Simmo-e55

Hey everyone new owner here and excited to get in to the world of my amg. It's a 2005 black e55 with the Bosche waterpump upgrade and some camber plates on the front to reduce caster (previous owner installed to increase tire life?) Now I have an issue, 5 months in and I have been getting two warnings on my dash, they always come together never one without the other. They are ESP faulty and headlamp assisted cornering unavailable (from memory may not be word for word). I did some research and swapped out my brake light switch but so far no luck. Any ideas or suggestions? Is it worth I fork out to get the code read done? Sorry if this has been done to death I'm finding it a little hard navigating this site. Cheers everyone!

bbirdwell

Welcome. First thing I recommend is that you purchase a good code reader; it will pay for itself in just 3 or 4 uses. I prefer DAS/STAR/Xentry but iCarSoft has a high-end version that is pretty good for less cost. Your car is pretty much a computer powered by a V8. Based on the symptoms I would replace nothing without confirming via diagnostics. A quick test can be performed in literally 5-10 minutes. First time you run a quick test, don't be surprised if find a lot of stored codes. Look for current codes that are active faults, if none active, clear all, wait for the fault to reappear, then read the codes to find what you need to replace.

Yuille36

My advice would be to have the car scanned. You can spend a lot of money changing out parts, and never truly isolate the culprit. This way, you'll know for sure.

PieRat

My money is on clock spring/steering angle sensor issue but yeah scN it lol

JakeAndBake

100% on bbirdwell. He’s helped me before with STAR and I didn’t learn my lesson and buy it for myself. It will absolutely pay for itself, and quickly! Really just slightly educated guesses without reading the car. Good luck!

tw2

I have the icarsoft mbii, nowhere near the functionality of star but fits in the door pocket and will read all codes and do things the basic or gereric ones won't. Hopefully it isn't too complicated to sort.

Chest Rockwell

Welcome. Where are you located? Maybe a local with STAR can help out and demonstrate why they're almost essential with a w211.

Simmo-e55

I am located in New Zealand

tw2

I'm in Hamilton but there are members in Auckland and Christchurch if that helps.

cetialpha5

My guess is on that one too. The easiest is the brake light switch. Then it's the steering angle sensor. The other possibilities are wheel speed sensors and the yaw sensor, but the last is the least likely. That's why OP needs a code scanner. The code scanner will tell you exactly which part is bad.

When you get an ESP error, they all go out, no active cornering, no cruise control. There are several other scanners out there too, in the US, they're in the $100-$150 range. Usually dealers will charge you at least that much just to scan it once so it should pay for itself after one scan.

Simmo-e55

Thanks everyone I'll try find a scanner to use or alternatively to buy, until then, the only annoyance is having no cruise control but I can cope!

maxusa

Like several people said here, my initial reaction is the steering angle sensor. I dealt with a very similar issue on a Benz car. Fixed it with a replacement of a used steering column switches block (with the angle sensor) from eBay around $140. This is how it is typically removed/sold. You will need to remove the steering wheel. The whole replacement project took me 2 hours working slowly and carefully (airbag, etc.)

Simmo-e55

Pretty self explanatory?

Simmo-e55

big thanks bro! Made that super easy. I bought myself a new battery today too. Ended up with a varta battery. Seems like for like oem and I think they're german too so why not huh

tw2

No problem. My last two genuine Mercedes batteries were varta. Good choice.