Big Gip

I have a 95 S600 coupe that I cannot get the ADS light to stay off. I took it into the dealer and they told me that the car nees a new wiring harness. This really ticks me off because of a car that have less than 100k miles on it and cost over 100k new, to have a major problem like this when it has been serviced properly. Any ideas of what to do other than the obvious? Help !!!!!!!!!!

brett san diego

The wiring harness issue that plagues W140s up to 1995 is typically the engine ignition wiring. The wires are directly subjected to the engine heat.

Just how did they get from ADS light to needs new wiring harness? You need to understand this, and so does anyone else to really help you out. My ADS light was on, and an independent shop told me that the fault codes indicated a bad right front acceleration sensor. I've done nothing for now. My light is intermittent. Are there fault codes stored that the dealership can read out?

I wouldn't do anything until you know more.

Brett

Big Gip

Brett, thanks for the reply...That is a very good question, I guess they couldn't figure anything else out. There were some fault codes that they came up with, but they said that they were caused by the faulty wiring harness giving off false reads. I think that they are really full of crap.......

Yeah, mine is intermittent also and it drives me crazy. I guess I can deal with it until I can find someone who really knows what is happening.

Wintermute

Daimler-Benz was attempting to appease the environmentalists; however, their revised harness was susceptible to premature degradation. It was reinforced for 1996, and Mercedes-Benz clandestinely began replacing the harnesses. Eventually, the problem will manifest itself when you are attempting to accelerate from a stop. The engine will lose power momentarily, and then resume normal acceleration. You may also encounter a poor idle. Ultimately, the harness can render serious damage. For instance, one actually caused a vehicle's electronic fuel injection system to malfunction.

Wintermute

Brett,

I would speculate that they might be referring to the less critical suspension wire harnesses, not the body harness. Those repairs are much less expensive. Obviously, such a fault would not render the symptoms that I described in my previous reply.