We bought our daughter a '98 A160 from a used car dealer and have owned it 3 days.
We've noticed that the BAS/ESP and ABS lights would come on as soon as the car moved but only once the car was very warm (it's been 37C down here lately). First start of the day, everything was fine until you turned the engine off and restarted it, no matter how far you drove.
The dealer said he had had the battery go flat in the yard, and since turning from lock to lock a few times didn't work, he told me to take the car to the local MB dealers.
They cleared the codes, then re-read them as soon as the warning lights came on. The report was a faulty Yaw Rate Sensor, costing $8000 plus labour!!!
I did notice that the car had had a B service only 1000kms ago and wondered why someone would have the service knowing they were soon going to sell it. My guess now is that the service revealed the problem so they got rid of the car as quickly as possible.
I know we've always been ripped off for MB parts down here in Oz (with many trips to Singapore, I used to stock up on geniuine parts for 1/5th the Oz price), but this is surely absolute theft!
According to WIS, in A160s from August '99, they combined the yaw rate and lateral acceleration into the one sensor, of much less complex design. Ours is the individual, older type which has a metal cylinder that is kept vibrating at a constant frequency, detected by some piezo elements - sounds pricey, but $8000!? And the insurance company said the market value of the car was $8900!!
Anyone able to give me the part number for this sensor? Would it be the same part for all MB models of around this vintage or are they unique to each model? In the A160 it's located behind the right panel in the boot, so I'm hoping the part number is clearly visible. The family could take a holiday to Singapore to buy the part, and still save $$$$$!!! I'm certain the dealer I bought the car from won't be parting with $8000 on a car he probably paid less than half that for!
Sorry for being so wordy, but I'm ANGRY! Just wanted to let you guys know what we have to put up with owning Benzes in this country - initial prices inflated and parts prices outrageous.
Does your dealer not have to offer a warrantee, in NSW a dealer must offer a 3 month or 5000km warrantee if car is not older than 10 years or 175000km or unless specified at the time of sale.
have you tried any wreckers, a wrecker in parramatta is wrecking two A class's at present, possibly a A160 & 190, from memory they were later models.
Does your dealer not have to offer a warrantee, in NSW a dealer must offer a 3 month or 5000km warrantee if car is not older than 10 years or 175000km or unless specified at the time of sale.
have you tried any wreckers, a wrecker in parramatta is wrecking two A class's at present, possibly a A160 & 190, from memory they were later models.
Yes. I'm just really angry that Mercedes have the hide to charge such an insane price for a part!!
The car comes with a 3-month statutory warranty, and furthermore, the used car dealer is a personal friend (at least, currently ;-) He's looking at alternatives, possibly from wreckers. He has a 2001 A160 in his yard and hoped he could just swap the sensor over, but I think he's out of luck, as ours is pre-August '99 and has the more complex, single sensor in the boot.
I'm trying to help him out, as he's not experienced at using the internet to get help. Plus, I want the car fixed asap. The last resort will be to get a refund, and have him sell the car at auction, just to get rid of it.
Problem solved with the fitting of a S/H yaw rate sensor ($900).
FYI, the part no. is 000 542 65 18 and they're found in most Benzes '95-'99 with ESP.
A google search revealed S/H ones of these available on eBay in many parts of the world, varying from < $200 to > $1000
New ones in Germany are around the $3000 mark. So $8000 in Oz isn't as bad as I thought - we're usually charged 5 times the rest of the world for Benz parts ;-) Mind you, for a new one at $8000, there's also a 3 month delivery time from Germany! (Obviously comes carrier pigeon!)
Robert glad you got sorted, this one was new on me my A160 is 2002 so hopefully it doesn't apply to the later models, mind you the ECU & MAFS is Combined and now costs £1300 fitted, even that's more than many of the cars are worth, we now have two companies offering repairs to this unit at £250 and £300 so that's not quite so bad and i have arranged a discount for my readers so even that helps them, but it's a great deal of money when you consider the price of fuel here in the UK now over a £ a litre, we can get get french wine for a few coppers more, but the car won't run.
Good luck to you and your family and lets hope you now have trouble free motoring.
Although my site covers the later model a lot of items are basically the same so take a look it may help your reduce you costs by DIY . Albert Rowe, Lofty's homepage.index.html
Last edited by lofty : 04-04-2008 at 03:35 AM.
Reason: spelling error
Thanks Lofty. I've been to your pages and they're excellent! (Don't know how you find the time to do them!) Will be great when I need to work on the car.
The A160's going beautifully now. My daughter loves it - in fact we all do. Had some relatives visit and they reckoned it was bigger inside than outside! Should call it the Tardis! And it rides like a much bigger car. (But I still love my CLK cabriolet - until something goes wrong :-)
The price in China is most likley a quarter of that. Simply unbelievable
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