Electrical System Problems of Mercedes Benz S550

I went to replace my low beam and high beam bulbs on the passenger side and found that the wiring for the low beam had 0 insulation on it and I installed the new high beam bulb and the wires starting arcing causing the car to turn off the high beams and start smoking from the headlight assembly.

See all problems of the 2007 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

I purchased this vehicle in July 2020. I did a through check for recalls, warranty problems and could not identify any with this vehicle. From the get go the check engine light would come on. I checked the codes and they indicated an "electrical fault on bank 1, oxygen sensor 1. I replaced the wiring harness on that sensor as well as the sensor. From then until now the car would code weekly about the same issue. Eventually I started using a catalytic converter cleaner (it cleans off sulfur deposits) in an attempt to solve the issue. It would work for a couple of tanks of gas and then continuing coding. I asked mb on numerous occasions about what the issue was. They all said they had no idea. It looks to me like they knew what the issue was, but kept it to themselves. Several weeks ago I received a letter in the mail(not dated by postmark) but the letter was dated August, 2023. The letter outlined an issue with the catalytic converter system identifying my vehicle by VIN. The same problem I have had all along. The letter came at a time when the car codes almost daily with the same issue as always, only now the vehicle stalls occasionally while waiting at stop lights. I said great. I called to get an appointment to fix the issue only to be told that the fix window had passed. I told them that I just got the letter. They told me that the fix expired in December 2023. I called mb hotline at 1-800-367-6372 to see what was up. They said they would get back to me in 3 days. It's been a week so I called again and they advised me they can't help. It's an issue for the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 mb S550 w221. Why is this not a recall and why won't they fix it. It's an expensive repair. They sent me the letter and said it was expired 6 months before I received the letter. Can you help?.

See all problems of the 2012 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

The contact owns a 2008 mercedes-benz S550. The contact stated while driving 35-40 mph, the message "safety" was temporarily displayed on the instrument panel. Additionally, the contact stated while starting the vehicle on several occasions, the message " safety " was displayed on the infotainment system screen. The check engine warning light was illuminated, and the messages "active head lamp inoperative" and "service required. Do not shift gears" were displayed. The contact also stated that upon shifting into drive (d), the gear shift indicator displayed that the transmission was in park (p). The contact stated that the vehicle failed to shift into the intended gear and had become undrivable. An independent mechanic replaced the battery; however, the failure persisted. The mechanic informed the contact that the computer needed to be reset. The vehicle was not repaired. The used car dealer was notified of the failure. The mercedes-benz dealer and manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 176,310.

See all problems of the 2008 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

The contact owns a 2009 mercedes-benz S550. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed with the air condition system activated, there was hot air blowing out of the vents. The contact stated that the hot air was blowing out of the vents and the floorboard was soiled with water. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the compressor and the motherboard needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the independent mechanic. The vehicle was diagnosed with electrical wiring failure. The electrical wiring underneath the driver and passenger seats were burned. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The contact was advised to contact the NHTSA hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 73,000. The VIN was unavailable.

See all problems of the 2009 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

Struts and braking system have been unstable since I purchased the car. Wiring harness leaks oil and caused ecu to intermintinli turn off and on. Also the heat control timing caused car to over heat . Eventually I replaced the ecu 2 years ago at dealer . Mercedes has parts that are not safe to be in these operating conditions with such heat causeing wiring harness to short out and dealer said that and still put new ecu saying it was oil that damaged ecu. Mechanicly didn’t make sense but now due to recall it all makes sense. Ecu was never programmed correctly causeing unsafe driving hazards .

I drove my 2015 Mercedes Benz S550 4matic approximately 20 miles to work, parked in the parking lot and about 30 minutes later, I was alerted by pembroke pines police (case# pppd22off050792) that my car was burning when I got to the parking lot pembroke pines fire dept was in the process of extinguishing a catastrophic fire in the engine compartment. The car drove problem free to that point. No warning lights, no smoke, no smell, no leak. The car was in excellent condition prior to the fire with approx 93000 miles. I had the car serviced by mb fort lauderdale 1 month before the incident and no unresolved maintenance issues were found. After the fire geico insurance took possesion of the car and mercedes USA was granted access. After multiple attempts havent been able to make contact with mbusa since then, no callback.

