Ajax Lesser

Was driving the in the rain and noticed the lights in my dash go off and on. When it goes off, I see the warning message "ESP Malfunction Visit Workshop". During this split second, the ABS light is on as well.

After ~1 second, the dash lights come back on and the error message goes away.

This happened about 4 times.

Then, when I got off the highway, parked at a stop sign, suddenly my headlights start flickering. The dash backlight starts flickering as well. The ESP warning message appeared and disappeared rapidly.

I had to manually turn off the headlights and turn them back on to stop the flickering.

After I turned them back on, all was good again.

Anyone know what is going on? Battery issue? ESP issue? Net net, this is really freaky. I'm beginning to regret this purchase decision.

Tschuss_Bill

Do a search of the error in this forum or in Google. "ESP Malfunction Visit Workshop". Lots of hits.

PlatinumPi4u

2 batteries in this car.. one is like a motorcycle battery and controls the electronics.

Most likely this is it....

Take it to an indie who can pull the codes for sure and hopefully its time to get a fresh battery. I had to buy both at once and it was from the dealer, because I lagged on it. Then I found a good indie spot that was reviewed off one of these forums.

Ajax Lesser

Yep. Replacing both batteries did the trick..... for now.

Dealer said if the situation acts up again, the alternator probably is busted too. Let's wait and see.

Ajax Lesser

2 days later, issue repro'ed again. Mechanic checked --- the alternator seemed to work fine --- which meant the next step would be checking for shorts throughout the car @ $150/hr.

Traded in the E500 Friday afternoon.