still a strange situation, especially considering the AMG Academy uses the C63 for their wet skid pad exercises (aka drifting). There were no issues on the day I was there, and I can't imagine they would use the C63 if it was prone to issues like the OP is having.

 

Reminds me of a different post and a similar previous experience of mine, where a throttle valve malfunctioned: Could the throttle not reacting as expected cause this behavior? In other words, when the throttle valve does not move as directed by the ECU (because it is on its way out), the car would switch into safe mode and show such warnings.


At least worth asking the dealership. In such a case there would be a throttle related error in the log.

 

Getting an obd reader will be the best I can do for the moment...

Normally, with esp off, I can drift as much as I want. This was just a 180° turn at 20mph, nothing special :-)

 

Dealership didn't find anything. They said it was because the position of the throttle didn't match the speed of the wheels.
This week, had the same issue (more or less). I started the car, put the car in drive, tried to start the same error happened. Gearbox in C, traction control on.
I put the car in P, and I gave it a little bit of throttle to see what the engine does... Bad idea...
Throttle respons was very slow, but the car started to rev from itself to 6-7000 rpm's (with a cold engine) and then dropped back to a rough idle, oscillating between 700 - 1400 rpm. Car was in limp-mode, I could only do 10km/h to put the car on the side of the road.
Ignition off, back on, all is fine :-/

 

Picture of my dashboard, top speed 10km/h

 

I'm also thinking it's the throttle valve, the dealer didn't find anything in their diagnostic system, so for them, there is no problem.

The mercedes mechanics are afraid to get their hands dirty, they want to solve everything with their computer :-)

 

Request the throttle valve to be replaced. Doing nothing is not acceptable and they obviously do not have a better idea.

 

Op, anymore word on this? I had a similar thing happen to me today although it was only the esp & tyre pressure monitoring not available. No check engine lights & throttle worked as per normal. I was trying out a few launches with different settings -RS & esp off with no dramas, did about 6 launches (temps weren't too much higher than normal operating temp), started driving home (esp still off), hit a slight imperfection in the road, nothing too harsh & the messages came up with both esp lights permanently on. Pulled over, switched the car off & restarted & all was good. Not sure what to make of it.

 

edit; post appeared in wrong section. Deleted

 

Glad this fixed your ESP module.