Dan-the-Man

A story of up-selling.

and no I don't have keyless go either. Bit of a long story but may help someone else one day.

After getting a car wash I was driving home and stopped to pickup some lunch ..... no problems yet .... When I came back to the car and put the keys in and turned to start an ESP error displayed stating car needed to go to workshop........... I immediately assumed that water had got into the ABS system and was causing a short/error. I turned off the ignition and retried and second attempt ... no error code.

So I drove home without any issues enter my garage and shut the car off and remove the key ....... slight problem .... the engine was still running .... what the #$@!@. ...... I had to take a few seconds of sanity checks but I could rev the motor and I wasn't dreaming. .........

All the usual electronic things occurred when you remove the keys like the steering column going up and the dash lights going off etc etc......

So I put the keys back in and turned to the start position ...... now SRS error, ESP error, child restraint error and one other error....arrggggg...... remove the key .... steering goes back up and engine still running.

I retried this about 6 times turning off appliances to see if I could create any pattern. ...... no joy..... tried the spare key ... no difference .... removed the battery cable ....... still running.

Also, I could put the car into reverse and drive and go forward / back as normal and the steering lock was not active all while no key in ignition. (A thieves dream)

I called Mercedes assistance and they sent out a tech .... who knew nothing but made out that he new everything ...... after 20 minutes of re going everything they decided to flat bed it to the dealer ... with the motor still running.

While we were standing on the road waiting for the truck after about ten minutes with no key in ignition .... and motor still running ...... the motor shut off ..........

So I put the key in and restarted ..... no errors ... no problem .... turned back off and the motor stopped ... no problem.

So we canceled the truck and I drove it to the dealer the next day.

They plugged the computer in and checked all the error codes and nothing pointed to any obvious error and the errors were obviously non related as they were all over the place.

We checked the main fuse box and .......... dudididudididuuuuuu

A cable had been jammed along the boxes edge stopping the box from sealing correctly ...... water got into the main fuse box and must of caused a short which caused all the electrical faults etc. Once it dried out then no more problem. We repositioned the cable to where it was meant to live and resealed the fuse box properly this time.

So the moral of the story is ....... when getting a car wash ... the new extra mega wash with two extra passes and a wet buff may not be worth the extra $4 after all.

X2Board

Two word Dan: Hand Wash

Dan-the-Man

I know ..... sacrilege really ......

1 BAD BURB

i literally LOL'd... that was a funny story... thank you!

Aj

Yacht Master

+1, hire 2 girls to shampoo your car, that will keep your engine running.

cahiil55k

That's just your car getting revenge for going through an automatic wash. It's a good lesson for all of us though.

Dan-the-Man

Over the years of reading on this board it did make me wonder about all those strange electrical issues that people have had from time to time. Where the cable was located and where it was supposed to live I could see how easy it would be to get it stuck in the wrong spot thus making the fuse box unsealed.

Dan-the-Man

I often wondered how well an all girl topless car wash would do? ....... just off to get a wash and polish dear.

cahiil55k

Electronics is a double edged sword. In my old car, GM decided to mount the fuel pump resistor near the passenger side wheel well. After so many underside car washes took it's toll on the connector, the car would not start anymore.

kurtwz

I didn't laugh at ALL! I was too worried it was going to be a bad ending, or worse yet, not an ending at all, but a call for help. Alls well that ends well, I suppose. Now I can laugh.

That's a sick Vette, by the way.

1 BAD BURB

ohh no, i meant, i laughed my *** off at the end... not during, no way, i would feel the guys pain. but i mean, the car is warranty covered soo... if he were on his own, even worse!

aj

Dan-the-Man

I actually laughed while it was happening .... I mean what else could you do??

I have historically had electrical faults occur after washing a car ... including hand washing !!!!! My RUF used to miss like a byarch in corners after it had been washed unless you waited hours for everything to dry. It was sucking in water into the air intake and upsetting the MAF sensor.

Gotta make you wonder about fly by wire systems ....... how much money and technology goes into Merc anti theft systems and yet some well placed water and off you drive. heh

kurtwz

It's cool, man. I think I'm unable to find certain funny things funny. I couldn't laugh through most of the movie Meet the Parents because I had just become engaged at the time and found it all a little too real. Same situation here, I think, heh.

Ali_E55

wow

i can imagine how you felt.

good that everything returned to normal.