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I'm currently facing the notorious three-light problem on my S212 2012 E250 CDI 4Matic: those pesky ABS, ESP, and another warning light have illuminated.
Xentry flagged the right rear ABS sensor as faulty or open. But here's the kicker: when I test them, all four sensors report the correct speed. Seems they're functioning after all.
Not long ago, approaching an intersection, the light turned red. Being close to the line, I stomped on the brakes. In that split second, I heard a metallic breaking sound from the front end, just a quick snip.
It caught me off guard, but since the car drove fine, no odd sounds or fluid leaks, I shrugged it off and kept going.
Fast forward two days, I'm heading home, and suddenly, the dashboard lights up.
Those damn warnings knocked out everything: ABS, ESP, Start-Stop, Hold function, Cruise Control, power steering you name it.
I've been driving around like this, scratching my head over what's going on.
Interestingly, the lights reset when I turn off the car and pull the key for a moment.
But they reappear after driving just 5–20 meters. I suspect it's triggered by speed rather than distance, or a mix of both.
What I've Noticed Now.
Recently, I've picked up on a noise coming from beneath the front left side as it seems.
It's not intermittent; it matches each wheel rotation like a bent piece scraping metal as the wheel turns, similar to
unbalanced bike rims rubbing against brake pads, it's not a ticking noise or anything like that, more like scratching.
The noise speeds up as the wheel does but stops once the warning lights kick in.
Any one have a clue on what might have happened, and what I should take a look at?
I do have Xentry, but just recently started using it, so i'm not to familiar with it.
I would pull the wheels off and take a look for anything out of place. Also make sure a small stone wasn't kicked up and jammed some place.
Do you have Distronic Plus? If the radar becomes uncalibrated, it will turn off all those items.
Yes I was about to lift the car and do some inspection soon.
No unfortunately I don't have Distronic Plus.
Originally Posted by CaliBenzDriver
ESP brake module is acting up.
What you describe and the way it resets with key cycle, I think calls for immediate attention without driving.
Xentry is an advanced software I can not help you with.
Yea that's why I'm trying to do, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
I just find it strange that the grinding noise stops soon as the ligts come on.
I'm currently facing the notorious three-light problem on my S212 2012 E250 CDI 4Matic: those pesky ABS, ESP, and another warning light have illuminated. Xentry flagged the right rear ABS sensor as faulty or open. But here's the kicker: when I test them, all four sensors report the correct speed. Seems they're functioning after all.
Not long ago, approaching an intersection, the light turned red. Being close to the line, I stomped on the brakes. In that split second, I heard a metallic breaking sound from the front end, just a quick snip.
It caught me off guard, but since the car drove fine, no odd sounds or fluid leaks, I shrugged it off and kept going.
Fast forward two days, I'm heading home, and suddenly, the dashboard lights up.
Those damn warnings knocked out everything: ABS, ESP, Start-Stop, Hold function, Cruise Control, power steering you name it.
I've been driving around like this, scratching my head over what's going on.
Interestingly, the lights reset when I turn off the car and pull the key for a moment.
But they reappear after driving just 5–20 meters. I suspect it's triggered by speed rather than distance, or a mix of both.
What I've Noticed Now.
Recently, I've picked up on a noise coming from beneath the front left side as it seems.
It's not intermittent; it matches each wheel rotation like a bent piece scraping metal as the wheel turns, similar to
unbalanced bike rims rubbing against brake pads, it's not a ticking noise or anything like that, more like scratching.
The noise speeds up as the wheel does but stops once the warning lights kick in.
Any one have a clue on what might have happened, and what I should take a look at?
I do have Xentry, but just recently started using it, so i'm not to familiar with it.
That is called substituted value, to allow use of the normal brakes and other function needing wheel speed data. So thus you see the claimed failed right rear is SEEMINGLY giving speed data.
Trust Xentry when it says : Xentry flagged the right rear ABS sensor as faulty or open.
Could be bad contact, could be real defective sensor
He must use carbon pile to max out the alternator, not simply car's own load as there is not enough in-house load to get 170 amps.
At 200F temperature , 25% derating is normal for alternator, all alternator...hence the WIS mentioned 170-220 AMPS is good, out of a 220 AMPs unit.
