strider-g3

Hi all, my CLK55 has been sitting for over a week now because I cannot start it. I had someone come and check if the ignition module (EIS) has power and he used a tool which showed ignition does not have power.
The issue started happening with cooler temperatures approaching. I bought the car this summer and never had this issue but had a few other issues over the months:

Transmission does not shift out of Park in colder weather, I have to use shift lock button. (previous owner told me about this)
The ABS / BAS lights BOTH flash for half a second TOGETHER while driving but go away instantly - they flash randomly (doesn't matter if I'm driving or just in neutral or park etc)
The reserve fuel light began blinking one night while I was driving P0455 (large evap leak detected)
Codes for both O2 sensors P0150 / P0130
When I indicate LEFT, the indicator flashes RIGHT 50% of the time (this is very strange and only started happening the night I got EVAP code and cleared it using OBD)

I did some research and found people saying that they had steering wheel lock problems that caused their key not to turn.
I am able to turn on head lights, turn on radio, and interior lights work also. The seats do not move.
Key goes into ignition and I hear no audible sound of steering lock or anything.
OBD plug does not have power so there's no way to diagnose it

The only way I was able to get car to start was by putting a small heater inside and making the car very hot inside. I placed the heater on the drive side floor area and let it run for a few hours.
Car was very warm inside and then I was able to turn the key and drive it. This has successfully worked twice. I've tried this maybe 6-8 times now.
Once I was able to get the car to turn on but it would automatically shut off after 30 seconds or so of idling.Now I cannot get it to turn on and key is not moving from position 0.

The buttons on the key do nothing but red LED flashed
Key is not damaged
Key has been tested, its working.
I only have one key.

Car is not parked outside, its been parked inside since I bought it and the previous owner also parked in the garage and did not winter drive

Can anyone help guide me in the right direction?
Car is stuck inside my house garage and space is very limited.

dfrois

Your report leads me to suspect 3 possible situations:
- Bad wiring (possibly from rats or some such, during the winter inside the garage)
- Something screwing the Interior CAN bus - could be caused by bad wiring
- A faulty EIS - but I don't see that causing some of the other issues, unless it is screwing the CAN bus.

Here is what I would do, if it were my car:

1 - Disconnect the battery for 30 minutes, connect it back, see if there is any change. If there is, record it on a piece of paper.
2 - During those 30 minutes, I would check every single fuse on the car, using a multimeter if possible. If any are found broken, record its position and what is fed from it, and replace with good one. All this with the battery off. I woluld also look very hard, everywhere, for signs of damaged wiring or electrical components of any kind. I mean removing all access panels, and looking into the areas with a powerful flashlight. This includes the trunk, behind the covers, the engine compartment, and the compartments inside the cockpit.
3 - If the symptoms change, tell this forum what changed, in detail.
4 - If no change happens, I would disconnect the battery again, and gain access to the rear of the OBD plug. I would remove the fuse that powers the OBD plug, and prepare some (safe) way to inject the 12V on the proper pin of the OBD plug, from its back, so that I could try to get a diag tool connect to the car, even if the car does not power the plug normally, as it should. I would then do your "heating gig", to try to turn the key once, so that the diag tool could connect to the car and give any clues as to the possible causes.

If, and only if, all this failed to produce any result or indication, I would have a long, hard, think about what to do next. Options being:

1 - Sell it for parts/scrap/peanuts...
2 - Trying to remove the EIS, and connect some of its wires (according to the electrical diagrams, not at random!) to see if some, al least, of the circuits that are fed from it are working normally
3 - Invest the tens/hundreds of hours disassembling everything to find if there is ANYTHING broken/damaged/burned that might cause this many, seemingly unrelated, issues. A full electrical inspection, aviation-style.

My guess is, if there are no electrical damages, you have a busted EIS.

And please, do let us know how this progresses. Too many people come here, ask for help, get help, and then don't bother to report back on what they found, and what fixed the issue. Give something back, if you can.

Good luck.

strider-g3

Thanks a million for this detailed response.

I left the battery disconnected overnight and left it on the trickle charger (NOCO Genius 10)
Prior to this while the battery was connected, I would connect it to the trickle charger every now and then to keep the battery charged.
I noticed once that as soon as I connected the battery to the trickle charger, I was able to start it.
The battery is not old. Its got a stamp from 2019. It is however a walmart Ever Start MAXX-H8 battery. 900 CCA.

Anyways;
I reconnected the battery last night with a fully charged battery AND VOILA, I was finally able to start the car.
Idle was normal and it didn't hesitate when starting. Sounds normal also. No odd noises.
I did however get ABS / BAS lights on the dash and they both stored in the malfunctions. Could this mean brake wear sensor is being activated? I think front brakes are low.
I was excited that the car finally started and decided I would take it for a drive.
It was a cold dry night and I was curious to see how the car drives.
The moment I put it into drive after reversing out of the garage, the ABS / BAS lights turned off but the malfunctions were still stored and showing "2 malfunctions'
I drove around the neighborhood and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
SO I decided lets push my luck and take it for a real drive on the highway...

