jmacres

I'm getting These errors when scanning my car and just wanted to know if anyone could shed some light in this for me. My instrument panel flickered and then finally went out. I had it repaired and it's now re-installed. Fuses in front left SAM have been replaced, one fuse for the dash was blown (my car does not have the fuse panel on passenger door). The instrument panel has been installed back in the car. My dash lights won't come on unless I hit the reset button and then it goes off in about 15 seconds. I can turn it back on again but it will time out again. Gauges on the instrument panel are also inop. Other symptoms are my headlights stay on no matter what position the switch is on. Signals work but no dash click or lights. This one is a bit beyond my skill level and want to know how bad it is... I'm trying to revive this 02, I've listed what I've done to it below.

• Fault in CAN Communication with Control Unit A1(Instrument Cluster).
• Fault in CAN Communication with Control unit ICM
• Fault in CAN Communication with Control unit N73(EIS[EZS] Control Unit).

Replaced:
plugs, wires, coils, motor mounts, transmission mount, mobile1 oil, passenger door controller, MAF (BOSCH), MAF gaskets, all breather lines

SpYdR

Just happened to see this post as a forum browser and thought I would reply...

I am going through a similar issue on my W220. Chances are that this is an EIS/Ignition switch issue. I have gotten exactly the same error codes from my car (strangely stored in the TCU). Many will tell you that the early W220 dont have a central gateway, but they do. The pre 2004 models central gateway is part of the EIS module that your key slots into. Sounds to me like something has packed up on the overly complicated setup that Mercedes use for the ignition switch on these cars.

Good look fixing this though...I am struggling to find someone who actually knows anything about EIS to repair my one! Dealer will just want to fit a new EIS module which will likely exceed the value of your car.

wallyp

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/ca...#post-18488941

jmacres

Thanks guys, I think I will try to pull the EIS and see if I can have it tested, fixed, or cloned to another unit. I did read that the EIS is the "CAN master" so to speak and it also handles the wake up of the car which is not working for me; maybe this is it! I will report back with my results

SpYdR

Thought I would share the progress with this from my side...

Finally managed to find someone who would fix/clone my faulty EIS (quite hard to do in South Africa...the skill just does not seem to be here anymore).

Got it back and installed it into my car but they appear to have messed up the coding.
Although my unlocking and key recognition now work, indicators work and I no longer get any CAN communication faults, I now have the following issues...

1. I have a permanent SRS error code now. I tried to clear it with STAR but that says the SRS module is-unreadable. From the research I did, this is a coding issue on the EIS.
2. My mileage magically jumped from the 76 250 miles it should be to 318 250 miles...this irritated me a lot!
3. My cluster is now in German...changing it back to English does nothing

To OP, just make sure who ever does the coding has a clue what they are doing. They need to copy more from the old EIS than just the key tracks!

Car is currently with a Mercedes specialist now who is trying to sort out this mess...will report back...

SpYdR

Quick update from my side incase anyone is following this thread...

The Mercedes specialist has managed to sort out the SRS coding issue and also put my cluster back to English, but seems there is nothing they can do about the mileage. They openly admit this was their stuff up but there is nothing they can do about it...they have been speaking to several "experts" who all have no idea how to fix this.

I picked up the car and drove it through to Mercedes themselves who looked at the car and said they would report back to me after doing some research (they could not remember the last time they looked at a W220) . They called me back a day later and said there is nothing they can do...once the EIS is written, they don't have the capacity to recode it. I asked if they could order a new EIS from Germany and then install it, but they replied that the way they do this would result in the new EIS picking up the mileage coding from the old EIS, so it would be exactly the same.

I am a bit stumped on what to do...and it seems there is no solution to this and I just have to accept that my pristine, low mileage W220 now has 318 000 miles on it.

Just a warning to others...be very careful who touches your car...if you have the spare funds and care about your car, rather take it to Mercedes themselves and get it done right!

e350forme

my code reader the foxwell mb version lets me set mileage on the cluster (mine is accurate though at 161k)

SpYdR

Hi There

From what I gathered, the specialist that I took it to was able to do this aswell. The problem seems to arise when everything is connected back to the car, the EIS and Cluster "talk" to each other and decide to take the higher mileage that is stored in the EIS...this then overwrites what was programmed previously.

For whatever reason, that I cannot fully understand, they seem to be unable to get into the EIS coding and set the mileage to what it should be. I currently have the car at the third specialist I found, who assured me they could fix the issue (although they have had the car for almost 2 weeks and not resolved it yet).

Must admit that I find it shocking and incredibly frustrating that this cannot be sorted out on a 20 year old Mercedes...what hope do these "specialists" have of working on a W222 or W223 Mercedes in a few years :-(

jmacres

~~SOLVED~~

I removed the instrument panel again and did a visual inspection. Seems that the connector to the instrument panel wasn't getting a good connection. I thoroughly cleaned all the connections, re-installed the panel and it came right up. Cleared all stored codes, there were plenty of them. No codes came back after a 100 miles of driving. It's really nice seeing how fast I'm going and how much gas I have LOL

Lesson learned

tusabes

Thank you so much for coming back and posting the follow up

jmacres

I wanted to add this. During this whole issue I thought I was starting to have a transmission issue. When initially leaving my house, (I've been driving with a dark dash for months lol) the first 3-4 stop signs I would feel a clunk in the rear end when I let off the brake and accelerated. It felt like a rear end issue or something in the linkage. After about 3-4 stop and starts while driving it went away which made me think it was thermal and maybe I'm low on transmission fluid? Then one day I started it cold and let it sit idling for 5 entire minutes. When I drove away I notice I had no clunk.. Feeling defeated with the CAN issue and now this I was about to throw in the towel. I'm in Cali and I was due for smog/registration first week of Dec and I had no dash. My idea was if I don't fix this thing CA requires 30 days prior to registration due date to be eligible to register it as "non operation". This is the only way you can sell a car in CA w/o a smog certificate.

After I fixed the CAN issue with my instrument panel all codes were cleared and didn't come back. I also noticed the transmission issue disappeared as well at the same time, completely gone.

Question: Is was this some kind of learning issue with the transmission/computer with the CAN issue that maybe couldn't succeed until the whole CAN issue was resolved??

tusabes

CAN errors in one system can certainly cause other systems to operate erratically, so the fact your clunking problem went away after the instrument cluster repair, does not surprise me