howdy yalls. Just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. Name is Kool Kells Kelly is my name. I Live in Yorba Linda California. And want to see if anyone here can tell me what I need to do of the problem I am having with my S430 2000 Benz. Well it all began the week of Christmas when one of my rear Air spring shock. bladder popped. Over the Christmas Holiday I was going to order one but they wanted to charge me almost the same price of one for shipping. But then I just waited until after the new year and bought one with free shipping crazy. However I received it last Friday and installed it on Saturday. All went well on that one. But when I started my car after being down for almost 4 weeks. Now its doing some crazy stuff. 1st when I turn the key off it continues to run. 2nd I am getting these errors on my display ABS, ESP, another one but at the moment can't recall it. and the other one is Display Defective. and the brake light indicator comes on after a few seconds. None of my head lights work. But as the car is running the brake lights are on and the driver side head lamp is on. wipers don't work. I try the blinkers and the passenger (right side) rear and front work., but the driver side rear works but not the front. Can somebody please tell me what is going on with my car. I spent all day checking all fuses. I can only shut the car off If I pull the B relay out or the second relay on the passenger side. And if I leave the B which is binding post 15 out the car turns on and off correctly. But still the other errors all still happening. Somebody please throw me a bone and help me with this problem. This has me so frustrated.

 

Did it rain while you weren’t driving it ? Sounds like the common water damage problem

 

No I haven't driven it in about a month. Like I mentioned I had been waiting for my air spring shock.

 

if it is a water damage where do I begin to look for that damage

 

Open the hood. Look at the right rear corner ("right" is always from the viewpoint of the seated operator, so it will be on your left) for a large black plastic grille. Use a good light to look at the bottom of the funnel under neath the grille at the drain. It is unfortunately common for the drain to get plugged by debris. Rainwater or wash-water can then fill the funnel to the point where it overflows into the interior of the car with no visible signs of water leakage. To prevent this, you must either always keep the drain clear, open-up the drain, or drill another drain hole in the side of the funnel.

Once inside the car, the water will flow thru stamped channels in the floor under the carpet with no visible signs of water or dampness. Under the carpet and padding in the right front floor are the main electrical supply cables, with major fuses and connections. The water will cause corrosion and damage here.

The water will also flow all the way to the rear seat. Under the right side of the rear seat is the rear SAM (Signal Acquisition Module), which contains numerous fuses and control modules. The water will cause corrosion and damage here.

There will be no visible signs of water.

You must pull the right front carpet and padding/insulation, and remove the aluminum cover and check very carefully for water damage and corrosion. If water has gotten in, you will need to thoroughly dry the carpet padding and insulation, or there will be continued damage. You will need to test the fuses and connections, and they will normally require disassembly can cleaning. Use caution - you are dealing with cables that connect directly to the battery, so you need to disconnect the battery ground cable and secure it so that it can't creep back into connection.

If there were traces of water under the carpet, you will probably have to pull the rear seat (there is a release at each forward corner of the lower cushion) and check the SAM for corrosion and damage. Some folks have had good luck by disassembling and cleaning the SAM, others have chosen to (or were forced to) replace the SAM. You will need the same part number, and will normally need to reprogram some of the control modules using SDS (the dealer-level computerized diagnostic system).

An on-line search for "W220 water damage" will result in numerous hits. Good luck!

 

How you doing today Wally. OK I did what you said but there was no debris in that black plastic grille. I even checked to make sure by using my compressor to blow it out and nothing came out. So I proceeded to lift up the passenger floor board and removed the black covers and inspected the wires, and to no avail it was all dry. I looked very closely and nothing. Question do any of those wires have fusible links on them. But i proceeded to try to clear some of the errors that were appearing on the cluster by turning the steering wheel from left to right and it worked. so I no longer have the ESP BAS ABS errors. but there is still something else wrong. My headlights still don't work, Brake lights as well. I even noticed that my outside temp gauge is not working as well. And still if I have the B relay in, the car will start but when I turn the key off continues to run and all the warning lights are on as well. So I try to turn the key back to the ON position it will not turn so I have to pull that B relay out and the car will shut off, Another thing when I start the car without that B relay in, it starts and shuts off normally . The car also still when I turn the car on the driver side headlight comes on along with the passenger side blinker and the back running lights are on. I also checked if the blinkers work and all but the front driver side. But when I push the lock button on my FOB all blinker lights flash. Tell me Wally, is my car possessed. I appreciate any help that you can help me with cause I really need my car.

 

The electrical leads under the floor do include fuses (some of these don't look like fuses). You need to use a test light that pulls several amps to really check these fuses. You can make one from an old headlight bulb. In testing, you need to remember that these lines carry significant amounts of current, so a simple voltage check won't do the job. Think of a battery cable where all but one of the strands are broken. A voltage check would still show full battery voltage - but there is no way that the cable would power the starter. Use extreme caution - you are dealing with direct battery connections, and a major short circuit can cause major damage, up to and including burning the car to the ground.

You should have a fuse chart in the tool holder in the trunk. Pull each fuse (one at a time!) and check for corrosion or a blown fuse, then reinsert. Do every fuse on the car - the lines under the floor, the fuses behind the trunk lining forward of the battery, the two SAM units under the hood, and the fuses in the rear SAM (behind the floor light behind the right rear passenger's heels).

If this does no good, you will probably have to find someone who has SDS (the dealer-level computerized diagnostic system) to find the problems.

 

Most likely the problem is with your rear SAM under the rear seat bottom

pull Up the rear seat bottom (there are release clips on both outer edges of the seat bottom you need to release then lift up seat bottom )

then the sam unit with fuses and relays will be exposed . Check for dampness and also check for corrosion in the wiring harness plug that connects to the sam