Polar Bear

Am I the bloke in which you refer?

kn51

lol, great thread as about everything you listed I've experienced/experiencing.

1) A/C hell. Like you I had a vacation coming up to SC (last week actually) and had the same symptoms. Blowing hot air out at full blast for maybe 5-10 minutes. On a restart it would be fine. Took it in to my indy, they evacuated and said it was around .7 short. They said it is very finicky with the level. They also recalibrated the flaps. Of course it doesn't do it when I had it with them. Seemed to be better. So halfway into an 800 mile drive the blower decides to quit working after starting the car. Then perhaps it will fire off after 5-20 minutes. Got a new blower, awaiting the resistor. Of course since being back it's been fine.

2) ESP/ABS hell. This too happened on the road trip before the AC crapped it pants and it went out in spectacular fashion. Driving along 3 hours from home and the car feels like it will fly apart as the light kicks on. Like driving over the worse washboard road ever at 65 miles an other. Get out, smell burning. I'm looking at the tires, sniffing around, wondering what to do with a car loaded with luggage 3 hours from home in BFE. Decide to nurse it somewhere but it was fine. Burning smell? Brakes, somehow it went nutzo and was pulsing them or something giving the bad drive. After a couple restarts the light goes off. And the funny (well not that funny) is that is exactly when the AC decided to act up.

3) Coolant hell. Only in winter it will lose a cup or so a coolant like clockwork. Every 275 miles or so, or dang near every fillup. They pressure tested but there was no leak so they replaced the cap. Thanks to your post I'll inspect those areas.

Sounds like our cars are twins. Not sure on the valve gaskets, but my pan and trans pan have a slight weep.

Keep an eye on the lower chrome trim pieces. They have a tendency to just fall off.

Edit: Oh yeah, GPS/clock. I think I was able to do it by shutting off GPS in COMAND and you do a KOEO and set the clock quickly is how I think I did it. Instructions are on here somewhere.

Also forgot about the ABS. Ran DAS on it. Three bad wheel sensors. So all four are on there way. No wonder why it freaked out.

DaleB

I think I might get the A/C evacuated and refilled. Yesterday (Wed.) I drove it for the first time since Sat. evening. No A/C for the first 10 minutes of driving, then it worked fine. Someone mentioned the possibility of sticky valves on the A/C compressor. That would make sense. I know I added some refrigerant. Someone else may have done so as well, for all I know. So I don't know the exact amount of refrigerant in the system OR how much oil is in there.

I have noticed the trunk trim strip looks a little loose. Not much, just a couple of spots where it's not tight up against the bodywork. I'd expected better there, to be honest.

There are still a couple of unexplained quirks. One is that 9 times out of 10, I push the Keyless-Go start button and the car starts immediately. Once in a while I push the button, the cluster lights up, and it just sits there silent for as much as 2-3 seconds. No starter motor or anything. Then it will start and everything is fine. I may pull the KG button and use the key for a while and see if this is a KG issue, or something else. I know it's not the starter, because I just replaced that. I suspect the old one is good, but at least it was relatively reasonably priced.

Hoping the new vent hose shows up today...

kn51

They were able to see what PSI was on the sensor and said it was fine. They said they've a lot of failures recently. Who knows.

Yeah, the trim pisses me off. One day I get out of work and the rear door trim is just laying on the lot. Then the other 3 doors fell like dominoes. One in the car wash, another rattling around while driving. Was able to salvage 2. One of the small strips by the front wheel was coming loose. So finally broke down, had the body shop order 2 replacements and put them all back on. Of course the left door was a couple bucks more than the right. What a chuckle. They ain't exactly cheap either.

kn51

Oh, another question, did you see coolant residue under that broken connector? Sort of looks like it in the picture but just wanted to ask. Mine doesn't show any signs.

DaleB

There was nothing to point to that specific connector. I saw a little blue residue on top of the reservoir, which led me to think it was venting through the cap. There was also a little liquid on the ledge directly below the reservoir, but of course it could have come from anywhere. I haven't actually seen it happening, but I suspect it may be coming out of the leaky connector as steam and condensing in that area.

kn51

I'll be damned, same exact problem. Got a part number for that hose assembly?

DaleB

https://www.mbpartsource.com/oem-par...ube-2215010125

Just make sure it's the same one -- the one that routes to the top of the engine. The other one goes to the radiator, I think, and it's a different part number. I have the EPC here, if you want to make sure it's right for your VIN.

kn51

It's the same I'm fairly sure. Top goes to under the engine cover (more on that later). Lower looks like a PITA with the turbo intake. I hate to touch it without having a new reservoir. But at 30 bucks in case I break something...

But if you would look up the lower I would I appreciate it.

DaleB

Lower hose: "Breather pipe between expansion reservoir and radiator", P/N A2215010725. This one connects to the left-hand (outside) receptacle on the expansion tank, as viewed from the front.

Upper hose: ""Ventilation Line Expansion Tank", P/N A2215010125. This one connects to the right-hand/inside receptacle.

The band clamps on the other ends of the hoses are P/N A1409950405, and if you lose one, the little spring clip on the reservoir is P/N A0079934001.

kn51

Thanks. Did you replace the diverter? AC blowing hot again coming back from the store, I was like hot dog let's hook it up to the DAS but then it starts blowing cold.

DaleB

Not yet. I did manage to get mine connected to DAS when it was blowing hot air. DAS found no problems; the recommended action was to evacuate and refill the refrigerant, and then replace the compressor.

kn51

Yeah, well the evac/refill didn't fix it . IIRC, within DAS, there is a setting on how to set the compressor depending on model age. Been a few years since I've been that far down that hole.

kn51

Quick question, are we talking about the same part given the other recent thread? The duovalve?

