TheShiekh

When I first bought this 2000 ML430, it would often throw the Start Error message on the instrument cluster and not crank. It seems to have gotten worse and worse. Last week it still started 1 out of every 5 tries, but now this week it doesn’t seem to start at all.

I changed that small transponder ring around the ignition, didn’t make any difference. Today I removed the K12 relay under the hood and checked the 86 terminal and it does have 12V with ignition on and no power with ignition off. The 85 terminal is showing constant ground. So according to other posts, that should confirm the ignition switch and transponder ring are working properly.

All windows work, headlights/highbeams work. The car is missing fog lights and missing radio, so not sure if those work. The fuel gauge does not work, there’s also a code for Fuel Level Sensor.

The car does seem to have a water leak and the passenger carpet in the front is a little damp still. The K9 relay in the passenger kick panel endlessly clicks when the ignition is on (key position 2, whether engine is off or on). I tried swapping the K9 relay with another identical relay and it didn’t change anything. I even bought a whole passenger kick panel fuse box and it didn’t change anything. I tried swapping the K12 relay with another identical relay (since the K12 relay also says it’s related to circuit 15) and it didn’t change anything. This relay clicking is annoying and I would like to solve it, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the Start Error no cranking problem, because even when the car does start, it still has the relay endlessly clicking.

Production date is 08/2000, that means I have an EAM under the dash under the steering wheel right?

Any ideas ? I have attached the codes that were read

vesiadog

I have had a couple of older E320’s and ML500. The most common problem with starting we had was the key and EIS issues. Carefully pulling the board out of the key and cleaning the inside where the led goes… making sure nothing is blocking the signal .. almost always cleared up the issues for us. We had at least 4 older models and each one acted up at one time… Buying a new key case and sliding the board into the case fixed a couple for us.
I will do some more searching on the clicking relay.. can you tell me exactly which one is clicking ? Bill
Also check for corrosion in the fuse box/relay .. pull a couple more relays and get a light in there checking for blue/black corrosion … water causes havic in that area.

TheShiekh

I’m very familiar with cars with EIS and I have repaired 3 of them by resoldering the female connector which is a common problem. Repaired one IR key which did indeed have the panic button blocking the IR signal like you mentioned. And I have programmed over 20 keys for various models with EIS, some by clipping to the pins of the female connector and calculating password through Internet calculation (slow way) and some by reading the password directly from the EEPROM (fast way). I also have cloned a few EIS by reading data through the EEPROM, then copying to the new donor EIS.

However this W163 ML430 is model year 2000. It does not have an EIS, it does not have an IR key. It has an actual key blade that flips out of a fob. I did buy a whole new key with fob because I thought one of my scanners would be able to program it, since they can do newer Mercedes models. I even cut the key. Then tried to program it and realized none of my scanners can even do it. So then I did try opening up the case and swapping the guts from the original key, and checked for any circuit board damage (without a microscope or magnifying glass though). I didn’t notice any obvious damage, and swapping it to the new case didn’t make any difference.

I am considering buying the KR55 key tool just to help diagnose this issue, since I have bought older SLs and SLKs and other MLs and had customers request for keys for those models too. I figure if the KR55 can’t program the new key I cut, then the EAM must indeed be bad. If it can program it, then that would be great and problem solved. Unfortunately I didn’t get a spare key when I bought the car, otherwise that would help me diagnose the issue.

The relay clicking and the wet carpet is the only thing that scares me into thinking it might not be just the key or just the EAM. However, the relay still did click endlessly even when the car started, so it may not be related at all. It is the K9 relay as I mentioned in the first post. There was no corrosion or visual damage to the passenger fuse box where the carpet is wet, but I changed it with a used one anyway and it didn’t make any difference. The new fuse box which has a new relay still clicks the relay endlessly. The engine bay fuse box on top of the AAM had no visual damage and there was no water or dampness anywhere near it.