11 Jan: Been using the car all day and have started and turned off at least ten times and no failures. Now the fan switch is acting up! No speed regulation and the shaft seems sloppy. Go fast, goes slow, stops etc. Went Mienike Muffler to try and get a 3" crack repair on my left cat. They said they couldn't braze/weld it and wanted to sell me a new exhaust, on just the left side, for $1950. Said hell no! I can't find anyone, with welding skills, to braze a small crack. I guess I'll do a high temp exhaust wrap on it.

12 Jan Update @9:20: Used car all day yesterday and no problem. Went out this morning and same old "no start" problem. Nothing else to do except pull the SKREEM module and send to MSS.

 

12 Jan @ 11am: Yet "maybe" another no start clue! As mentioned above the car would not start this morning (3 times)! Out of curiosity I moved the shift selector to "Neutral" and it started right up! Could this possibly be a shifter adjustment / switch problem?

I gotta find a sticky on automatic shifter adjustments and "if" it could relate to no start problem.

 

"
The thread is too long to read to gather the details, so here is the short answer:

1) If the starter won't engage but moving to neutral always works (that is, wait till next time and see) then OK, the switch in the SLA is flaky. (Do not send the stuff to MSS)
2) If the starter is engaging, it is not the Park switch, the Park switch must "make" in order for the starter to engage at all. (Probably time to send the stuff to MSS)

Resolve to get an answer to the two questions above before shipping that stuff to the MSS.

 

13 Jan @ 7pm: Started car numerous times this morning. Made several trips today. No problems starting all day! I want to try starting as suggested above but car won't "co-operate" and fail to start!"

Update 14 Jan @ 7pm: Car started several times today, again, and no problems!
Update 15 Jan @ 3pm: Car started all day and no problems!
Update 16 Jan @ 7pm. Car started every time all day!

 

Hmmmm! Four days of staring, as indicated above, and no "fail to start" condition. What the heck is going on here? Other than that little problem the car really performs great. But, after owning the car for a month now, another little problem popped up. The windshield washer no worky!

 

Day 5 of SKREEM, or something else, and the "no start" problem is back again! I did a lot of running around today with no problem starting at all. I was able to try moving the shifter to the neutral position but same thing of no start. I'm starting to really hate Mercedes and their security engineering designers!

 

t wish whatever is going on with my SKREEM, or other sub-system, would just "fail permanently!' Went out this morning and it starts up fine after yesterday afternoon's "no start" problem back again. Had five or six days of working just fine, problem back yesterday, and then works just fine this morning. Hate having to spend almost $400, for SKREEM repair, and sit back and say I hope this is the problem.

 

If your skreem was dying it, can possibly throw a cel. As for the intermitted starting problem, shot in the dark but does your key fob make noise? it can also be a lose transponder

 

Seems like SKREEMS usually DIE and not "come and go". I'm still thinking there is something else going on here.

 

Usually it just does die, I been more cases of it coming and going also ( but still rare) that why I suggested checking the fob. Could be lose transponder causes the start issues

 

Well I'm going to surrender and send my key, SKREEM and ECU to MSS for checking them out and repair as necessary. I also am interested in the SKREEM delete so I don't have these problems anymore. When I get my car up and running again I post the results. This post is already way too long so don't post any replies till then. Thanks to all for your help and advice!

 

Here is a diagnostic code download. The technician erased my car history and wants me to drive it this coming week and then he'll download fresh codes next weekend. This is a screen shot of the codes. Kinda hard to see cause it's a camera shot of the screen.

 

Please have a look at your CAN bus. Without CAN the Skreem couldn't work ether.

 

Sounds like crank position sensor, go bad when then get hot, cool down and car starts again, happened to mine the other week. Apparently very common, so much so that people carry spares.

 

Who are you responding to?

See, this is why I warn new members to be careful of the advice they take on here. The discussion is about what is obviously a SKREEM or CAN BUS related issue (unless you are responding to a post I missed, but again, if you do not quote who you are talking to, we have no clue what you are responding to). His starter is not engaging, the Crank Sensor does not stop the starter from engaging, the crank sensor simply tells the ECU what position the crankshaft is in and what speed it is turning (with additional data being provided by the Cam sensor).