The WIS is actually showing a good carbon pile tester unit in the ugly hand drawing, but its just the information on the WIS is not super clear
That aftermarket alternator voltage profile after engine start and idling only reminded me of my friend's W204 C200, it is that dumb or super green or simply too slow to react.
I was looking at carbon pile tester just a few days ago, as my battery is now 3 years old and I am getting itchy to test it, test its 800A CCA, with 400A for 15 seconds and voltage must not drop lower than 9.6V.
The last battery I tested only at 10 amps load ( halogen bulbs ) for few hours trying to mimic but with a bit more powerful than the standard 20 hour test, but too slow , waste of time and can't tell CCA power.
I have an electronic battery tester, those with frequency injection, but China one and not Midtronics.... its not so good, may lead to wrong conclusion.
Real hardcore Dyno test with carbon pile seems the best and we can do a milder EN50342.1 Reserve Capacity method at 25 amps too , with the carbon pile.
So I just took another look at the car today.
Did not notice anything out of the ordinary with visual inspection in the front left wheel.
Did not notice any slack in the bearings as I moved the tire left/right up/down, slight grinding noise when turning the tire that I expected to
be more from the brakes then the bearings, or debris around the sensor ring that came after removing the ABS sensor.
Did notice that the ABS sensor had wear scratches on it.
I measured the sensor where it plugs into the junction box and had the reading of 6 MΩ, switched
the poles and got a reading of 9.2 MΩ, I expected to get 200-2000Ω.
I took some pictures from Xentry.
In the wheel speeds picture heavy spikes can be noticed on the right rear
wheel, I guess that means broken sensor, right? A new one is about 150€ not exactly a cheap one.
the fault codes list, as I cant see the dates I cant verify if those errors are legit or not, many of them
came when I was working on the car in the past. The codes above the 41EB00 are mostly "The control Unit is Defective"
44B100 error left rear sensor, i'm noticing it now for the first time.
It could be the sensor or tone ring. Maybe try swapping the sensor with the one from the opposite side first. I had a similar issue, bought a new sensor and it turned out to be the tone ring. It can get pretty dirty / rusty around that area so be careful not to get debris into the hole. I've seen one online mechanic put a foam earplug into the hole to prevent contamination while cleaning.
It could be the sensor or tone ring. Maybe try swapping the sensor with the one from the opposite side first. I had a similar issue, bought a new sensor and it turned out to be the tone ring. It can get pretty dirty / rusty around that area so be careful not to get debris into the hole. I've seen one online mechanic put a foam earplug into the hole to prevent contamination while cleaning.
I thought the same at first, but then when I checked the spikes I found it to be really unlikely the ring.
Time (s): The time interval between consecutive spikes.
Revolutions: The number of wheel revolutions between consecutive spikes.
Speed Drop (km/h): The drop in speed between consecutive spikes.
I would have thought if it was the ring then the results should be much more similar and should happen on each revolutions, right?
but there they happen on atleast 10 revolutions, and also there are few top spikes also.
Got the new sensor today, replaced it and... no change...
Spikes still showing in the wheel speeds and the noise is still coming from the engine bay, I belive it's coming from the ABS unit.
I had cleared the errors, but they came again.
I still find it hard to belive that the ring is damaged, but I guess it's no way of knowing unless to remove the
bearing and knuckle and having to buy a new bearing, right?
I've no idea how to go on from here. :/
I finally managed to fix the dreaded ABS lights.
It turned out that both of the ABS rings were severely rusted and cracked on the right side.
I removed them both and placed one new ring on the axle.
Also cleaned the water lane between the knuckle and hub/bearing.
Also replaced the bushings since I was starting to replace the whole rear arms and bushings on both sides.
One of the rings.
And the other one.
Here you can see both of them...
I checked the sensors in Xentry and noticed the yellow line (rear right) is not like the other 3, atleast not in the high tops.
Any idea why that might be?
I might try installing the original sensor again as it might have been ok all along, maybe that fixes it?
All seems to be working well again, although, it might be just my imagination but I can sense some slight drifting when driving outside of town when it's slippery, it's not as glued to the road as before, I never experienced it before the lights came on. When I say drifting, I don't mean like it's throwing it's *** all around the road, more like few cm. I still have to replace a bad bushing on the left side, maybe that's causing this? . I've been quite sensitive for those drifts since I lost the control of my old car in a compressed snowy road about 24 years ago. It's hard to describe.
