SAM went " Lady Gaga"

[JFCC]

Our car is a 2013 S300Land is hitting the  29K+ mileage.Something went "Lady Gaga" while driving home a couple of days back! I believe the front SAM (Signal Acq Module) went bersek on its own and keep switching the adaptive high beam on and off including the wiper. Even when the car is turned off the wiper kept wiping and the headlight was on as well. After a while they went off. Anyhow we have to drive home with the two powering on on their own. I was so hoping that the it was raining when we drove out of the carpark as the wipers was on but alas it was a nice day. Must have looked a little "silly" with the wipers on when there is no rain! Anyhow before we reach home, more messages came on. Additionally we have the power steering not working. Shut down the car and lo and behold we could not restart it and it had to be towed away. Walked about 15 mins to get home! Haiz......! 

 

I wonder anyone else has encountered such issues?. Wld have been more costly if the main ECU unit is kaput. Know of someone paying 6K + for his as it happened just past the 3 yrs warranty, Been an interesting experiences thus far with this car and I am not sure we will keep it for long....! For a relatively new car we have had quite a few issues ( air suspension,  tyre monitoring sensor issues). The creaks of the dashboard are getting more pronounced by the day. No self-healing as reported by some for us unfortunately. Duh. A small positive though is the relatively decent service by C&C (esp the SA involved).

 

Funny thing is that when we got home our guard asked me what happened ( as he saw us walking in). Told him the story and this is what he said ad verbatim "Alamak sir, so far ah, I see a few Merc got towed also from our place but I don't see the Japanese ones ah..." . Made my day!.

 

Cheers.

 

p.s. was hoping to hear from anyone re dashboard creaks and experiences in term of trying to fix it??.   

[MBENZ]

bro, what is the outcome out your car's diagnosis ? We will be interested to know

[JFCC]

Hi Bro j888 initial thoughts were that there cld be water / moisture (?) seepage or just simply some electronic failure. Apparently it was the latter and the unit was changed. Read a little re similar issues in other markets and it seems that such SAM failure do occur but was mainly on older models! Cheers

[MBENZ]

Hi Bro j888 initial thoughts were that there cld be water / moisture (?) seepage or just simply some electronic failure. Apparently it was the latter and the unit was changed. Read a little re similar issues in other markets and it seems that such SAM failure do occur but was mainly on older models! Cheers

 

 

Sounds serious bro !  I assume your car still under warranty so no payment needed?

 

Any idea what will be the damage cost after warranty ? I got to get prepared for my car (touchwood though) cos recently just changed my ESP/Brake ECU 

[JFCC]

j888 I understand the cost for the front SAM's  (there is also a back SAM apparently!) replacement would have been somewhere in the region of 1.5-1.6K inclusive of labour! When our car's warranty ends next year, serious thoughts need to be given to exploring post 3 yr warranty package ( wonder what it is like in term of cost and terms?) or drive with a little prayer always! A worst scenario wld be a change of car but $$$$$(!!!) and to what? Most makes seem to have their respective problems. I guess if not for the cost of car ownership being so high, issues of car quality wld not have been such bug bear. But alas. Was exploring some trade in possibility but boy, the trade in value quoted even by Republic Auto was extremely low. Of course I note that the resale price is somewhat slightly higher for sure. Maybe a private sale needed if need be but even then 45K++ a year depreciation from new can be painful. Duh!