And I had it hooked up to das blowing hot and all was a-ok according to it. Temps were sort of fine (it was hot as hell out in the sun but all the temp sensors looked legit.)

DaleB

I have no idea what it’s called. I know approximately dick about A/C systems, to be honest. I understand the principle, but have close to zero knowledge of the details of its practical implementation.

kn51

No worries, just trying to get down to the bottom of this....

Because it is pissing me off.

DaleB

You and me both... and mine is still blowing coolant overboard after driving it.

DaleB

Well, hallelujah. And, a little bit of not hallelujah.

Yesterday the new coolant cap I had ordered from M-B of Laredo (great people to deal with and cheap FACTORY parts, BTW) arrived. I noticed that the internals are indeed different from the replacement cap I bought from Autozone, which was supposed to be for the '07 S600. Externally they looked the same, and even had the same markings on the underside of the cap. But, I've driven it twice now and not lost a drop of coolant. At last. I've only dumped about 3 quarts of new 50/50 coolant into the thing. That $10 replacement was the most expensive coolant cap I've ever bought; it ended up costing me more than the Mercedes part. Oh... M-B Laredo charged me about $30 including Priority Mail shipping. My local dealer wanted $40 before tax. They are pretty bloodthirsty.

Update: Confirmed, I think, that the new genuine Mercedes coolant cap fixed this issue. After several more longer drives, not a drop of coolant lost. Screw Autozone, their cap caused it.

So that's the good news. Of course there's more bad to go with it, an all new issue has arisen. Yesterday, for the second time in the past month, I found the transmission stuck in third gear. No MIL, no lights or alarms or anything, it just refuses to shift up or down from third gear. Once I pull over, park, shut down, and re-start the engine everything is back to normal. No idea why it does that... I'll have to connect the laptop and see if there are any stored codes.

kn51

What's it do, goes 1-2-3 and gets stuck? Paddles don't do anything?

DaleB

No. When I say "stuck in third gear", that is precisely what I mean. Third gear, period. Paddles do nothing. Occasionally when stopped I can get it to indicate 1st gear using the downshift paddle, but as soon as I start to move it (the indicator on the instrument cluster) flips to 3rd. It's quick enough that I don't think it actually dropped into 1st. The result of this is, this V12, 500+ HP vehicle can't keep up with traffic from a light with the accelerator on the floor.

Like I said, after a brief shut down and re-start it behaved fine the rest of the night.

ChuckinTucson

KN51 -- this is a great write up, very useful. I recently purchased a '12 S63 with 70,000 miles. I also bought a service contract with it (was pretty pricey), but I'm not mechanically inclined, so it's worth it to me. My A/C is doing pretty much what you mentioned; although, it does cool down after only 5 minute or so. I had 4 people in the car the other day with very high temperatures (live near Phoenix), and the air coming out of the rear vents (doesn't have the separate controls for A/C, just vents) was very anemic. They were boiling back there by the time we go to our destination. The front air was fine.

The other thing that seems to be acting up with the parking sensors. When I first put the car in gear after starting it, it will beep and two red lights on the right and two of the left will light up temporarily and then go out. Doesn't seem to matter if I put it in drive or reserve. The sensors also don't work if I'm pulling up to something.

Polar Bear

Be careful if it gets stuck in 3rd as you will have transmission fluid boiling out the vent tube on top of the transmission from the heat generated from slipping in no time. Try turning the car off and back on to get the transmission out of limp home mode.

DaleB

As you said, yes -- just shutting off and restarting returns it to normal operation. It happened a couple more times. I'd get one or more rough shifts, then it would be stuck in third. Always when cold, first start of the day. I ordered a transmission dipstick and new O-rings and locks for the cap. I had previously asked the dealer whether the 40K transmission service had been done; they said it had. However, when I checked the fluid level it was quite low. I ended up adding nearly 3 pints to get it up to the correct level when hot. Since then it's been doing well.

And, confirmed that the coolant cap completely and permanently fixed the coolant dumping issue. Over 1K miles since I replaced it, with not a drop of coolant lost.

DaleB

It's been several days since I topped off the transmission fluid, and there has been no further issue with shifting -- at all. That's great news; if this keeps up, I may be able to actually keep the car around. We'll see how it does over the next week or so. I'm driving it pretty much every day, any time I need to go somewhere.

Question for @MBENZTECH or @konigstiger or @pmercury, since you guys seem to have the expertise and answers... the one thing that just drives me nuts and makes it downright embarrassing to drive this car with passengers in it. The stupid alarm that occurs on average about 1 in 3 times I come to a stop at a traffic light. The "OMG PARK ASSIST DISABLED WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!" alarm. Is there any way, through programming, whatever, to disable that? Even if it's just shutting off the prolonged beeeeeeeeeeeeep that goes along with the totally unnecessary warning. Turning off Park Assist does nothing for this. It's the last glaring problem with this car that I really want to fix -- and by fix I mean just make it go away. I don't want to turn off radar and lose cruise control, or tell the car it doesn't have park assist at all and lose the parking sensors. I just want to disable that bloody warning whenever another car interferes with the park sensors at 5 MPH or below.

I'd just like to know if it can be done, or not... and if it can, what it would take.

whoover

I had that on a '19 E63S. Turned out a rock took out a Parktronic sensor. Tiny chip on the sensor. Nothing to do with Distronic. But to get it fixed, you need to get the faulty sensor replaced.