timmercedesbenz

i have a 97 e320 that i got from my father as a graduation gift. only problem was- i had to fix it myself. its been sitting for quite some time, and was told it needed a new ecu, supposedly my father left it sitting after it went into limp mode, and then water went into the ecu compartment and fried the ECU. he tossed the old ECU and purchased a new one on eBay, and that one didnt work, car wouldnt start now. i got it and put in a used computer and got spark, and fuel, but the injectors are not firing. my mechanic has it now and hes telling me this. he says the computer has to be reflashed and reprogrammed to the security system enabler. how much will this cost if possible? he said if the dealer isnt able to do that then i must buy a new ecu and that will cost me $1150.00 I really need some insight on this. i am new to this forum and would appreciate any help. the car has 81k original miles and my grandfather owned it as the first owner. PLEASE IF YOU CAN HELP ME ASAP I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!

Plutoe

There is no good news at least on this planet.

ECU's that have gone through 40 starts can no longer be cleared and recoded. The key data and the ECU data are then what is called married to one another.

Therefore when your Dad discarded his old ECU and his friend Harry put in a used ECU. His friend Harry did not know what he was doing, because the used ECU was not married to the key and that is why the injectors will not receive a signal to work and the car will never start.

I said that the used ECU was not married to the key and in the first paragraph I said that it was not possible to marry a used ECU----what is wrong with that picture.

What I did not tell you is that if you can find a person with DAS version 10_2008 or earlier and he has developer(factory) keys for the diagnostic system, that person will be able to use the DAS developer feature to clear and re code a used ECU. On subsequent DAS versions that specific ability was removed by MB from the diagnostic software.

If that fails, your only hope is to find someone on fleabay who is selling a married set of the keys, electronic ignition switch and ECU from the same car that has the same features as yours. That takes trust in the seller.

Therefore and failing all that it means a new ECU and version coding. Good Luck

timmercedesbenz

So if anyone were to have DAS 10-2008 or earlier they could "reflash" my ecu back to original factory settings, correct? After they did that, would my car be able to fire up again? Thank you for your reply!

-Tim.

Plutoe

Yes in de dedee!!, but your response overlooked(left out) one very important point that was made!!