I did not notice my left turn indicator issue anymore. Every time I indicated left, it worked.
ONCE during my 1+ hour of driving / idling, I noticed the BAS / ABS light flashed for a second and went away. Even though I already had BAS / ABS stored in malfunctions screen, both these lights flashed once while driving.

I drove it to a friends place nearby (16KM away). I left the car ON and idling because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to turn it back on again.
It idled for about 15-20mins and then I went to grab a coffee before heading home.
When I pulled into the parking lot of the coffee place.. trouble.
Transmission was stuck in one gear. I noticed I wasn't able to shift manually either when holding the shift lever to the left or right to activate manual mode.
Not sure what happened that caused it but I drove home (on local roads) stuck in one gear. Felt like 2nd gear because when I shifted into drive from P or N, I got a small kick from the transmission.
When I switch between park and neutral reverse drive, I was able to see the gear change on my dash led screen. But once in Drive, the transmission was not shifting up or down. I was able to go over 60mph in the gear that I was in and nearly touched the red line.
I was hoping if I pushed the RPMs high enough, it might shift up. But that didn't work so I took it home slowly with cruise control on.
I got back home and parked the car and turned it off. Without taking the key out of the ignition, I turned it right back on and tried to see if the transmission would shift into manual mode and it did. It started shifting normally again.
No idea what caused it and what I should do about it?

I will pull the battery out again and check all the fuses. I couldn't do it in my garage as there's not enough space and I can't get the hood open. I probably should have checked fuses instead of going for a drive but oh well.

When i try with the Bluetooth OBD scanner, I get no codes even when the ABS / BAS lights are showing on the dash. I'm guessing it can't read these codes because its a very cheap $20 scan tool

I checked the battery levels with a multimeter and when the car is ON, it reads over 14V after I drove it around last night.
When the car is off, I'm showing 12.5 V
When turning the car ON, the Volts drop to about 10.5V and then go back up to 14V+ slowly as it idles.
I checked this morning and despite it being a cold morning, the car is recognizing the key and started right up.

I'm afraid to drive it even though I really want to given what the transmission did last night.
Any advice on what I can do now?

OH and there's this cable that connects to the positive battery terminal which looks.. damaged to say the least... could this be the problem?
Also here is a video link to a cable I see which is connecting to the negative terminal. No idea what it is?

strider-g3

Flyinspanner

@strider-g3 The ‘extra’ cables to the battery look like something aftermarket was added at some stage - see if you can follow the wiring to something.

Its normal for BAS/ESP warnings to come on after battery has been removed and as you found they go out after you reach about 20kmh and if you steer from lock to lock.

they came on momentarily- could be a dirty ABS ring, or with your transmission hiccups it could be a failing electroplate in the transmission, speed sensors are mounted on it. (Had mine go on the CL500, stuck in gear 2, no manual change etc etc, was about U.K.£400 to replace and renew trans fluid/ pilot Bush - avoids leaks Into loom) 2018 price.

get your battery load tested - I chased gremlins for 3 weeks when I thought my 9 month old battery was OK.... it was failing under load intermittently and would self discharge 🙄

Fatz

strider, does the video you posted actually show the extra cable running directly from the negative to the positive terminal of the battery? Is there some load devive in the cable? If not, that looks like a dead short to me. Maybe what that cable burned... Maybe there was an anti-theft/battery disconnect device installed at some point.

strider-g3

I'm not sure what that cable is but I have disconnected it and left it alone. So far so good. The BAS /ESP warnings have stopped flashing after I replaced the brake light switch as well so maybe that was the culprit. I haven't driven it much but usually I would have those lights flash at least once (regardless of being in gear or stepping on the brake pedal). See the picture below. The old swtich on the right. New OEM swtich on left. Maybe that was the culprit.

The one thing to note is that this vehicle's history shows it was a THEFT RECOVERY. So maybe you are correct about an anti-theft unit having been added after that happened.

strider-g3

Hey Fatz, yes it seems the battery has two connectors on each end. They are not connected together but they are somehow interlinked. The one connected to the Red terminal definitely shorted out. I'm glad I caught this before I had a mobile mechanic tear apart my dash. This guy showed up in a mini-van which had everything you'd need to tear a Mercedes apart. But he wasn't all that smart it seemed because he didn't even know where the OBD plug was on the CLK. Anyways, I hope to the german mercedes god that this issue is resolved. It sucked having the car just sit there and no way to even turn the key!