Hi all,

After deliberating for a few months, I bought a car I always wanted - the W220 S600 V12 TT (black, 2005). I imagined I would be sharing my purchase experience with you all first, but as luck would have it, here we are with a (dreaded) ABC issue. This post is a little long, please bear with me.

During the long-ish test drive, nothing was amiss, and everything was in order. She pulls like a train on rails, and everything works. There are a few warnings stored about minor things like one of the seat belts not retracting, sunroof not being normalised but that was about it.

I then proceeded to ask the garage to procure winter tyres and rims for the car, in addition to the summer set, which was already on the car. The winter set comprises of Michelin Pilot Alpins on OEM Mercedes rims. We were running very late the day I took delivery of the car, and I didn't check the dimensions of the winter tyres the seller had put on the car. He put 255/45/R18 all around, and the OEM spec is 245/45/R18 all around or, 265/40/R18 for the rear tyres (sport pkg).

After being on the highway for a while, I see a blue ABC warning (visit workshop) and a while later the red one (drive carefully). Stopped as soon as I could, and checked the Pentosin level, and it was within the limit. I couldn't see any leaks, and car was not very low. So I proceeded ahead to the way home, and we spent the night at a hotel on the way. Now I was already spooked by ABC and I noticed the left rear wheel sitting lower than the right rear wheel; This sent me almost panicking! I could only think of Nick (Welwynnick) for advice - since I was basically in the middle of nowhere and it was a weekend anyway, so everything nearby was closed, and who knows ABC better than Nick! He suggested that the level of the surface itself could be uneven, and boy he was right! So the car was holding itself level, and as per his advice (check fluids, leaks, if car is level, proceed) I carried on the next morning and got home.

Now my hunch is that the non-spec tyres have something to do with the ABC warning. What do you all think? Can the oversize tyres at the front cause problems with the ABC sensors?

Thanks for reading, and happy to finally be part of this forum!
-prs600

 

No, 255 45 is well within the realm of acceptability . Some of us put on massive tires, I forgot if it was Wally or nick who did all the experiment with different size tires but these cars can handle much larger tires , without abc warning

Keep checking those fluid levels .

Is it showing a white or red error still?

Get it scanned with star diagnostic .

 

Hi tusabes,

Thank for your reply. I see, in that case 255s at front shouldn't cause any problems. I was a bit concerned about them touching the over-tyre housing when completely steered left or right.

I took my SD4 along for the trip, and did a quick test. There was a warning about ABC pressure being low, which I deleted after checking for leaks and the fluid level. The car could then rise and lower. I did notice the pressure being around 190 bar in the beginning, and then it went down during the test to < 100 bar, but rose again to settle around 120-140 bar. Since the car was level and drivable then, I did not venture to play with ABC further. Had to drive 700 kms further, so I didn't touch anything. The blue warning comes back about 2-3 minutes after starting, and later the red one after a few kilometres (sometimes even after 30 minutes).

If its not the tyres, then indeed, the pressure goes down low it seems. I will hook up DAS today and monitor the pressure. About the fluid level - I checked when the engine had been running for about 5 minutes. The dipstick showed fluid at the halfway mark. I suppose that is normal?

 

I've been able to do some tests with the car:

1. Start the car, monitor ABC pressure -> remains steady between 180 and 190 bar.

2. Raise the car one level -> car raises (normally I imagine), pressure lowers to settle around 170 bar.

3. Raise the car another level -> car raises, pressure plunges to around 100 bar.

I get the blue ABC (visit workshop) warning after raising the first level, with pressure around 160-170 bar. The fault codes are:
C1525-064 - System pressure too low
C1526-016 - Malfunction in pressure supply

To the best of my knowledge, I do not see any leaks visually. It is an underground car park, so the lighting isn't optimal. I will check to see if I can see any leaks, since the codes point towards a pressure loss.

