Today the 01 CLK 320 almost caused a fatal collision. My wife was driving and was turning left in a major intersection when the car wheel decides to locked up and lose total power. Luckily the on coming car noticed she was stalled and slammed on breaks just a few feet from the vehicle. After two minutes the power came back on and the wheel unlocked.

I hate this car so bad and wonder if this is a known issue. I thought MB's were safe vehicles! This car only has 80k WTF?

I posted something similar about this before but it NEVER happened while the car was in motion.

See: https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...ease-help.html

 

MB told me to bring it in so they can get the codes from the computer to see what happened. I guess this is the only case from what I can see on the forum.

Scary!

 

Sorry to hear about this. I'm not aware of this type of thing happening with this car but please do let us know the results of the diagnostic scan.

 

Did the steering actually "lock", because I didn't think the steering lock mechanism could engage any time the key was in any position other than "0". For reference, the key has 4 positions:

0 - same as if the key is not in the ignition.
1 - you can move the windows, sunroof, etc.
2 - you can step on the brake and move the shifter.
3 - engage the starter.

If the car turned off, the steering would get very heavy, and your wife could think it was locked. If that's the case, I'd guess it's the CPS. If the CPS is going out, it won't leave a code. A large number of people have had CPS failures. When the CPS is going out, typically when it gets hot, it stops sending the ECU a signal, and the ECU doesn't think the crank is turning. If the ECU thinks the crank has stopped, it stops the fuel pump and ignition.

Of course, if the battery has an internal short, all bets are off. I have no idea what the steering lock does if power is intermittent.

 

I think you are dead on with this diagnosis!! Some people have even had the car turn off on the freeway at high speeds. I think the CPS just happened to finally fail in the middle of a turn. In either case its a VERY easy and cheap part to replace and a good place to start. I was lucky and mine failed at a McDonalds drive-thru. The people behind me were PO'd though.

Greg

 

I took my wife to the service center with me so she could answer the questions of what exactly happened. It seems that MarcusF was correct, it didn’t actually lock up. The steering wheel became super tight and the breaks tightened as well. This is because it stalled out, but we have no idea why it even happened because no major problem was detected in the MB software.

What is really scary is that the service tech looked over at me and said my car (E500) is different. Apparently, my breaks work off the battery and if my battery dies while I’m driving then I have no way to stop. What the heck??

 

More information on the CPS please? And is it a good thing to change it before it goes bad? I don't want to be in a rally doing 130 weaving in and out of traffic and my steering locks up.....

 

http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/M112M113CPSTry this website for a good write up and DIY!