ixtlimb

So the wife turned the car on today and got the bright Orange message "Power Steering Malfunction - See Opertors Manual". Did a quick pull of codes to see if there was anything registering and nothing. What's intersting is not only is there this message but the Radio/Media (not Xentry) LED does not turn on at all. Car will shift into gear but I have not pulled it out of the garage just yet.

Any thoughts on what to check? I do have an appointment with the indy shop for B3 and Trans flush but am hoping I can drive the car in rather then get it towed. Thanks!

CaliBenzDriver

This is really odd... wife starts the car and got the EPS to display a sobering error....
Yet your Xentry shows no error!

The long story short... Despite test missing, I believe this is related to a low voltage drained battery unless the electric rack was driven through flood waters.

This rack is located really low at the very front of wheels above the under belly cover.


> ACTIONS TO BE CONCIDERED:
- 0 - Contact your nearest MB professional

- 1- Use Xentry to dig into EPS fault history to understand what happened...

- 2 - Test for evidence of drained battery courtesy of unstable [KeylessGo + DCU x4] Modules.


Thankfully EPS is a really well supervised touchy module that cries-wolf for any conditions.

We're glad it does to prevent electric steering from shutting down on us while driving.


Run a FULL CHASSIS SCAN for evidence of other bus Modules disfunctioning simultaneously.

S-Prihadi

On my friend's W204, with hydraulic power steering, when and if the ABS/ESP went banana and produce DTC, power steering assist is cut off and becomes heavy.
There is some sort of solenoid in a hydraulic steering system, that may have loose wiring or went bad.
Is the steering heavy with those warning ?

CaliBenzDriver

Surya:
you know MY 2016 is unlikely using hydraulic rack but heavily relying on delayed EPS datastreams...
This module has got to have a record of faults

S-Prihadi

ohhhh yah. 2016 should be Electric Power Steering
I saw a W222 with a defective module of its EPS at my indie last week. MB Indonesia wants US$6,500 for it. complete assy, no such thing as partial parts
In USA it is max US$3K I think.

I saw videos on this EPS issue, sometimes the bearing, the belt or the electronic module....man I wish mine would stay good for 20+ years.

CaliBenzDriver

We may have to study our rack specific defects and prepare a visit to tweak managed weaknesses... I can bet safety must track managed disfunctions to sustain rebuilt-rack business: TRW, Conti ???

W212 matured systems are extrimely well thaught out products. We are privileged to own them and test drive them.

Somewhere else I saw how this rack internals are far from waterproof. A little splashing is ok but standing water must be avoided.

The other thing I bet my left nut is evaporated grease plus dry plastics undersized gears. Common chassis light/dry grease

> GUARANTED... ELSE??
If troubleshooting is not done well, good rack will be exchanged then of course the original issue will return... AGM batt test FIRST!
✌️

ixtlimb

Thank you all! I updated the original thread to reflect the radio/command LED as displayed in the picture and not Xentry. Code check was just an inexpensive code scanner so will have the Indy run it to ground. I’ve had the car for about a year and since I have had it has not been in standing water.