Zaiki

I own a 2003 E240 V6 which I bought 6 years ago. It has thus far been performing very well and without any problems. Last week however, while driving on the road it stopped suddenly, without any warning. I tried to re-start, the engine cranked intermittently but did not start. I had to have it towed to my garage and my mechanic told me it was the crankshaft sensor. The sensor was changed in less than half hour, and while it didnt cost that much the whole incident was very inconvenient. I would expect a car of this prestige would not have such problems.

I found the incident very inconvenient (not to mention embarassing) and unnecessary. It could also have been dangerous if it were to stop at high speed on a highway. Why do Mercedes use this sensor, and why didn't it give any warning in the first place? Is this common with this particular model? With cars being very reliant on electronics nowadays I think we'd be better off using old technology which rely more on mechanical which are more reliable.

JeffyPooh

One problem in six years in a ten year old car is pretty good.

Cars of the 1970s (back when they had few electronics) tended to be vastly less reliable than today's modern cars. The "good old days" are right now.

Just be happy it failed in a relatively safe location.

vettdvr

Most cars I know of use only 1 CPS and there are many failures of this part. Brand of vehicle doesn't affect this part failure. My guess is there is one co. making a different shape to fit all the engines. Look at the maker of the CPS if you think 6 yrs is a premature failure. My diesel truck at 155,000 miles was recalled for CPS failure. and no it isn't a MB.

ozusa

Zaiki, Sorry to hear you had this problem. The part that failed does occassionally fail - on any car. It is a simple sensor with no moving parts. A mechanical alternative would need to include a distributor and timing gear that would wear out eventually, too.

The part that failed has no moving parts and is a more-or-less necessary component in a modern eletronic ignition car. A mechanical-based ignition system would have more parts to fail and substantially more frequent maintenance, that many people would forget to do, and be stranded at the side of the road. On balance, you are probably better off with what happened. (btw, the part usually fails after some warning signs, such as engine stops when hot a few times. If you'd been able to wait for it to cool down, you may have been able to restart it and drive to a repair place - assuming you knew to do that, of course.) I agree with Vettdvr, these are the good day.

Zaiki

Thank you for the kind replies so far. No, there was no indication/warning at all prior to it stalling. There was no warning mesages on the display either. Pity though that I had to learn it the hard way. On a related note, I have been driving Japanese cars all the while and have had no similar incidences occuring. At least they don't just drop dead like that!

Are there any other components/parts/devices that would give the same trouble (i.e engine stalling without any prior warning) that I should be mindful of? I don't want ot be caught again unprepared in the future.

Thanks again, I have benefited significantly from this forum.

Plutoe

I can appreciate you trying to anticipate an issue-----however thinkof what you said-----there are many things that will stop the car or fail to start the car-----however good MB parts engineering do not stop things from happening----they prolong the occurance.

Therefore a way to eliminate that potiential problem is to tow a second newer car or trade your car in every three years. Good Luck!!

murman

Be grateful! Years ago I had a '97 3-series BMW camshaft position sensor crap out in -30 weather in the middle of freaking nowhere BC.