Since the pressure is okay until I raise the car, I suppose the hoses are all okay without any leaks. Rather, one (or heavens forbid, more than one) of the four valve blocks seem to be at fault? I had another doubt - will the car hold the current ride height it is in when I start it the next time, or does it always lower down to level 0 (lower than what we arrive at after pressing the raise button once)?

I will read up about ABC to get up to speed, till then please bear with my newbie questions.

 

I think its very unlikely that the 255/45/18 tyres are causing the ABC problem. Its possible that its down to accumulators or the regulator, but in reality this is pointing towards the pump itself. Not so expensive these days.

Whenever you have the opportunity to have access to ABC hardware, I strongly recommend a close visual inspection of all the flexible ABC hoses in the engine compartment, and then cover those hoses with loose thermal insulation sleeves. Just the hoses, not the pipes.

Obviously, I recommend my ABC suspension thread below ;-)

Good luck, Nick

 

Good evening Nick!

I have already bookmarked your remarkable ABC treatise
I tried to get a look as best I could in dark conditions, and I could see a little puddle under the middle of the car (pic attached).



I hope that's not Pentosin!


I'm still not completely certain if that's Pentosin, or something else. In the coming days, I plan to monitor the level every morning to check leakage. The good news is that the dealer agreed to take care of original issues of the car, so this should (hopefully) not dent my wallet further.

Till I find some time for a 500+ km long drive, I plan to check the level and add Pentosin if needed. In any case the current scenario involves the eventual red warning which shuts off the ABC pump, so I suppose the car will survive the trip unscathed.

Should I take any further precautions to save the pump?

 

Great thread! Bookmarked as well!

Thanks,

Bob

 

My hunch if the car wasn't raised to the level 2 position when car was lifted to change the tires..

Expensive mistake.

 

Most likely it wasn't raised to level 2. In the manual I can see the procedure to change wheels using the jack, but that doesn't mandate raising the car to level 2. However, the garage used their lift to easily change the wheels and I'm quite sure the car was not at level 2. I wasn't aware in this case it could be a problem if the car wasn't on level 2. What problems does it cause? Thanks for sharing your insight. This was new to me.

 

You don't need to raise the suspension to change the tires. It just makes it a little easier.

You can change the wheels even when the suspension is pancake flat, its just a little more difficult.

Nick

 

Thanks for the clarification Nick!

Here's an update:

ABC:
While getting this issue fixed, I'm planning to proactively replace any hoses with signs of wear, in addition to the seeping hose. I'll also have the heat-protective insulation done on the hoses, and a complete flush of the ABC fluid. The valve blocks will be checked, and serviced if needed.


Washer fluid:
Apart from this, I noticed an intermittent leak of the windscreen/headlight washer fluid. It seems to come from a T-joint just outside the tank, in towards the front. I don't know the exact part name, but it seems just a matter of replacing the short 8mm x 1.5in hose. As a preventive measure, should I look at other things as well?

Cleaning the air intake plenum:
I am referring to Joshy's thread on 'Major Service on S600' and an excellent suggestion was to clean the air intake plenum. Mine appears to be clean and working well, but out of curiosity - the best way to do it is by removing the filter enclosure, or by forcing the stuck entities down?

Thanks.

 

That happened to mine as well. I think you just need a small o-ring.

As an s600 owner, you should think about getting a large selection of 0-rings to draw on. You'll need them. Not expensive, nothing special, nitrile will do.

Nick

 

For cleaning the reed valve at the bottom of the air intake under the windshield , all you need is a long thin Philipps screwdriver or chopstick to clear out the drain hole . Use a flashlight or your camera phone light to see where to maneuver

You don't even need to remove the plastic waffle grille

 

Thanks Nick, I ordered one of .
I hope it's just an o-ring rather than the hose, which seems harder to find.

