Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | |||||
| SB-32-22-78 | 05/06/2009 | SB-32-22-78A | 10028686 | Mercedes: air matic visit workshop displayed within instrument cluster. models 164, 211, 219, 221 and 251. included 4matic, amg (compressor) amg, bluetec and wagon. model years unknown. *pe updated 9/18/09. | 05/14/2009 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - WIRING | |||||
| SB-59783 | 12/10/2010 | 10037653 | Ready | 06/01/2011 | |
| SB-59783 | 12/10/2010 | 10037653 | Mercedes-benz: there are electrical production quality issues that cause the air bag warning light to illuminate. *rm | 06/01/2011 | |
| SB-32-22-78 | 05/06/2009 | SB-32-22-78A | 10028686 | Mercedes: air matic visit workshop displayed within instrument cluster. models 164, 211, 219, 221 and 251. included 4matic, amg (compressor) amg, bluetec and wagon. model years unknown. *pe updated 9/18/09. | 05/14/2009 |
Investigations
| NHTSA ID | Manufacturer | Date open | Date close | Subject | Recall campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | 11/24/2010 | Driver Air Bag Circuit High Resistance | ||
| Mercedes-benz usa (mbusa) has reported a high number of warranty claims for air bag warning lamp illumination due to a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag firing circuit.mbusa's testing and evaluation have shown that this condition is the result of a faulty connector (specifically, improper wire crimp) but that it will not prevent proper deployment of the driver's frontal air bag.the faulty connector can cause the air bag circuit resistance levels to exceed the threshold that illuminates the air bag warning lamp, but they do not exceed a higher limit at which proper deployment of the air bag may no longer occur.the agency believes that further expenditure of agency resources does not appear to be warranted at this time.the closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by nhtsa that no safety-related defect exists.the agency will monitor the issue and reserves the right to take future action if warranted by the circumstances.during the investigation, odi learned that mbusa will initiate a warranty extension program to address the faulty connectors in subject model year 2005 and 2006 e-class and other mbusa model/model year vehicles.this action will extend the warranty coverage for this issue to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever occurs first.mbusa will notify all affected vehicle owners of this action.a bulletin describing this program is available in the investigative file. | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | Driver's Frontal Air Bag Wiring Failure | |||
| Odi has received four complaints of steering column module wiring harness failures on my 2005-2006 mercedes-benz e-class vehicles.in december 2005, mercedes-benz usa issued a technical service bulletin (tsb no. p-b-91.60/99) and subsequently issued several minor revisions to the original tsb.the tsbs address reports of air bag warning lamp illumination accompanied by a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag ignition squib 1 or 2 (the air bag firing circuits), respectively.this condition may result in failure of the driver's first stage and/or second stage inflator to deploy in the event of an above deployment threshold frontal crash.according to the tsbs, the repair involves significant lengthening of the steering column module wiring harness by cutting and splicing each wire in the harness.thus, it appears possible that the wire ends in the original, shorter harness could pull out of the connector block thereby causing an open-circuit condition in the driver's air bag circuits.additionally, the tsbs cover my 2003-2009 e-class and my 2006-2010 cls-class vehicles.although odi has not received complaints involving all of these vehicles, odi will inquire about all vehicles covered by the above tsbs. | ||||||
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - WIRING | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | 11/24/2010 | Driver Air Bag Circuit High Resistance | ||
| Mercedes-benz usa (mbusa) has reported a high number of warranty claims for air bag warning lamp illumination due to a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag firing circuit.mbusa's testing and evaluation have shown that this condition is the result of a faulty connector (specifically, improper wire crimp) but that it will not prevent proper deployment of the driver's frontal air bag.the faulty connector can cause the air bag circuit resistance levels to exceed the threshold that illuminates the air bag warning lamp, but they do not exceed a higher limit at which proper deployment of the air bag may no longer occur.the agency believes that further expenditure of agency resources does not appear to be warranted at this time.the closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by nhtsa that no safety-related defect exists.the agency will monitor the issue and reserves the right to take future action if warranted by the circumstances.during the investigation, odi learned that mbusa will initiate a warranty extension program to address the faulty connectors in subject model year 2005 and 2006 e-class and other mbusa model/model year vehicles.this action will extend the warranty coverage for this issue to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever occurs first.mbusa will notify all affected vehicle owners of this action.a bulletin describing this program is available in the investigative file. | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | Driver's Frontal Air Bag Wiring Failure | |||
| Odi has received four complaints of steering column module wiring harness failures on my 2005-2006 mercedes-benz e-class vehicles.in december 2005, mercedes-benz usa issued a technical service bulletin (tsb no. p-b-91.60/99) and subsequently issued several minor revisions to the original tsb.the tsbs address reports of air bag warning lamp illumination accompanied by a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag ignition squib 1 or 2 (the air bag firing circuits), respectively.this condition may result in failure of the driver's first stage and/or second stage inflator to deploy in the event of an above deployment threshold frontal crash.according to the tsbs, the repair involves significant lengthening of the steering column module wiring harness by cutting and splicing each wire in the harness.thus, it appears possible that the wire ends in the original, shorter harness could pull out of the connector block thereby causing an open-circuit condition in the driver's air bag circuits.additionally, the tsbs cover my 2003-2009 e-class and my 2006-2010 cls-class vehicles.although odi has not received complaints involving all of these vehicles, odi will inquire about all vehicles covered by the above tsbs. | ||||||
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - WIRING - INTERIOR/UNDER DASH | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | 11/24/2010 | Driver Air Bag Circuit High Resistance | ||
