arnsbrae

As I came off the slip road onto the motorway (freeway), my W213 (e220d) went into limp mode, leaving me with no acceleration. An error came up on the dashboard;

Oil level
Reduce oil level

I continued home and called Mercedes Me from the car. A technician arrived 1.5 hours later but was unable to hook up to the German server as he was out of range (60 miles) from his base and the home dealer for my car is registered to a dealer about an hour in the other direction. The technician could see the fault on his system - something about a booster fault I think.

So a tow truck will come later this evening to take the car to the dealer and a rental company will ring me to arrange delivery of a rental car.

The car was already booked in to resolve a false headlamp error that has made the intelligent light system unavailable.

I can't say I'm too thrilled at all of the above. The only saving grace is that Mercedes has communicated well and have done their best to make everything easy for me...

In case anyone is interested, I will post back when I find out what has gone wrong.

Proeliator2001

Doesn't sound good. I've got a 220d as well (in UK) so I'm keen to see what caused the issue. Hope it's not too much of a ball ache for you.

I had the same headlight fault. Intelligent light system stopped working and right hand headlight wouldn't turn off (weirdest fault I've ever had in car). My adaptive main beam was rubbish before the fault, constantly getting flashed by oncoming traffic. Dealer replaced headlight control unit (took a week to get hold of) and it's been a revelation since. Adaptive main beam is dancing all over the place throwing dark boxes round anything that moves. No more angry flashes. Maybe you'll see an improvement too.

arnsbrae

Thanks for the heads up on the IS system. I hadn't driven the car much yet, so didn't try it yet. I was about to then, coincidentally, I saw the "left dipped beam" error (both lights were actually fine on dipped beam), followed by an "Intelligent Light System is unavailable" error. The car then defaulted to an old fashioned high beam \ low beam system.

I'll be sure to update progress on the limp mode issue.

Proeliator2001

Exact same set of messages as I got, only mine was rhs. Said light failed but lights were fine. From memory I think the right main beam wouldnt work. After the fault cleared ILS worked again, except it was the old slow/blind everyone version of working. I also only noticed, after the change of control unit, that when unlocking the car the headlights come up with two blue strips and then the daylight running strips light up. Never saw the blue bit before so I just think mine were always working at reduced capacity!

c4004matic

Sooo....what was it? Inquiring minds want to know!

pamiboy

It's been only one day!!!! Maybe we should wait one week before MB could figure out what's going on. .

c4004matic

Sorry, only noticed the day after posting.

arnsbrae

I got a call from the dealer late yesterday, but it was from the service receptionist, saying the car was ready for collection and that both issues were fixed. I dashed to the dealer to collect the car just before they closed at 6.00pm and the person giving me the key didn't know what had been fixed. Given that they had the car for less than a day and it is a very rural dealer, I'm thinking it was software related - the car is fine now and the intelligent light system is amazing.
I will be calling the dealer on Monday to find out exactly what happened and I will update this thread on Monday evening.

Proeliator2001

Glad the lights at least are fixed. When working as they should they are a thing of wonderment!

The new E does seem to be plauged by software issues and glitches. I'm wondering how many more updates mine will get when it goes for service at the end of the month.

arnsbrae

Well, the good news is that I can give the update before Monday...

The bad news is that the same fault has come back. The car went into limp mode again while I was driving on the motorway and I got the same error message:

Oil level
Reduce oil level.

As I type this, the tow truck company has called me to say they'll be here in 5 minutes.

Yippee.

arnsbrae

Okay, she's gone. This time the tow truck will take the car to a different dealer - once bitten, twice shy.

pamiboy

Whoa. That's something seriously wrong with the car. I hope it's fixed soon.

Proeliator2001

If the next dealer finds a simple fix you should name and shame the first dealer that totally missed it.

arnsbrae

Got a call (from the alternative, better communicating dealer) this morning.

Their technician spent some time actually driving the car and was able to replicate the fault. He has tracked the issue down to a faulty oil level sensor, which will be replaced tomorrow morning.
Apparently the sensor is showing that oil level is too high but a "real life" check showed that this was not the case. The car responds to the false signal by going into limp mode, which is probably just as well when an all aluminium block is used for a diesel engine!

c4004matic

Well, that took some real rocket science! Thank God for Mercedes Service Specialists It just happened to be what the car was telling you all along! You would think that would be at the top of the list when the car tells you it has too much oil but it doesn't!

arnsbrae

The oil sensor was replaced as promised. However, when the technician took the car out, he got the same fault - sudden loss of power giving greatly reduced acceleration.
Apparently the Master Technician is now involved and I'll be rocking a C Class for at least another day...

Proeliator2001

Technology is brilliant and a total pain in the backside all at the same time. I sort of miss having to fiddle with a distributor cap and use a manual choke sometimes! Good luck getting it sorted, at least having the c reminds you how nice the e is (my wife hated a c class loaner we had, said it felt very down market and her usual ride costs way less!).

c4004matic

OH, OH time for the "master" technician!!!! Mercedes speak for "we don't know what's wrong with your car yet......"Das Auto is kaput

arnsbrae

Yup, that was the first thought that went through my mind...

arnsbrae

Update: My car has an actual, real life problem - nothing to do with the electronics.

The turbocharger needs to be replaced. Apparently, the failure only registered in real time (with the car attached to diagnostics while running). Nothing appeared in the fault log when viewed later.

My experience with Mercedes has been poor so far:

Car ordered in August 2016 for December delivery.
Two weeks before the "due date" in December, a message comes through saying delivery is delayed until February due to a parts shortage. No apology, nothing - just a sterile one line message.
Car arrives in February and, by the time they have finished, Mercedes will have had my car for two weeks diagnosing and fixing this problem.
While the first dealer was frankly a joke both in terms of communication and technical ability, the second dealer has communicated very well (not their fault the turbocharger is goosed).
My issue is with Mercedes themselves - poor delivery performance with no humility whatsoever and a major early life failure. Not a happy bunny!

c4004matic

Sad to hear that but an occasional dud out of the gate does happen. The important thing is for MB to make it right. As soon and painlessly as possible. A nice discount for your trouble would be a good place to start.

Proeliator2001

That's a fairly big item to need replacing straight away and a very infantile failure too. I'm guessing it was faulty from the offset. Doubt they'd be saying if it's common or not. I've heard several times that merc can be extremely aloof and unsympathetic to customers. Not a great way to treat people when there are several other good options to spend money on in the market place! Another few days in the loaner then, waiting for a turbo to arrive I guess, not a great start to w213 ownership.

Be sure to rack up the miles on the loaner, ideal time to do a quick run to Monaco and back

joshg1001

Man, this 2.0 liter unit has been in production for a while now. Hopefully just an odd ball. Sorry for your troubles.

ua549

Actually, the all aluminum diesel engine, OM654, is a new engine first offered in the '17 E220d.

Proeliator2001

Yep, we're the lucky guinea pigs for that engine, unpaid beta testers. Great engine though, barring this failure of course! Massively improved compared to old 2.2. just hope reliability isn't a problem and things like this are isolated teething troubles.