 

I had the exact same experience as you
Over 6 months I though I had fixed the 'no start' issue only to have it come back again
No rhyme nor reason each time
I tried EVERY suggestion on the forum, and it would work for a while and then....... back again

I eventually followed the 'send off the SKREEM and ECU'
I am in NZ and it took a month to get there and back But
I installed the recoded unit and.................. it started straight away and I have not had the problem since

 

UPDATE: 15 FEB 23 I don't know what to think about this "no start" problem. The last "no start" was 10 Jan. That evening it started right up and has been used every day since then! That's over a month of normal operation. I was going to pull the skreem and send to MSS but it has been working just fine.
( Reason I haven't already sent to MSS is because big expenses right now with property tax's, home owner's insurance and insurance on five cars hit me all at once. Having a fixed income makes play time things having to wait. )

 

Ten years ago, this was easy. RCMs and SKREEMS failed in predicable scenarios. As our cars age, we are now seeing odd little variations of some of the failure modes.
I've seen posts where I thought, "I know what that is, it's this.............." Before I can comment, someone else tells the person what it is.

Two weeks later, we learn we were wrong, because it turned out to be a new failure mode with similar symptoms. Our cars are aging and diagnosis may become somewhat more difficult. I'm not saying this will be insurmountable, just that those of us giving tech advice damn well better be aware of this - you cannot take ONE symptom and throw out an fifteen year old 'fix' anymore. We are moving from the days where one symptom equals one cause to a day where one symptom will have two or more likely causes.

Once again, I caution you all: Be careful about what tech advice you take from the members of this forum, myself included. SKREEMS are now failing with symptoms we've not seen until recently. "Three cranks and nothing" once meant a SKREEM failure, and it still does. But OTHER modes of failure in the SKREEMs seem to be popping up.

At one Dragon, we had a "crank but no start", which is always a Crank sensor, right? THIS time, it wasn't . There was an output lead from the RCM that was damaged and was shorting to ground. A fuse in the RCM was blown.
The guy changed the fuse and made it almost home, car quit going down the road. Put in another fuse, made it home. It took him less than 1/2 hour to find the short to ground, but I've never heard of that happening before or since. Just an example of how we can no longer take ONE symptom and tell someone what the problem is, only what it MIGHT be.

Your issue, Romad, appears to be one of the new failure modes. Let's hope we can learn from your troubles, sorry, that's all I can contribute right now.

 

Hi. I have followed your journey with great interest as I am having similar issues but not exact. If I may, I have 2 suggestions. 1 has already been mentioned and that is the transponder chip located within the key fob.
Have you opened you fob to see if the chip is in its proper location and secured by its retainer ?
(it sits, tapper first, right behind the red lens on the fob) Honestly I’m not sure if there is a lot of room in there for it to slid around if it’s not retained properly but if it is moving then you may have found your problem. There are YouTube videos on the crossfire fob disassemble which are worth watching first.
My second suggestion has to do with your transponder receiver ring around the key, which you have talked about previously. I don’t know about your ignition switch but mine has a flat spot/area right on the very top. If you have a close look at you ring, you should also see a flat spot. The 2 are meant to be aligned. In my case, the wire on the ring is in exactly the 12 o’clock position.
Lastly…if that fails…
If I have gather correctly, you are able to spin your ring rather freely and have chosen a position that you think works well.
Just a thought… if the next time you have a engine start and then stop, that you try turning your ring slightly before you try to start the engine the second time and if that fails, try another slight turn before your third attempt.
These are just my thoughts and hopefully won’t cost you a dime to try.
its April 13th now so quit possibly you’ve solved your problem.
You also may have started another thread, which with my limited skills could be hard for my to find on here.
Good Luck Sir !!
please post if you find the problem
thank you !

 

Add to this I seen the locking pump going bad ( car was locked) and it lock the skreem out. Like you mentioned rcm can causes similar symptoms. With a ton of codes, it looks like wire damage