BOLARVA

1996 E300 Diesel W210 - my ETS warning light (!) keeps flashing on and off when I get over 35-40 mph, been happening since I changed all four tires. I have 225/60/16 on back and 205/55/16 on front, is it because of the tire size difference? Also I feel a vibration/sway now, doesn't feel as smooth when driving. When I first drove the car after the tires were replaced, I got about 3 miles and all the sudden the ETS and ABS light came on and stayed on along with the warning in display saying ETS Malfunction. The next day I started it up and no lights were on after pulling out and I got to about 35mph the Traction ETS warning started to flash like it would if I was spinning or sliding. The ETS nor ABS light came on just the traction warning ! light.

Which fuse controls the ETS and ABS Systems? How do you tell if WHEEL SENSOR is bad, should I check all of them? Is it possible the drive shaft or wheel arms could be bad?

MY VIN is WDBJF20F9TJ007769 (which I think means manufactured in Germany)

I just recently purchased this car and I have never had a Benz or German made car before so I don't know a lot about it.
Any answers, thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

khomer2

BOLARVA,
Well, you need to lay your cards on the table: Difference in tire size you ask?
What was the tire sizes before you swapped these tires on?
Check the tire rolling circumference. You may have a difference between the tire sizes on this car. This can light up your ETS and ABS.

Also, pull your scanner out and read the error codes that pop up and post it here.

kajtek1

Go to tire manufacturer site and compare rpm for 2 sizes you have

BOLARVA

Before I had all four tires at size 225/55 R15 now I have 205/55 R16 on Front and 225/60 R16 on back.

bbirdwell

Tire sizes are your problem.
Different rotational velocities cause the computer to calculate erroneous readings so it goes to fail-safe mode.
I calculate a 7% difference in rotational velocity with your current setup. also need to consider effect on speedometer.
i calculate old circumference as 1974. New front 1982. New rear 2123.
Feel free to sanity check the numbers.

khomer2

You can see the visual difference of your rear set up. Go with 225 50 16s at the rear, to get the diameter within the tolerances.

kajtek1

All those calculation have big margin for error as tires are build with very loose tolerances. That is why each manufacturer lists rpm for good calculation.
I wonder how speedo readings compares in real World. Suppose the car's speedo can take signal from any of 4 wheels, so with front and rear having different rpms that might come as funny reading.

BOLARVA

Thanks for the info. I was told I could stagger the sizes front to back, but I guess I was told wrong. So I have two more of each size. Which would be better for all four tires.....225/60 R16 or 205/55 R16

khomer2

Staggering means the rear wheels are wider than the front wheels.
A square setup means both front and rear wheels are the same width.
With a staggered setup, you cannot rotate all four of your tires. (different widths...)
A square setup is what the majority of cars/ suvs on the market have.
What are the specs of your wheels?

Here's what is shown for your generation model (based on the wheel sizes shown)

BOLARVA

I really have no idea, the rims are aftermarket universal ones. How do I go about measuring them to find out?

khomer2

There should be stamps on the backside of the wheels stating wheel size and the offset (ET)

BOLARVA

Ok, thank you, I will check in the morning.