Educaid

My wife just pulled her 1999 C230K in to the garage and it was burning. No flames, just acrid smoke. After I told her it was not a good idea to park a burning car in a garage she told me what happened. A short distance (1/2 mile) from home the BAS/ASR light came on. When she pulled it in it was smoking and I was afraid it was going to start flaming. We had new brakes and rotors installed 2 months ago. Do you think the installation of the brakes and rotors contributed to this. It seems more than coincidental to me.

sosh

Is it possible that she was driving with the emer brake on??

Educaid

Knowing my wife, anything is possible. However, one would have to put the emergency brake on at least sometimes, which she never does.

516mbtek

It is possible that the brake pads were installed incorrectly or fit incorrectly and they are binding in the brake pad bracket..or the brake hoses are twisted causing the brakes to apply slightly. The heat probably melted the front speed sensors and wires causing the bas light. Take it back to who did the brakes

sosh

If it was OK for 2 months its unlikely that it was an incorrect brake job. Thats also pretty hard to screw up as most stuff fits only the correct way. If it was screwed up it would have been evident a lot sooner.

Educaid

Had the car towed to the dealer. At first they said it was a short and that the smoke was from burning insulation. Said it took the one hour to figure that out. Said it would take them another two hours to track down which wire. Then they call back 45 minutes later and say that the kompressor seized up and the burning smell was the belt. When asked how many times they had seen a kompressor seize like that they said once. This car has 90,000 miles on it and has had all the service at the dealer since day one. Up to this point it ran flawlessly. I would caution any C230k owners out there there (since I got one of the first ones) that there may be a problem with the kompressor in the future. Estimated cost quoted to me was $2,200. Kompressor alone was $1,400.

mercedestech1

I work at an MB dealership and have never heard of a supercharger failing before,however it is a mechanical part, and all mechanical parts have wear and will eventually fail. Superchargers are maintenance free and are installed as complete units at production. If there was evidence of oil leakage from the supercharger housing-this should have been noticed during regular service. Either way you probably would have still had to replace the whole unit.Sorry to hear of your misfortune.Other supercharged car owners need not be alarmed.

sosh

Its possible that an overheat or run low on oil years ago caused this problem today. Previous poster is correct, it is quite a rare failure and cause most likely cannot be determined.

Educaid

Just to complete the diagnostic picture, the car has never overheated and has never had a low oil condition (it fortunately doesn't burn or leak any oil). What puzzles me is that the dealer stated that they started the car and initially determined that it was an electrical problem. If the supercharger had seized, wouldn't there have been a diagnostic code of this and why would they have started the engine? Wouldn't this have been readily apparent? (By the way, they charged me 2 hours of time to diagnose that it was the supercharger). Why would they have told me it was a short in the electrical system? Also, why would the BAS/ASR light have come on at the time of the malfunction? What would this have to do with the supercharger seizing, unless the BAS/ASR is run off the same belt? Thanks for your insight.