ESP Inoperative: nothing on steering column works
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 391
Likes: 2
From: Northern Virginia
2010 ML350 GAS 4Matic
Yep - the steering column module did the trick. Relatively easy fix. Hardest part was I needed a 2nd person to get the steering wheel off. The steering wheel bolt is so tight that I needed a 2nd person to hold the wheel while breaking the bolt loose.
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 21
Likes: 1
From: South Florida (WPB
2008 ML320, 2004 BMW 540/6 sp., BMW R1200Rt motorcycle, Harley-Davidson Softtail Deuce, 1998 Hewes f
This may be my problem, too. ('08 ML320 diesel, 150K miles.) Recently, when I accelerated up a freeway ramp, trying to get up to 70 mph quickly, cruise control set to "resume", the rear brakes would lock up momentarily, a half-dozen times. i concurrently got a message, "cruise control inoperative." I thought the ESP was acting up, so if I slammed on the brakes, hard but momentarily, the problem would disappear, and the cruise control would operate normally. This only occurred under hard acceleration, but multiple times over several days.
About the same time, the upper half of the Multi-Function Display started malfunctioning. A row or two of pixels would shift, L/R, making it hard to read. Sometimes it would go completely blank, which is the current status. I want to sell it, which cannot be done with an inoperative odometer! Took it to MB, asked the cost to replace that MFD module; requires replacing the entire instrument cluster, $2000 parts and labor. Not worth it on a $6K -$8K vehicle. Not sure that a new cluster would cure the problem, anyway, considering that the steering wheel buttons, or maybe the connection between the buttons and the MFD, may also be involved. That connection between stationary and rotating parts must involve a slip-ring of some type, which maybe ties into the Steering Angle Sensor.
Noodling around on this forum, it occurred to me that maybe both problems (hard braking combined with temporary "no cruise control", and the inoperative steering wheel buttons and malfunctioning MFD) might be tied together with a faulty Steering Angle Sensor.
Eich, what do you think? You've been a long-time contributor, and seem quite savvy to these quirks. I might make that replacement, anyway, considering that it's easy to do and won't cost much.
Bruce Lyon, in Florida
About the same time, the upper half of the Multi-Function Display started malfunctioning. A row or two of pixels would shift, L/R, making it hard to read. Sometimes it would go completely blank, which is the current status. I want to sell it, which cannot be done with an inoperative odometer! Took it to MB, asked the cost to replace that MFD module; requires replacing the entire instrument cluster, $2000 parts and labor. Not worth it on a $6K -$8K vehicle. Not sure that a new cluster would cure the problem, anyway, considering that the steering wheel buttons, or maybe the connection between the buttons and the MFD, may also be involved. That connection between stationary and rotating parts must involve a slip-ring of some type, which maybe ties into the Steering Angle Sensor.
Noodling around on this forum, it occurred to me that maybe both problems (hard braking combined with temporary "no cruise control", and the inoperative steering wheel buttons and malfunctioning MFD) might be tied together with a faulty Steering Angle Sensor.
Eich, what do you think? You've been a long-time contributor, and seem quite savvy to these quirks. I might make that replacement, anyway, considering that it's easy to do and won't cost much.
Bruce Lyon, in Florida
Last edited by brucerman; Jul 12, 2018 at 10:43 AM.