See all problems of the 2015 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

Failure of led instrument cluster. 2016 S550. No display. In October 2020 I had total system failure in my garage. Battery discharged down to +/- 5v. The car was still under warranty. Tech arrived and tried to recharge battery. He did not have the proper equipment, (his statement). I had to use two of my chargers in parallel plus his to get car back to life. He disconnected the battery from car to get there. Battery came back to life. Everything seemed to work. Started to drive car and experienced random ic failure. There were times when cluster worked fine and suddenly it went blank (black). Contacted dealer and was told that I should keep on driving it would fix itself. Dealer had the car for a week and could find no fault. And it fixed itself. Great!!! note, at this time the car was still under warranty. Forward to June 2022. I replaced batteries. As in 2020 display died (black) randomly. This time it was more often black than alive, it does not want to recover. Note, every time the display dies I loose all indications, no speed indicator plus anything else. No steering wheel controls. No sound of directional indicator (blinker). Dangerous to drive. It can happen at any time. It can work when I drive off and stop!!! note, this I find very interesting, there is no failure code anywhere, not in the diagnostic xentry either. That for my opinion is a design problem. Dealer uploaded some code into cluster. Told me it is working. Came to pick up car, sa brought me the car and told me ic failed again. Dealer then advised me that I would have to ~$3000 to get it fixed or contact mbusa and request for them to pay. Consider that the whole thing started when car was under warranty. Contacted mbusa on 10/19/22 reporting the details. Was promised a response within 24/48 hrs. No response. Followed up several times, it is on there computer. Today's date is 11/8/22. They are ignoring me. For my opinion this is a design fault. No failure code! this is it.

See all problems of the 2016 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

Error code p0019 cam sensor bank b, manufacturers used defective part that timing sprocket teeth have eroded due to defective parts used which have and will cause vehicle to stahl while running. Both front struts wear on all models that cause driving conditions that can cause death while driver excelration or stopping cause.

Starting out from an intersection the entire electrical system died, no engine, no lights, no ability to open trunk, nothing. I am reporting this because I fear such an event could be life-threatening, eg. If it happened while traveling at a high speed. I believe the airbags may have been disabled along with all other electrical. Dealer reports there was a similar event with another of the same car one week earlier, and that it is apparently caused by a contact for the battery ground "burning out. " I believe there should be an urgent recall.

See all problems of the 2017 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

Even change to new tires, the air pressure up to 37 and always after 1 week or so, down to 33, complain and change tire and still have the same result. You could only check the tire pressure after you run for a while. Massage chair, after operation and all the sudden it stop. Clock in the cabin doesn't change even you set it up and the internal said the right time and the front doesn't change.

Vehicle fails to go in park after driving on the street and arriving at the grocery store.

Was driving and car just makes a jolt while shifting gear than I can't accelerate and it gets stuck in first gear rpm starts going up if I try to accelerate than I'll have to turn engine off which is inconvenient when your in traffic than restart it and it'll be normal but it happens every other day. Now the car is stuck on a gear and won't change gears completely parked it over night and still doesn't change gears when I start car and try to put it in drive it makes a hard jolt and doesn't accelerate past 30 mph. Been happening for 2 years now. . .

Vehicle becomes stuck in gear while driving down the road. Will not shift, sometimes you don't have enough power to move quickly. For example vehicle was stuck in 6th gear after leaving the highway. I could not accelerate to move the car. I had to shut the car off to reset the computer to get the car out of 6th gear. This has happened at least 10 times over the past 3 month period. Many other owners of this car have experienced the same transmission failure and that is very dangerous because the car lose power when it is stuck in a gear. The only way to fix the problem is to shut off the car and restart it. Mercedes benz should be held responsible for this issue.

I was driving my S550 and came to a red light. I stopped at the light and when it turned green, I took my foot off the brakes and pressed the accelerator, but there was to response to pressing the accelerator. The car rpms were increasing but the vehicle was crawling at less than 5mph. This led to me pulling over and parking the vehicle and turning it off. I waited 5 minutes and then restarted it and it began to work normally. The second time this happened was while making a left turn, I pressed the gas pedal and there was no response and the car was reving but traveling less than 5 mph with oncoming traffic having to stop short to prevent crashing into me while I was making the left turn. This was again resolved with me parking the vehicle, turning it off and then restarting it. After the second time this occurred out of no where I decided its a very dangerous safety issue.

