Hi there, I’m Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive, we’re a full service auto maintenance shop located in South Vancouver. We service most makes and models of cars and light trucks and this morning I’m going to talk to you about a service on a 2007 Mercedes CLS550.
This vehicle came to our shop and it had a warning light on the dash, the warning light for the ESP system would come on intermittently. We did a diagnosis and found that the cause was a steering angle sensor. So what was the steering angle sensor you may wonder? Well the steering angle sensor works with the body computer; it sends a signal so that it knows where the steering wheel is, what position is it, how fast is the wheel being turned and from that information, the computer can use it to control the suspension lean, it can control the anti-lock brake systems, there’s a number of things that it can control: it's a very important input into the body control computer. If there’s any little flaw or defect in the sensor, it will set off a warning. So we replaced the sensor, not a huge job in this car: it’s located behind the steering wheel, there’s a lot that needs to be removed but it’s a very straight forward job. Mercedes did a very nice job in terms of putting this steering column together and all things considered, it was fairly easy to replace.
New Steering angle sensor for 2007 CLS550
I just want to talk a bit about diagnosis on Mercedes, with modern Mercedes and I say modern anything from about 2000 and newer, the diagnostics work great. With the way the vehicle computers connect, there’s a lot of information, a lot of tests we can do. We’ve got a very sophisticated diagnostic computer which works really, really well. Older Mercedes are a different ball of wax and they can be a real nightmare to fix. So I’m talking older, like pre 1996, these didn’t have the OBD2 computer systems, the diagnostic systems are much worse: they offer little information and the older the car the less there is. The diagnosis back in the earlier years, like into the ’90’s and’80’s, just wasn’t as sophisticated, so there’s a lot of manual tests we need to do. Bottom line, if you own one of these cars, expect you’re going to pay a lot more money for diagnosis because it takes a lot more time to do the job.
Steering angle sensor connect with other steering column components
So that’s our story - a 2007 Mercedes CLS550 steering angle sensor. If you are in the Vancouver area, we do a lot of work on Mercedes, we’re expert at diagnostics and repairs and maintenance. Bernie from Pawlik Automotive, we’re Vancouver’s best auto service experience.
