Benz-O-Rama

These 03 to 05 cars are gonna be dropping like flies here pretty soon. They have a finite life of 300,000 activations, then you're cooked.

Add me to the list of failed SBC, on my 211. Had the white BRAKE instrument cluster warning for about week. Thought it was pads, didn't give it much thought. Ordered pads and was gonna change at next chance. Then on Saturday, I got 4 miles from my house and BOOM, RED warning, no brakes. Or, very little braking, I should say. I live in a very hilly area and getting her home was hairy, to say the least. Did the E-Brake shuffle up and down some steep mountain roads. Pucker factor was strong...

Hooked up my SDS and sure enough, C249F OPERATING TIME OF COMPONENT A7/3 IS EXCEEDED (SBC HYDRAULIC UNIT) was the code.

Cleared the codes, let it sit overnight and started her up to move her out of the way into another part of the driveway. Car stops fine, but is back to white BRAKE error on the IC. Parked it, haven't started it since. SBC warranty was up in April, so no joy from the dealer when I went in to talk to them today. Ordered new SBC unit and will install next week.


It get's better. Had them run the VIN on my SL600 just to see when that SBC warranty was up. Wait for it..... last Friday.




Happy Happy Joy Joy.

viren.89

That sucks!

I just wish they had some sort of built in mechanism -like they do with oil change that would warn us about upcoming failure lol For example- so and so amount of cycles remaining.

Closest mechanic from me is ,25 miles away.

Did you talk to the dealership ? would they budge on doing the repair under warranty ? Since it's been only few days.

Three very unpredictable things on this car- CPS, SBC and Airmatic.

efiftyfizzle

And those unpredictable things are why I got rid of my E55. Couldn't stand the surprises... especially on some sort of a trip.

p30amg08

dang, sry to hear that man! Same thing happened to my friend on his 55, he had to get it replaced. I never understood, how can MB design a car to where the brakes are non existant!!!??What if someone dies??? IDK...SMDH

dchl21

sorry man ... happened to me too... luckly it was covered on my 05 about a yr ago.

JDM_SXE-10

I just replaced mine last week. I got the same white BRAKE message and I also thought it was my pads. Luckily, I remembered that when the pads needed replacing in the past, it said "Break Wear," so I had it scanned and it came up as the SBC pump also.

JDM_SXE-10

Unfortunately, the SBC and Airmatic are not as cheap as the CPS.

SPatykAMG

It's not advised but the counter can be reset

Rallyboy383

What the price of the pump? I looked on line and could not find it anywhere. What is the part number? Is the unit difficult to replace?

Benz-O-Rama

Indeed. If my wife and kids didn't ride in it, and I was young and carefree, I'd have done that.

Dealership gave me a little break. Depending on where you can find it, 850-1000+ install


My part is w211 non-amg so probably won't help you. And it's and updated number...

009-431-26-12-88

Yacht Master

Sorry to hear of your reaching the 300k limit on the SBC.

vikingdiesel

What is sbc and what is this 300k thing all about?

ginger55k

Direct from Bosch, less to pay than at stealer prices in the uk, and maybe across the pond.

http://www.bosch-repair-service.com/...ples_EHB.xhtml

CharlyE500

I remember my car had SBC recall done about 6 years ago. What's the warranty ? 10 years ?

berti_00

Damm talk about bad luck... Try talking With them see if they will do some sort of exceptions

moosejaw

The SL55 still has SBC correct until its production run right?

Worth the wait

I love Clayton, but guys he did ride around with a code showing without even scanning it.
Let's not feel to bad that he got stuck. And no blah blah about no warning from MB...he just chose to ignore the first one...lol.
Full disclosure: I ordered pads once only to find out it was the SBC but I did check the code before it went red.
Good luck with the repair!

WANTED!!

Anyone happen to know the 2005 E55 part number for this? I'm contemplating having one of these on hand as I do CPS sensors for that "just in case".

Benz-O-Rama

Shut IT!

Yeah man, I could've scanned it and it wouldn't have changed anything, other than alert me of the impending doom, I suppose. I'm so used to seeing codes on these things, that sometimes I assume I know what they are before I scan it. Thought it was pads this time, not even realizing the IC had a slightly different message. I didn't get stuck... I got it home. Good news is, I live in the country, with little traffic. Bad news is, the elevation changes were a bit hairy on the return trip back home. I was about 4 miles out. Riding the brake pedal with "reduced braking power" plus pumping the E-brake inspired enough confidence that I could get it back home. Plus, I was late for a tee time. Priorities...



BTW, here's what SDS shows when you're cooked. This error isn't present until you have the failure and you're IC goes all Lucifer on you...

Benz-O-Rama

Yes sir.

uraberg

What exactly is the service limit? I mean, is there a number in SDS I should be looking for that'll tell me how far away I am from the limit?

How many miles on the car when you reached the limit? (just as some sort of indication)

SICAMG

I am working with a company to repair these units but am looking for a core they can dissect. If anyone has one to give up let me know.

vikingdiesel

Is pretty much the abs module or the abs pump?

Benz-O-Rama

It has a life of 300,000 activations before it codes. Miles are irrelevant. Unfortunately, nobody I know has been able to find the current number activations, using SDS. It's a yes/no flag...


SBC. Sensotronic Brake Control. It's your brake by wire system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensotronic_Brake_Control

vikingdiesel

So e55 models have sbc and the e63 don't