Mercedes-Benz E500 No Start, No Communication with PCM

[Homer J Simpson]

Random find. Interesting.

Spoiler is at 37:55.

How many time to we go all over the place and miss the most basic.

[daybyter]

Thanks for the link!

Over here (germany) there is also a nice show (and now a youtube channel) called 'Die Autodoktoren' (the car doctors).
It's tun to see them finding unusual problems of cars. Most if them were already in quite some shops, where they couldn't find the cause of a problem.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCcnmNzv0yEEYPM6Oa86unhQ

But I wish Edd China (wheeler dealers) would be on air again... ;(

[IanMacdonald]

Shows how utterly useless these computer diagnosis systems are. A bad connection on a fuse holder, and it instructs the mechanic to change half the car. 

[MT]

I had a Ford once whos plate light got shorted to chassis due to worn out cable that caused the entire car lightening to become "Disco 1977".





Anti moist bag for your car.

[The Soulman]

Reminds me of a almost new '98 mercedes slk (hardtop/convertible) that I was working on as the fourth person after the first three (investing 50 man hours..) couldn't get it figured out.
The fault was that the roof wouldn't fully open, it would stop half way in mid air.
The first mechanics had replaced the controller ($) and the hydraulic pump ($) and some other random parts to no avail.
It took me 15 min to see on the diagnostics computer that one of the micro switches didn't give the green light to the controller
to initiate the next step of folding (took 5 or 6 steps in total).
Looking at that micro switch showed some corrosion all seals were good so probably someone went a bit fanatic whit a pressure washer or something, after replacing the switch it all worked like a charm again.

Top tip: never assume anything, and a fresh look on the case usually helps.

[nctnico]

The last 3 cars I bought got electronic/electric related problems nobody seemed to be able solve. Usually the price is a good indicator.

[sokoloff]

I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee that died completely one day. Driving in town and suddenly no electrics like the key was switched off. Ended up pushing it into a parking space and going about my evening. Came back the next morning to find that I'd pushed it into a parking meter that was a no parking zone during morning rush hour and had been towed. Great. Poring over the wiring diagrams at home, I put together a small kit of wires and tools to backfeed power into the ignition and set off to hotwire my own car in the impound lot. Did so and drove it home after paying the tow/impound fees. Took several stabs at it over the years to figure out the original fault but never could, so drove it for years with the power fed into the steering column from the cigar lighter circuit.

Many years later while changing the radiator, I discovered the source. The aftermarket transmission cooler was mounted close enough to the main wiring harness that it had rubbed a hole in the tape and insulation and shorted the main power feed to the ECU against the edge of the cooler. Only thing that drew my eye there was a little bit of the copper crusties that flaked off when I moved the wiring bundle.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

There is a certain road in which my Kuga mk1 always goes nuts, shows a check engine message and the diagnostics show all sorts of random errors at random modules. It only happens when and if I drive in that road. Huh, what a mystery.

[CNe7532294]

Anti moist bag for your car.

My goodness we are dumb here. We have the tools readily available to us but are not aware of anything in life. See picture. Graphs like this were available from gov't and weather offices as early as 3 days out (actually slightly longer). Our mayor who is supposed to be closely associated with the local OEM and NWS/NOAA didn't heed the warnings. Then when it was happening he came up with the convenient after thought of "you simply can evac a city of 6+million". While partly true, its also true you don't have to evac everyone. Just the vunerable and elderly. People died by drowning in that. Especially in cars and elevators. Now to make it up they're trying to hold townhalls about how to prevent hardship to sooth that guilty conscience. As for the cars, we're making two wrongs here. Breathing in mold is a fun thing to have in your life.    I did save myself, the family, friends and coworkers by knowning. I also saved my neighbor at the right place right time. My neighbor was about to drive out into the flooded street in pitch blackness. I just so happened to check how bad the front was flooding. Essentially the lake in the back became an extension in the front while our homes became islands. Felt like I was back in Venice, Italy again.