The contact owns a 2008 mercedes-benz S550. The contact stated while driving 40-50 mph, the vehicle was shuddering intermittently. The contact stated that the failure recurred while at a complete stop. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring intermittently. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the wiring harness was misfiring. The mechanic related the failure to an unknown recall. The dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.

I purchased a new 2014 mercedes S550 and the day after purchase, the airbag malfunction light came on. I set up an appointment to have this corrected, and was told it was fixed. A couple of weeks later, I was traveling at approximately 20mph, approaching an intersection where I did not have a stop sign. I noticed a large SUV traveling east bound at excessive speeds (guessing 35-40), which did not appear to be stopping, but could not stop in time to avoid the collision. The SUV impacted the driver's side of my vehicle at full speed. My vehicle spun and was hit again at the side and rear driver's side. I was pushed over the curb and into a snow bank where I eventually stopped after hitting the yield sign. I was trapped in my vehicle as I had carved thru the snow and all doors were blocked. The damage to the vehicle was on the driver's side front, side and back. The hit was hard enough to cause frame damage to the vehicle, needing frame repair. There were no airbags deployed during the crash and given the previous malfunction with the airbag system, this was a major concern for me. I notified Mercedes Benz of the issue, and it wasn't until several requests that they responded. They sent someone to the body shop to look at the car and confirmed there is frame damage; however, stated it was not hard enough of a hit to trigger airbag deployment. I have a hard time understanding how it can be hard enough to cause frame damage yet not trigger airbag deployment? this is a completely redesigned vehicle and mine was one of the first on the road. I am fearful that this is a larger issue that is not being addressed, or uncovered, since this is a recently released model. As a result of the impact, I sustained injuries to my neck, back and left elbow. I am hoping this could get address to avoid future injuries, or death, to other drivers and passengers. Thank you.

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The car stopped accelerating and then quit running. The conductor plate in the transmission failed. This is a known safety defect that mercedes-benz has ignored.

The contact owns a 2007 mercedes S550. The contact was stopped at a traffic stop and noticed smoke coming from under the hood. The contact stopped in a parking lot and noticed flames were inside the grill and behind the passenger's side headlight. The fire department was called and a fire report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an insurance yard for inspection. The fire chief advised the contact that the fire was caused by an electrical failure in the headlight unit. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 51,000.

The contact owns a 2011 mercedes-benz S550. While driving 70 mph, the vehicle accelerated up to 110 mph on its own. The rear of the vehicle rattled without warning. On another occasion, all the warning indicators failed to illuminate and the gps provided incorrect information. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, but they could not duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

See all problems of the 2011 Mercedes Benz S550 🔎.

My name is [xxx], and I am a resident of queens, NY. I recently bought a 07 Mercedes Benz S550 in July of 2009 from the certified pre-owned dealership with cpo warranty. I had it financed with Mercedes Benz financial. The car had 34,000 miles on it initially. Over the time span in which I used the car, I had to take the car many x's to the shop. In April 10 the trans. Failed, and in may 2010 the susp (active body control/ abc) system failed. These were the major items that req. 'd work, besides that there were many other problems that occurred previously and as well as afterwards, that required getting service done on the car. If you take a look at the cars maintenance history, you will see a large amount of work done, and it should not be like that for such a high class and expensive car. Well I was driving the car, and had lil prob here and there. But I had no idea that was the least of my prob. On June 12, 2010, I had taken the car out for a work, and was driving in hillside Ave in NY. My air conditioning in the car was running, except for the central fan, and when I tried to turn it off, it just continued to run. I was just driving along, when I smelled something burning, and decided to pull over. I turned the car off, and got out of the car and looked under the hood to make sure everything was ok. There was nothing wrong under the hood, so I got back in the car, and was about to pull out when I saw smoke coming out of the central vents on the dashboard. The car was still off, but the electrical components of the car began working by themselves. 1 by 1, the lights, the wipers, the windshield cleaning soap, the display, started to come on. I had just gotten out of the car, when it locked and the flames erupted. In a matter of minutes the car went up in flames and was completely totaled. I called the fire dept. And they put the fire out. Then I had the car towed to the dealership, and informed them of what had. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).