I was pulling out of a parking lot last night, as soon as I made a left turn I heard an extremely loud "bang"... sort of like a gun shot, very loud! Immediately after I lost power steering for a few seconds, but that came back. Another few seconds later ABC Visit Workshop! lit up followed by ABC Drive Carefully! I had my windows down and shortly after the "explosion" the smell of Pentosin was obvious, so I knew what I was in for.

Luckily I was about 3/4 of a mile from my house so I slowly drove the car home, when I stopped at my house there was oil smoking pouring out from under the hood because the it hit the hot engine.

I'm not sure what happened yet... it tough to tell with the car on the ground.

Looks like ABC has a failsafe where the system locks all the valves in case pressure from the pump starts dropping, this way the car will not sink to the ground while driving in case the system fails.

Nice puddle going on...

 

daamn! keep us posted I wanna know what happened!

 

How many miles does your car have on it?

 

damn I hope it doesnt hit your pockets too hard.

 

Broken oil line?? Did you get one of them replaced under the recall?
If you did not drive too far without oil, your ABC pump should still be ok. Otherwise you are looking at least at $2.000.

 

Damn! That sucks!!

 

Ouch. ABC failure would scare me.

 

Sounds like you ruptured a pressure line.

It has long been a Federal Safety ( osha ) mandate that all Equipment that his supported by hydraulic pressure be equipped with a safety device ( normally a flow sensing type check valve located in the pressure line to prevent collapse in the event of a line rupture. All lift equipment, cranes, hydraulic ladders, etc are so equipped, and have been since the 70's. Its good to see that Mercedes were subjected to the same rule, OR did it voluntarily. Nice idea to keep your car off the ground.Too bad this can't work with air.

 

No worries... this should be covered under warranty.

Pump sounded like it was on it's way out months back anyways, so I'll be happy to have that replaced. One of the hydraulic hoses in the nose of the car was bleeding a little too, so that will need to be replaced.

If they decide not to cover this for whatever reason, I have a brand new pump on stand by waiting to get shipped.

 

Is this problem pretty common? Does it come from racing the car too hard?

 

I would assume so.. it seems that all the dealerships stock the ABC pump and accessories so yeah, I assume it happens more often than not. It's a mechanical pump, pumping out hydraulic fluid at 3000psi... sooner or later it's got to break.

Racing/Driving hard should have no effect on the system.

 

Sounds like a scary situation... I know I'd hate to have one of those. I'd probably get it towed right on the spot.

 

There's no need to panic... everything can be fixed!

What are you driving around in? S600 Biturbo with ABC?

 

Yeah! The ABC option is one of my favorites (along with the height adjustment).

Does anyone know why there are 2 little LEDs on the bottom of the height adjustment button.

 

How does your pump sound? Any leaks? Hows the hydraulic fluid level? Any sticky valves?

What do you mean? They light up to show you if you raised it up 1 level or 2 levels.

 

It doesn't show up (I just see them there and not sure what they are for)

 

I took a ride by the crime scene...

 

It looks like ur car in a hurry on its way to the washroom

 

on the other hand why does your car looks so clean! Esp this time in WINTER look at those shiny tires

 

Wow dude. Thankfully you're alright. Loosing power steering at the wrong time can be dangerous; like say on a sharp off ramp doing 70.

Let us know the damage when you get it assessed.

Replacing the tandem pump shouldn't require STAR configuration, right? It's really a just a belt driven fluid pump in simple terms, i.e no biggie. WIS only mentions it for diagnosis and testing like the rodeo. The replacement procedure seems pretty straight forward too.

Anyway, good luck with the repair man!

 

Thanks... I keep my ride clean year round... I drive the ML when it's super crappy outside...

 

2 things..

1. What kind of ML do you have?

2. How did you get your hood to open like that? I can't figure it out for the love of me.

 

1. ML350. Why?

2. There are two tabs on each side of the hood, have someone press one side while you press the other and raise it up.

 

1. Just wondering.

2. Thanks a ton.

 

Sad to hear this had to happen on such a relaivly new and expensive car.

I switched to Lexus a while back, but still look at CL500's from time to time wanting to own one. But as my mechanic who owns a W140 in mint condition, Suspension pumps are a very common thing to go on 2000-UP S class cars.
Warranty should cover it. But i would not be thrilled with this sort of a problem on a 100k$ car. But then again, its a MB quality #1, or is it 3, or 38 at this point. Sorry, just angry at MB.