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Cannot Release Parking Brake - Flashing "Park" on Dash
My car is stuck in the garage with the parking brake engaged, the red "PARK" light blinking on the dash and a "Parking Brake See Manual" message that when canceled out, will pop back up when I shift from D to R to P, etc.
I disconnected the battery and reconnected it, to see if that cleared the issue...it did not. The remote started the vehicle and peaked inside to the dash and saw the error + blinking "PARK" was still present.
Any other things to try here? Pic attached below (the PARK is flashing and not solid as you will see it in the still image).
You're not alone - some didn't find a solution so I imagine you're ready for dealer trip (you already read some of these links stuck eating at your restaurant while you wait)
how long was the battery disconnected
how long did you wait when locking the doors, walking away, and then unlocking the doors to try again
from @superswiss
"The parking brake engages when the engine is turned off or the driver's door is opened. It normally disengages automatically when the transmission is put in gear and you are wearing the seatbelt as I said above. It should also disengage if you give it enough throttle, but again you have to wear the seatbelt. Manually releasing with the switch should always work, though. For example we were asked to do that at the AMG Driving Academy events so that the pads won't imprint on the hot rotors. The moment the driver's door is opened with engine running, the parking brake engages, but it should release if you use the switch. I always get confused, though, whether I have to push or pull the switch. One way is engaging it and the other way is disengaging it, but I never remember which is which. I believe pushing the switch in releases it and pulling the switch out engages it, so make sure you are operating the switch correctly."
Last edited by PeterUbers; Aug 12, 2025 at 04:05 PM.
Thanks for the reply. The wagon is at the dealer now.
The closest I got to fixing this was a solution posted by an S-class owner in another thread. I'll quote it here in case it does eventually help someone in our subforum. This method definitely "brute forced" the ebrake lever to attempt an actuation back at the parking brake. As this guy says, you can hear it trying to disengage, and it definitely disengaged the pressure slightly, but not enough to want to drive on it. This process also revealed it's likely just one side that is stuck engaged. I played it safe and towed the car to the dealer for diagnostics. Here's that quote:
Originally Posted by HollywoodS550
**UPDATE** -- PROBLEM SOLVED!!
I was reading through some other threads of other Mercedes models with similar problems. I accessed the SERVICE MODE, then pressed BRAKE PAD REPLACE. Soon as I pressed it, I got another error about not being in the proper release position or something. I forgot the wording. I pressed the e-brake, released, pressed it, released it, several times. Turned the car on, off, on, off, also several times. I could hear the e-brake ACTUATOR kick in every time I pressed it, but it buzzed for longer than usual. After doing that a few times, I backed the car out of the garage, and noticed the BRAKE symbol on the center display was no longer flashing yellow and red. Now it was just static red, like normal. But the same error was still displayed on the center display. So I exited the error, backed up to normal display, turned the car off and on again, and everything was back to NORMAL, with the brakes and e-brake working PERFECTLY.
I drove the car around the block, and engaged the e-brake to make sure it really worked and would hold the car. It worked!
My thought on this is that the back and forth, on and off of activating the BRAKE PAD REPLACE command, plus the repeated on/off of the e-brake itself ADJUSTED the e-brake under the rotor until it re-aligned/tightened itself to the right position again.
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