Mercedes SLK320 With No Communication: Damaged Board and Corrupted Data in Bosch ECU 0261 207 118

No communication was the fault that extensive diagnostics by a workshop in Waltham Abbey, Essex, had narrowed down to the engine ECU of a 2001 Mercedes SLK320. On our bench, the Bosch unit, 0261 207 118, answered once we went directly onto its chips, but the data stored in it was corrupted, and its circuit board was damaged too. The board was repaired, the EEPROM chip replaced and the ECU re-tested, and all was working.

The ECU is a Bosch ME2.8, and our page on Mercedes-Benz units of the Bosch ME2.8 type explains how we approach them. This page records one repair. It is not a forecast for another unit with the same number, which may arrive with a different fault altogether.

No communication, no fuel, no spark

Behind the no-communication fault was a car that would not start. The customer had come back from holiday to find it that way, and had tried to jump start it, without success.

The faults the workshop listed for us were:

• No communication
• No fuel / no spark
• Non-starter

That list describes this SLK320 alone. On another car, the same faults can have other causes, and testing the unit is what shows whether its ECU is at fault. On this car, the workshop’s diagnosis is what brought the unit to our bench.

Going straight to the chips

Units reach our workshop by mail-in from all parts of the UK, and each is logged and inspected before testing. On this ECU, testing showed straight away that the circuit board was damaged.

Testing then went further. Going directly onto the ECU’s chips, we could communicate with it, and that brought the state of what it held into view: the data stored in the ECU was corrupted.

So the two findings sat at different depths. The workshop’s diagnostics had found no communication, which sent the ECU to us. Our tests reached the unit at its chips, and what they found there, together with the damaged board, shaped the repair.

We told the workshop about the damage found on that first test, and they gave their authorisation for the repair to go ahead. No chargeable work starts here until the sender has our findings and a quote and has agreed to it.

New EEPROM chip, repaired tracks, fresh software

Our engineers replaced the EEPROM chip, repaired the tracks and reworked the board. Work at this level is done under a microscope, using temperature-controlled rework equipment.

With the board work finished, we loaded new software onto the ECU. The job ran hardware first, software after, and a re-test followed to confirm that all was working; a repair here is not complete until the unit passes final testing.

When it was returned to the customer, our 24-month warranty came with it. That warranty covers the particular repair we did, and it belongs to the customer alone.

0261 207 118 alongside A 112 153 01 79

0261 207 118 is on record with the Mercedes number A 112 153 01 79. Should either be the number you have to hand, it still says nothing about whether a particular ECU is faulty, or why; testing answers that, as it did on this SLK320.

To have a quote prepared, contact us through a Repair Form that takes the job details. Engine ECUs from Mercedes-Benz with other Bosch numbers are reached from the hub for Mercedes-Benz engine control units, and What We Repair, with engine ECU examples beyond Mercedes-Benz, shows more of the work our workshop takes on.