Anti-Slip ESP problem
Odd one this. 1996 S600 W140 driving gently (5mph) from cold start, Anti-Slip triggered and started locking up the wheels. Pulled over, tried again, could not get over 5 mph before Anti-Slip kicked in. Very odd trying to drive in this state. Did not know what to do, turned round and crept home. Dry roads, sunny day. Tried Winter settings on gearbox and a couple of different gear settings. No difference. Gave up, booked it into MB dealer for next day. Next day started perfectly and drove as normal, 40mph, normal driving, no problem. Nothing shows up in the stored faults. MB dealer took it out for an aggressive spin, couldn't trigger the problem. They put it on ramp and phoned me to say problem was caused by bald rear tyres. Well, sorry, the tyres didn't get any less bald between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Also nothing happened to trigger a loss of traction on a clean dry road at low speeds when the problem first happened. So, the classic owner/repairer nightmare of an untraceable, unidentified, intermittent problem. $150 for a cursory cleaning of the car.
One further detail. The suspension/ESP warning lights keep coming on on the dash. MB says they have checked everything and there is no fault. They blame this on a faulty sensor, which at a cost of £500 ($750) to replace, I decided (and they agreed) did not need to be replaced. Could be there is some connection, however, that was 6 months ago and I have only ever suffered this anti-slip problem once, last week.
Anybody else ever had a similar issue?
Regards
One further detail. The suspension/ESP warning lights keep coming on on the dash. MB says they have checked everything and there is no fault. They blame this on a faulty sensor, which at a cost of £500 ($750) to replace, I decided (and they agreed) did not need to be replaced. Could be there is some connection, however, that was 6 months ago and I have only ever suffered this anti-slip problem once, last week.
Anybody else ever had a similar issue?
Regards
Further to previous post:
With this problem happening at 5mph, low traffic etc. it really wasn't too terrible. The effect of the Anti-Slip kicking in was that the wheels seemed to lock up alternately and bring the car more or less to a halt. My MB dealer tells me that if this happens again and I need to drive the car, I can just turn off the ESP with a switch on the dash.
My concern though, is this: if rather than at 5mph the Anti-slip kicks in when I am doing 70mph on a busy motorway, what will that do to the car?
With this problem happening at 5mph, low traffic etc. it really wasn't too terrible. The effect of the Anti-Slip kicking in was that the wheels seemed to lock up alternately and bring the car more or less to a halt. My MB dealer tells me that if this happens again and I need to drive the car, I can just turn off the ESP with a switch on the dash.
My concern though, is this: if rather than at 5mph the Anti-slip kicks in when I am doing 70mph on a busy motorway, what will that do to the car?
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
knotknowenuff
Diesel Discussions
5
Oct 9, 2008 09:44 PM




