Sorry long description coming up.

2004 CL500. Chasing a gremlin a few more times before I do a stand alone TT in this thing. Bought car clean title no key. Had key made by Mercedes using VIN. Switchblade works in door lock. Zero functions on ANY push buttons. Key not recognized by car. Key can insert, but has zero movement, zero turning ability in cylinder. Have good voltage at the keys ignition. Purchased a matching ecm, shifter, key, and ignition from salvaged CL500. Same result.

1. Fresh battery been on trickle charge since March
2. Hook up +&- terminals and the ONLY thing I can do is move seats controls and turn the lights on. Immediately hooking up battery the lower rear tail lamps and front fog lamps flash. Zero horn, but assuming vehicle believes its being broken into.
3. Have pulled ALL fuses and ALL relays on driver and psgr under hood boxes and under psgr rear seat and I mean all! Ecm removed too. Disconnect and reconnect battery same identical outcome.
4. Outcome and results are identical with either matched set of key, ecm, ignition and shifter installed. Flashers quit after some time but did not run a stopwatch.
5. Neither my cheap scanner nor friends shop (not MB specialist) can connect to either ecm via obd2

Nothing is butchered under hood.
Is there a 4th and even fifth location of fuse panels in this body? I wanted to get the car flashing in that mode and then pull fuses and relays one at a time trying to figure out which one would stop the result. No success yet. I realize I wasted time pulling fuses having zero to do with my issues, but I know where they go so went for ground zero.

I had it for sale back in May and tried to describe what the issues were to potential buyers. Two guys from FB said this is an easy fix no problem so I offered them $1,000 to come fix it and of course nobody showed up. All they did was call me a dumbass and that I know nothing about cars! Hilarious afternoon.

I'm 48 years old and own a custom hot rod shop. We do numerous domestic vehicles and high-end custom builds. I've loved the Mercedes since the 80s and wanted to Tinker with this. My knowledge of the brand has reached its maximum capacity so hoping to learn more about this vehicle and get it running down the road.

Thanks in advance for tips, guidance, and motivation!



Mark

 

2 verified Married sets of key, ECU, ignition and shifters. Salvage set I bought a few months ago came from running/driving car. Have determined that is not my issue. My issue happens without an ECU even plugged in.

 

My flog lights would flash whenever I opened door – for about 5 minutes before stopping, I’m sure alarm would have went off, but the internal battery died long ago like on most of the cars so it doesn’t work.

If I shut door and opened later it would start flashing again.

I did swap like you with no success – so I went back to the original stuff and had a key made, by sending off the ignition – I also got hold of Xentry software/hardware to plug in, it helps with diagnosing.

Check to see if you have 12v to EZS (ignition) - I did not and that was my problem (to this day have not solved why no 12v)

There are 2 plugs, the smaller one has red wire that should be 12v, if not get a constant 12v and tap into it.

If you don’t want to take out ignition, should be able to crawl under dash and unplug the connector (so you can get to wires easier to test for 12v)

I actually ran wire from that battery in trunk to ignition, I just had it hanging under the dash while trying to figure things out. - But when I get 12v to it the key would turn and the car would start.

 

After letting the car sit for a few weeks with no fuses or relays in it I reconnected all of those. The battery was on the charger since Feb.
The dash was torn apart with the ignition hanging where the radio used to be. I inserted the key it turned and we were rolling. It had never budged before. There was one blown fuse out of all 86 or so. I had never realized the AC compressor had Frozen at some point and the pulley wish shredded off it. When the motor spun over I quickly removed the air intake cover and squirted some starting fluid. She fired right up and the fuel pump kicked in and it idled no problem I did not let it run long because the belt is not spinning yet. Will be grabbing a shorter belt to bypass the AC compressor all together. No need for it with winter coming to Ohio. My guess is that the EIS fuse eas blown. In 32 years of hot rodding I really effed this up! Chased so many other foolish things, but all bueno now.