Despite that, I'm just really happy having my cruise control, HOLD and power steering back (and all the other things also)
RWD or rear drive shaft magnetic ring can be bought stand alone, I saw EPC for 4-matic front side, you must buy boot repair kit, like the one below , is that the case ? https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/MB-2043300585
.
If rear
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Condition of my magnetic ring ( RWD ), late last year.
I didn't look at EPC back then, if I known that is the magnetic/impulse ring, I would have provided better rust protection.
All seems to be working well again, although, it might be just my imagination but I can sense some slight drifting when driving outside of town when it's slippery, it's not as glued to the road as before, I never experienced it before the lights came on. When I say drifting, I don't mean like it's throwing it's *** all around the road, more like few cm. I still have to replace a bad bushing on the left side, maybe that's causing this? . I've been quite sensitive for those drifts since I lost the control of my old car in a compressed snowy road about 24 years ago. It's hard to describe.
Despite that, I'm just really happy having my cruise control, HOLD and power steering back (and all the other things also)
In most likely case your front toe is out, due to this magnetic ring job and if any bushing of the front suspensions get replaced, or even simply removed and re-installed.
2015 SL400 (M276 Turbo), 2014 C350 Sport (M276 NA), 2004 SL500 (M113), 2004 Audi TT225 (BEA)
I've not explored whether XENTRY can or needs to calibrate the wheel speed sensor. Looks like a delta of 5 mph. I wonder if the "squirreliness" you are feeling is a function of the ESP trying to bring the right rear wheel into concurrence with the other wheels by cutting power to it. My understanding is that traction control reduces power to the faster spinning wheel because the assumption is too much power is causing wheel spin.
(FWIW, I know what you mean by feeling like the rear end shifts. I once had tires with soft sidewalls on a performance car that felt that way. I ended up returning the tires to TireRack and getting some with stiffer sidewalls.)
Wow, winter salt is killer.
RWD or rear drive shaft magnetic ring can be bought stand alone, I saw EPC for 4-matic front side, you must buy boot repair kit, like the one below , is that the case ? https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/MB-2043300585
Condition of my magnetic ring ( RWD ), late last year.
I didn't look at EPC back then, if I known that is the magnetic/impulse ring, I would have provided better rust protection.
It was the rear ring I just replaced, haven't thought of the front ones yet, might look into that next summer.
I'll be sure to get the kit.
Thank you.
Originally Posted by S-Prihadi
In most likely case your front toe is out, due to this magnetic ring job and if any bushing of the front suspensions get replaced, or even simply removed and re-installed.
Only replaced the 2 control arms in the front, i'll be contacting my dealership regarding wheel alignment when i've finished replacing all bushing and arms.
Originally Posted by JettaRed
I've not explored whether XENTRY can or needs to calibrate the wheel speed sensor. Looks like a delta of 5 mph. I wonder if the "squirreliness" you are feeling is a function of the ESP trying to bring the right rear wheel into concurrence with the other wheels by cutting power to it. My understanding is that traction control reduces power to the faster spinning wheel because the assumption is too much power is causing wheel spin.
(FWIW, I know what you mean by feeling like the rear end shifts. I once had tires with soft sidewalls on a performance car that felt that way. I ended up returning the tires to TireRack and getting some with stiffer sidewalls.)
Yeah I havent heard of ABS sensor calibration.
Yes you might be right that the rear end shifting might be the ESP. Would have to find that somewhere in
the Xentry and make it record it while driving, not the dummest idea.
But did no one think it was strange that my rear wheel had two ABS rings?
It was the rear ring I just replaced, haven't thought of the front ones yet, might look into that next summer.
I'll be sure to get the kit.
Thank you.
But did no one think it was strange that my rear wheel had two ABS rings?
Did the magnetic ring split its lower and upper part into 2 pcs ?
That is what I thought seeing 2 of them. One below seems smaller diameter than the upper one.
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This is the wheel bearing remove-able hub.
Mine
Your shaft end corrosion is quite bad. All the way to zone C
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