| Mercedes-benz usa (mbusa) has reported a high number of warranty claims for air bag warning lamp illumination due to a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag firing circuit.mbusa's testing and evaluation have shown that this condition is the result of a faulty connector (specifically, improper wire crimp) but that it will not prevent proper deployment of the driver's frontal air bag.the faulty connector can cause the air bag circuit resistance levels to exceed the threshold that illuminates the air bag warning lamp, but they do not exceed a higher limit at which proper deployment of the air bag may no longer occur.the agency believes that further expenditure of agency resources does not appear to be warranted at this time.the closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by nhtsa that no safety-related defect exists.the agency will monitor the issue and reserves the right to take future action if warranted by the circumstances.during the investigation, odi learned that mbusa will initiate a warranty extension program to address the faulty connectors in subject model year 2005 and 2006 e-class and other mbusa model/model year vehicles.this action will extend the warranty coverage for this issue to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever occurs first.mbusa will notify all affected vehicle owners of this action.a bulletin describing this program is available in the investigative file. | ||||||
| PE10017 | MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. | 05/14/2010 | Driver's Frontal Air Bag Wiring Failure | |||
| Odi has received four complaints of steering column module wiring harness failures on my 2005-2006 mercedes-benz e-class vehicles.in december 2005, mercedes-benz usa issued a technical service bulletin (tsb no. p-b-91.60/99) and subsequently issued several minor revisions to the original tsb.the tsbs address reports of air bag warning lamp illumination accompanied by a diagnostic fault code 9103 or 9123 indicating a high resistance in the driver's frontal air bag ignition squib 1 or 2 (the air bag firing circuits), respectively.this condition may result in failure of the driver's first stage and/or second stage inflator to deploy in the event of an above deployment threshold frontal crash.according to the tsbs, the repair involves significant lengthening of the steering column module wiring harness by cutting and splicing each wire in the harness.thus, it appears possible that the wire ends in the original, shorter harness could pull out of the connector block thereby causing an open-circuit condition in the driver's air bag circuits.additionally, the tsbs cover my 2003-2009 e-class and my 2006-2010 cls-class vehicles.although odi has not received complaints involving all of these vehicles, odi will inquire about all vehicles covered by the above tsbs. | ||||||
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | |||
| 04/15/2011 | 62000 | ||
| Vehicle was acting normally up to incident. entering highway accelerating like normal and pulled out in front of tractor trailer when suddenly car had dramatic and frightening loss of power. full throttle did nothing. downshifting did nothing. with truck horns blaring and near collision, i pulled off the road. restarting cleared the problem. dramatic loss of power has occurred three more times with no warning nor check engine light. now light comes on with egr out of range code. discussing this with other mercedes diesel owners points towards soot clogged egr valve and soot clogged intake manifold. how such a problem could occur so frequently at such a low mileage with a company known for diesels is unknown. | |||
| 10/10/2008 | 33500 | 1 | |
| My brake has metal grinding noise and no dash board warning light showing problems. it has some dragging when brakes. *tr | |||
| 01/07/2005 | 820 | 9 | 12/23/2004 |
| Electrical problems out of service 18 days, srs/airbag failures out of service 18 days, ac/defrost blower motor failures out of service 12 days, brakes out of service 9 days, transmission (idle surge/up shifting/stalling) out of service 10 days, front end/tires out of service 10 days. during the lemon law final repair attempt, the dealer wrote on work order that they had installed new brakes because they found after market brakes on car. the only place the car has ever been serviced was the dealership where we purchased it. we asked the service advisor and assistant service manager (first they said the brakes were thrown out and then they said the parts were shipped to mb) and wrote two certified letters to mercedes benz for the removed parts so we could track the serial numbers. we were ignored. the regional representative who initiated the brake replacement was conveniently promoted out of the area just before the lemon law hearing so he could not be questioned. we had been complaining about the brakes, especially the stopping distance, from the beginning and they kept saying no problem found. the dealer would not document it on the work orders. *jb | |||
| 01/15/2005 | 12 | 12/20/2004 | |
| Brakes grind when put in drive, park and at stop lights. seat belt indicator had to be fixed after 5 times at the shop, brakes were identified with a problem by mbz after 6 visits to the shop (fletcher jones mbz las vegas), tech stated on the invoice he identified the problem and ordered the parts. when i took the car back in to get the parts, the service manager stated there was a mistake and there was nothing wrong with the brakes and mbz would not fix the problem. currently none of the seat belts work (when slamming on the brakes they do not lock). control panel reads srs malfunction drive to shop, airbags off, check engine. fletcher jones mbz las vegas refuses to comply with the lemon law, repair for one malfunction more than 3 times, out of service (in the shop) for more than 30 days in one calendar year. *nm | |||
| 04/22/2005 | 100 | ||
| I recently purchased a new mercedes with a gps. in my opinion, the device is a serious safety hazard and will cause countless accidents in its present state. for example, when i was at the zoo on conn. ave. in d.c. and programmed the device to get to reagan national, it insisted on taking conn. ave. downtown and cutting across to 14th st. i elected to take rock creek parkway to the memorial bridge and then down rt. 110. within a quarter of a mile after entering rock creek, the device was telling me to make a left. absent an atv, this illegal turn could not be performed. additionally, where it wanted me to go was an on-ramp (with a do not enter sign) for traffic traveling in the opposite direction. a little later it suggested a right turn into a steep embankment. finally, as i was passing the kennedy center it suggested a left turn into it. only when i reached the memorial bridge did it decide to recalculate the route. the problem, as i see it, is that a fair percentage of drivers will blindly follow the verbal instructions with serious consequences. incidentally, talking with the salesman about this problem, he told me that they all ready had a woman drive into a lake. my verbalization of this problem is totally inadequate therefore i invite one or more of your staffers in d.c. for a test ride. *jb | |||