So I just got my car back from the dealership on Friday. I drove it home & parked it in the garage. I go to start the car Saturday evening and the car won't start. I got an SRS Malfunction service required error message. This message only appeared once. Afterwards, many attempts to start the vehicle failed. Sometimes it will crank followed by clicks or no crank and sometimes no crank & clicks. The battery is new & it does this when on the charger. I noticed that my steering wheel will NOT lock. I checked both fuses that operates the steering lock assembly and both fuses tested good. Also, when attempting to start, it appears the electronics goes haywire. Clock keeps resetting itself, CD player makes noise, infotainment screen comes on & off & sometimes the car won't lock. This will happen intermittently when trying to start.
Now I just got the car back from the dealership. I had the burl walnut wood interior trim replaced under warranty. The dealership had my car for 3 weeks!! for the wood trim, stating that some of the interior trim pieces were incorrect & their parts source kept sending them the wrong pieces due to a parts # mix up in their system.
Now is it possible the service tech damages something in the steering column replacing the wood trim around the instrument cluster or damaged something electronically?
Of course it happens on a Saturday evening so, I will be out of a car all weekend and can't reach out to anybody until Monday.
The car is garage kept, with 104k miles on it. I only average 3 to 5k miles a year on the car now. It's been very frustrating going what is now 4 weeks without a car. I never had any mechanical issues with the car prior. I bought it in 2015 with 30k on it.
Anybody have any ideas as to what the problem could be? How should I handle this with dealer?

Thanks!

2013 E350 4matic sport sedan

 

You have '13M276 that has starting issues at 104kMi with a freshly charged newish battery.

You did not produce a car scan so I can only guess
1 - Main chassis GND Strap
2 - Starter unit
3 - Drain-while-parked... scan CAN-Bus chaos.

Having owned that car for so long you can tell if the starter has seen frequent starting or highway miles.

GND Strap if you live in a wet or salty area then check for lights flickering during crank.

Lastly don't overlook a loose battery strap connection. Any recent electrical work???

 

This is bad electrical contact somewhere....

You said steering lock, you mean you still have the actual steering lock like below :

 

I did do a scan on the car. I have a cheap Matco scan tool, nothing fancy just gives you the ability to read & clear fault codes. The scan said Pass - No codes.
I had no electrical work done & no prior issues with the cars electronics or mechanical issues for the most part. I did have the cylinder head gasket done at the dealer in May. I only put about 400 miles on the car since the gasket was replaced.
I just got the car back Friday from the dealership for the burl walnut interior wood trim replaced under warranty. The dealership had my car for 3 weeks. When I got my car back, I only drove it home and parked it in the garage and the next day the no start issue.
No loose battery strap and the lights come on bright no flickering or dimming during crank or after crank.
Also, the steering wheel will no longer lock at all. I believe this is causing the no start issue & the SRS Malfunction.
I don't think the starter would cause the electronics to go haywire. I put about 3 to 5k miles a year on the car if that, mostly highway or through the neighborhood. The car is only driven maybe 5 days a month and that's how the car been driven for the past 5 years.

 

I am assuming so. I had no work done to the cars steering/starter/ignition system or any problems prior. I don't know what the service tech did or had to do to replace the wood trim behind the steering wheel/around the instrument cluster. All the interior wood trim was replaced, dash, doors, center console, & climate control area.
Now, like I said the steering wheel will no longer lock. If I go into my car with the car dead, without putting the key in the ignition, I can freely turn the steering wheel as if the car was on.

 

This steering lock is part of the anti theft component and depending on its level of issue, it can even tell/make electronic ignition key EIS to not allow cranking and even disable Ignition On engine off where the instrument cluster is
supposed to lights up. Its can make the car seems like totally electric dead.

You need an MB capable scanner to access it and see what state is it in.
Xentry can access, you need to try a few times, even when instrument cluster is totally dead with key in position 2 clockwise ( ready to crank ).
There then you can read the DTC issued by EIS or ECM about the steering lock.

When ignition is OFF key out, this electric steering lock has to be in a LOCKED state.
So now that it is always UNLOCK even with key out, the EIS and ECM will see it as a fault condition and thus you get the no crank.

My friend's W204 has this steering lock, I don't have it as I have full electric steering system, not hydraulic one.
If I recall, when ignition key is IN and without even turning clockwise step 1 ( accesories ) , the steering lock will UNLOCK... which step is it, ? I forgot.

The EIS Ignition and ECM engine will not allow engine start when the steering lock is not functioning properly.

I hope it is just a loose connector to this electric steering lock and not the unit going bad.
It will go bad when it is aging. Small motors driving plastic gears..... hhhmmm...is not a tough design.

 

A feel of how the ESL is mounted on the steering wheel. W204 or W212, the same .


Good thing if it is now in UNLOCKED state.



....



This is the ESL causing no crank and not even ignition


Have fun troubleshooting.....

 

Well, and this could be totally coincidental, but the starter may be going bad since you have intermittent crank/no start issues and no crank/no start issues. I have not heard of common problems with Mercedes starters, but it happens.

The symptoms also seem like a low voltage problem, but you say the battery is new. What does "new" mean? 1 year, 1 month, 1 week?

Get a Mercedes specific scanner or XENTRY. An excellent scanner for these types of issues is the LAUNCH Creader Elite 2.0 BENZ, about $160 on Amazon. It will read all modules.

 

Leave car at dealership for 4 weeks, get it back and have starting issues that were not present before........ seriously guys why have him troubleshooting all over the place. Call dealer monday and have them come pick it up. Possibly they drained the battery and didnt charge it at all during the 4 weeks (not that it should need it), how many times did they start it and move it to the shop then back out?

When they were screwing with all the trim did they mess something up? Possibly. Not sure what but dealers and techs many times are idiots and the ones that are doing a half A warranty on trim are probably not the experienced techs right.