 

Hi tusabes,

Thanks for clearing that point - I was previously a bit concerned with pushing things down, if they can get stuck somewhere down the exit pipe. The picture was much appreciated

 

If you have the transmission or engine dipstick , it won't be strong enough to break a clog at the reed valve, but once it's clear also works to make sure the whole line is clear as its long and flexible

You can also test to make sure it's clear simply by pouring a gallon of water into the reservoir - it should immediately drain out under the car and the water should not pool or stand in the reservoir . This will flush out any small debris too

 

Thanks for the tip tusabes. I made sure the plenum is clean and tested it by pouring water. It went right through, so all is well.

 

Dear all,

I had a doubt about the structure of the rear parcel shelf/tray in a 2004/2005 W220 S600. I see a couple of painful holes in the centre of the tray and was wondering if anyone knows what could have been there.

Here is a picture:




I was going to cover it by placing a tissue box, but just want to be sure if something factory-standard was there before doing so. I would like to keep her as original as possible.

By the way, here is a picture of the old gal after a very rainy drive. She needs a thorough wash.

 

Went and looked at the parcel shelf on my 2003 S600. There is nothing behind the rear center headrest. Looks like that may have been some aftermarket item that has been removed (?). My photo is taken from the inside. My rear window has fairly dark tint and does not thru photo well.

Also noticed your rear window has very visible defroster lines in it. I believe the factory rear window has a very small mesh/grid system for the rear defroster. You can't really see any lines in my rear window. I suspect your rear window may have been replaced with non-OEM glass. Might help you to know it has been worked on in that area when troubleshooting issues.

 

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for verifying. About the rear window, I have a Pilkington badged glass with the MB logo. Is that not OEM? Here's a quick picture:

 

I looked up the WIS part numbers for the rear windows. It shows two different one. One standard and one for the "heat insulating +IR reflecting safety glass. (Code 595/596) I checked by VIN DataCard and mine has Code 596 option. I assumed that all S600's would have that option very few options from the factory. You may have the standard glass - sorry for confusion.

 

No problem Chuck! Learning new stuff everyday, thanks again for sharing the details.

 

The car is finally back after an overhaul of the ABC system. The tandem pump, front valve block, pressure regulator valve block and some of the hoses were replaced. However, the car refused to rise after this. The pressure was constantly above 180 and everything seemed okay, but the following error codes persisted:

1. Plunger travel calibration not performed (or something to this effect, I don't remember the exact description),
2. Load level calibration not performed.

These calibrations can be performed using DAS, but strangely the calibration process was failing due to input values (from the sensor) exceeding allowed limits. This pointed towards the sensor(s) on the struts being faulty, but it seemed unlikely.

After many days of troubleshooting, it was found that the rear valve block was the culprit and an overhaul with replacement of o-rings did the trick. This was particularly hard to debug since there were no pressure or circulation related errors/warnings stored.

The big clue was that the pressure lines connected to the front valve blocks were warm to touch by hand, while the ones connected to the rear valve-block were cold. So in case it helps someone, calibration warnings or calibration failure can simply be connected to valve blocks and one can detect whether Pentosin is flowing into all areas around the valve blocks by touching.

Been a few days but I still check for fluid leaks under the car every time I drive. The joys of an ABC car!

 

After getting lost on every other drive thanks to the outdated COMAND navigation, it was finally time to update the maps. Thankfully my MY supports in-trunk navigation DVDs.

* First I updated the COMAND (NTG1) firmware to the latest one I could find for my car. Part number of the update CD is 220 589 05 22 00.
* Bought the new 2015-2016 maps DVD v16.0

The process for firmware update is pretty straightforward. The firmware CD goes in the CD/DVD slot in the dash. The process took around 12 minutes for me.

Thereafter, I simply exchanged the old navigation DVD with the new one in the trunk. The only change I've noticed (in addition to modern updated maps) is that the music volume does not automatically go down now when the navigation lady is giving directions. Maybe there is a setting, will have to check this one!

 

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