2002 C320 Wagon
85,000 miles

I had to store my '02 C320 for 6mo w/o being able to start of drive it.

I put a new battery in it, and it started right up.

I had an "ESP Program" warning text after start, but the car drove perfectly.

Shut down the car after a 10mi drive, and used it again, and about 3min after this start, while driving, I got a "Brake Pad Wear Visit Shop/ESP Malfunction/ABS Malfunction/Gauge Cluster Malfunction
. " At least some of the warnings were flashing (not steady).

I believe it also went into the Safe/Limp-Home mode as it lost considerable power and felt like it was trying to start in 3rd gear. The cluster transmission gear display did not show a selected gear, and the Summer/Winter window was blank, and selecting S/W did nothing.

I stopped, put the trans into park, but with the eng running, even with the brake pedal depressed, it would then not shift out of Park.

I shut off the engine, and re-started it, and all of the warnings were gone, and everything worked normally, so I drove off. We continued to a restaurant, had dinner, came out, and it's back to perfect again (no warnings and everything works), so I KNOW all of the warnings are related, and that there is probably NOTHING really "wrong" with the car mechanically to deserve the warnings.

I am 1500 miles from home (and scheduled to drive home Wednesday morning), but I called my MB Tech back home and he said there is a LARGE (like 1"X3") "Multi-Function Relay" that controls all of those functions, and he has seen a FEW times after cars have sat a long time, it causes exactly those symptoms as I have.

He thought in many models it was by the battery (above the passenger's knees), but there is no box there in my car I can find. The only box near there is a junction box by the battery w/ a red cap that can be lifted to reveal a contact that is connected to the battery + Contact, but there are no relays or fuses inside.

On the driver's side, there is a fuse/relay box in the eng compartment above the drivers left knee next to the brake fluid reservoir, but the relays in there are the standard DIN size (about 1"X1").

He said the ABS, ESP and Brake Sensors all involve this relay, and the speedo is also controlled by it, and that it can be cleaned, or better yet replaced, but I need to find it, but of course, if anyone has a better idea of what could cause this, please chime in!

Naturally, I am reluctant to start a 1500mi trip as the car is now, and would at least CHANGE that relay if my model has it, and I can find it.

I put a generic OBD II scanner on it and got NO CODES, but did get a pending code P0600 "Communications Failure." The cluster now shows "No Malfunctions" rather than all of the faults it had been flashing earlier.

Thanks, guys,
Bob