jadeethan

Question guys,

The ESP warning light came on and said that it's not working.

After restarting the car, it comes back on over and over again.

Decided to take it to the dealership.

Before going I will take off my staggered wheels and put my stocks back on because my car is a 4matic. The tpms sensors are on my 20 staggered setup. When I put my stocks on it will complain no wheels sensors and display an error on the dash.

Do do the wheel sensors on ESP have anything in common? I want to fix the esp as it's still under warranty but I don't want to ask the dealership anything as they may void my warranty due to my aftermarket staggered wheels.

Thanks guys..

jadeethan

I'm also going to take off my ghost links and put the car back to stock.

Diesel Benz

Which tyres do you have exactly? Staggered wheels are not completely forbidden on a 4-Matic as long as the diameter is the same front and back.

jadeethan

Hi,

I have 255/35/20's in the front

and

275/35/20's in the back.

Thanks.

hcetzneb

Well as you have been driving the car and the light just came on i would rule out the wheels and tires.. if the light came on right when you put the aftermarket wheels on then i would suspect them

Its a common problem front wheel speed sensors go bad there is a bulliten out on it.
depending on the year they will replace both front wheel speed sensors and a braket

What dealer?? with just wheels and links they wont work on the car?

rominl

to be safe i think it's still better idea to put stock wheels on. i don't see how tpms has effect on esp

but at the same time, i don't think your tire setup is a good combo for 4matic.

Diesel Benz

I second this. There is a fixed friction "differential lock" at the 4-Matic transmission and this would be working hard with tyres this different by size. It may already be too late...

Once the car has the same diameter wheels (tyres actually), the owner can start looking after less sever issues.

Diesel Benz

You mean there is a technical bulletin for the W221? I'd be interested, I've never heard of the 221 having specific issues with ABS sensors. Can you post a copy or give a reference (if it is a US bulletin, I cannot get hold of it with the number).

phatisfy

I had the exact same problem awhile ago. But it wasn't caused by my wheel set up. It was a faulty sensor the dealer found and had to replace. They never said anything about my staggerd wheels causing the fault sensor?

phatisfy

Btw. It wasn't the tpms sensor that was bad. They said something like the abs sensor? All I know was it took them about an hr to fix.

jadeethan

thanks guys..i appreicate your response..wife took the car out yesterday and the car tranny got messed up...dealer said it's a axle issue...still in the shop..they said it's covered so I"m still waiting to hear back on final check out. Knock on wood..

i'm thinking of putting non staggered setup back on..but 20's ml63 amg style type.the same ones that ariel777 has on..

Thanks.

jadeethan

btw, the syptoms of the problem are put car in drive or reverse and it won't move!

car had to be towed...couldn't do much in terms of getting the car back at home to change the wheels as towing would only tow to mercedes dealer.

rominl

glad to hear it's all covered

staggered is no problem on 4matic, i have seen tons of staggered setup on awd cars. but you just need to be careful on tire size selection to make sure front and rear overall diameters being close to each other. the setup you have now the rear is quite a bit larger

jadeethan

Got the car back today. The front axle was cracked! Prior to being fully cracked it was causing metals chips to go into the bearings and caused the esp light to go on. This was the reason!

Warranty covered 100%. Phew!! Not sure what would cause this but glad it all worked out for me. Thanks guys.

hcetzneb

There is 2 common esp/abr bulletins i will get the numbers on monday if you need them.. I never heard of us only bulletins.. Bullitens go off chassis numbers so they apply to all benz not one country

Diesel Benz

US bulletins seem to come from MBUSA and only cover cars for the US market. European bulletins of course are mostly the same by content but I believe in many cases MBUSA is more sensitive to release a bulletin. The numbering of the documents is different too, making it sometimes hard to find the equivalent Euro bulletin.

Diesel Benz

Are you sure it was not metal from breaking bearings? Quite scary anyway. Good that you did not have to drive until a complete failure.

cool_lagoon

AMG series comes with a staggered wheel 255X40 R19 and 275X40R19 the issue has nothing to do with staggered wheels, check the sensors

MBtech1098

Most US bulletins come directly from Daimler, MBUSA then decides if they are applicable to the US market. If they are, they are posted for the US market. You may be more familiar with bulletins as GI's or SI's (Global Information and Service Information). MBUSA converts those to LI's, DTB's, or SB's. (Local Information, Dealer Technical Bulletin' s, and Service Bulletin's). MBUSA will also create their own bulletins on certain occasions or used to always transfer them all to DTB's. GI's become LI's and SI's become SB's.

If you would like to know about your question regarding a bulletin for wheel speed sensors, please PM me.

MBtech1098

...and yes, some bulletins are country specific.

rominl

AMGs (S63 and S65) aren't 4matic (awd) i believe... awd is a problem when diameters different front and rear (from spec)

cool_lagoon

jadeethan the staggered wheel can never give you problem it is the sensors, since your staggered wheels have the same diameter, what ever is the width (yours is 255 and 275) will never be an issue for all W221 series

rominl

he has 255/35/20 and 275/35/20, the overall diameter of the rear wheel setup is more than 1/2" bigger than the front.

not that it matters for him because it's been determined to be axle problem. but as i questioned, s63 and s65 both aren't awd. for awd, maintaining the diameters in the wheels is quite important. unless the same staggered setup is actually an option on w221 4matic

cool_lagoon

rominl FYI meaning of diameter is the size of the inner circle from point to point using a straight line, which in this case it is 20 inches, the first three digits/number written on the first part of the measurement is the width of the tread. his tire have the same front and rear diameter which is 20. (255/35/20 and 275/35/20) really don;t know where you got the idea of interpreting the size.

first three digit represent the width of the thread, the second set of number is the height of the tire wall and the last two digit is the size/diameter of the inner hole of the tire/mag-wheel size.

cool_lagoon

stop confusing the readers, go check with your tire center before you give wrong information which may and will confuse other reader.