Thump! Complete Loss of Power on Freeway. Went into Neutral

My wife was driving on the freeway and the car made a jarring thump like it struck something, went into Neutral and rolled to a complete stop. Wondering if this has happened to anyone else. She was able to restart the car and getting it rolling again, but that wasn't much consolation as cars whizzed by her at 70MPH. I read that the Tesla-powered Toyota Rav4 EV's were recalled for an identical issue. Some even speculated that the same issue would pop up on the B-Class ED. It has.

Happy to be here, and happy with my car so far, but...

I have had the same issue. I have a 2014. Multiple times, usually at below 10-15 mph in busy city street traffic, the car goes into neutral and the Stop Switch Engine Off display appears. From there I have been able to put it into park, turn the car off and then restart it. However, now I am getting the Malfunction Visit Workshop display. These incidents are more and more frequent and concerning. Both displays indicate that there is an issue with the high-voltage battery as per the owner's manual. I am very sure that I did not shift the car into neutral myself as has been discussed in another post.

I have a service call scheduled. Anyone have any experience with why this occurs? Does the car need a firmware up date? Is there an issue with the Tesla-supplied electric-motor assemblies, power train component or propulsion system like what occurred in the RAV4 EVs that required a recall?

More importantly, can this be repaired so that I can go on and enjoy my new car without it happening again?

Thanks!

aloizi98

Regarding these two error messages:

"Service Required, Do not shift gears, Visit dealer" and "... Visit Workshop."

I assume you have read this thread: http://www.mybclasselectricdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=119

After you get your firmware update for your 2014 B, please give us an update.

For those who already got the firmware updates, how's your car doing?

tom said:

Regarding these two error messages:

"Service Required, Do not shift gears, Visit dealer" and "... Visit Workshop."

I assume you have read this thread: http://www.mybclasselectricdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=119

After you get your firmware update for your 2014 B, please give us an update.

For those who already got the firmware updates, how's your car doing?

Click to expand...

My 2015 got flashed to newest and I lost all drive a few miles out of the shop

This is the same issue on the Toyota RAV4 EV (the Mercedes B-Class ED shares the same Tesla drivetrain):

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1558

I just purchased a 2015 and it has under 500 miles. Today on freeway at 65mph the car suddenly switched to neutral and I had to pull over and initiate a restart - a bit unnerving and I was thankful it wasn't another member of the family or a busy time of day.

UPDATE: I brought the car into the dealership and they downloaded and re-installed the software. This was approximately 2 weeks ago. While the problem hasn't repeated itself, I believe what may have triggered the problem was playing around with the cruise control and collision prevention assist - to see how it works, etc. I haven't subjected the car to this kind of test since picking it back up from the dealer.

TomD said:

I just purchased a 2015 and it has under 500 miles. Today on freeway at 65mph the car suddenly switched to neutral and I had to pull over and initiate a restart - a bit unnerving and I was thankful it wasn't another member of the family or a busy time of day.

Click to expand...

Very sorry that happened to you. That is totally unacceptable for any car, new or old.

I have been reading here for about three weeks, and posts like yours scares me, but ... after paying attention to this issue regarding the MB B EV, I would ask:

1) Is there any chance you might have hit the shift lever with you finger and put the car into neutral?

2) If you are 100% certain you did not put the car into neutral, I assume you will be talking to your local Mercedes service manager soon, please come back and keep us posted. Thank you.

Hello,

I posted to this forum on Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:09 pm my experience.

I took my 2014 B-Class Electric Drive into the shop Thursday July 2 and waited for the dealer to rectify the situation. After some time, I was told that it needed three new updates, that these were performed, and that the car should be fine to drive. They even said that they had driven it around themselves for 15 minutes and nothing happened.

Unfortunately on Saturday July 4 the same thing occurred. It was even more concerning to me as I had my entire family in the car and the highway we were on did not have a proper shoulder/break down lane. It did it again at least 5 times before I was able to get the car into my garage.

I left quite an irate message at MB and wrote them a letter detailing my issues.

I hope that this gets rectified. It is a nice little car, but so far, with only 10 days out of the dealership, the car has stalled many times before going to the shop for repairs and more than enough times after.

I am a patient man, but this is unacceptable.

I will let you know how it goes with the dealer soon.

A

What month did you lease your car? How many miles does it have currently? At how many miles did this start happening? Where are you located approximately? (state, or west or east or south)

There are a few hundred 2014s on the road today in the U.S., of these, perhaps a handful have experience this problem.

There are currently 412 members on this site, of which I guess 300 have this car. I have read maybe 4 or 5 that have posted here with this dangerous problem. (not always, but usually people post the problem, but then they never come back to provide us with updates)

I have only been here about two weeks, if you have been reading here much longer please provide us newbies with your understanding of the situation.

As to you aloizi98, please complain very loud to Mercedes so they will either 1) fix the problem, or 2) exchange your car with a new one, or 3) buy the car back. Anything less would not be acceptable. Please keep us posted!

TonyWilliams said:

This is the same issue on the Toyota RAV4 EV (the Mercedes B-Class ED shares the same Tesla drivetrain):

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1558

Click to expand...

Tony: Thank you for sharing the link regarding Toyota RAV EV's recall.

All current and future owners of the Mercedes Be should read the link Tony provided above. The MB Be shares the same Tesla drivetrain as the RAV EV.

Here is Toyota RAV EV's recall press release dated 3/11/2015:

http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/toyota+recall+camry+highlander+rav4+march11.htm

Here is the RAV EV owners discussion link again:

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1558 (thread started 3/11/2015)

If Toyota found it necessary to do this recall with 2500 RAV EVs on the road, it's pretty likely Mercedes will do the same (assuming the source of the problem is with the same Tesla drivetrain).

Everyone should keep a close eye on this.

They still don't have a fix for it. Until they do, they will probably tell you to ground the car until something is fixed....

Hello,

Thank you for your interest, advice and knowledge.

What month did you lease your car?

June, 2015

How many miles does it have currently?

199 miles

At how many miles did this start happening?

I would have to say at about 75-100.

Where are you located approximately? (state, or west or east or south)

New York City

The Mercedes dealer sent a tow truck who came and picked up the car. I live 20 miles away. To get there I have to travel by way of busy highways and over a bridge that has no shoulder. I refused to bring it to them. It is not safe.

They brought me a loaner car.

The salesman personally called me to find out if everything was taken care of regarding pick up and drop off.

So far the customer service has been good, but let's see what happens with the car.

I wrote an email to everyone I had contact with at the dealership and cc'd the general manager. I told them about the issues with the Rav4. I am leaving a paper trail. Next is the regional manager, the CEO, the BBB and anyone else I can think of if they cannot come up with an acceptable solution.

I agree with tom, MB needs to 1) fix the problem, or 2) exchange your car with a new one, or 3) buy the car back.

I got a good deal on it, but it does nothing for me if it does not work.

aloizi98

Keep the pressure on them aloizi. By doing so, you are doing all of us a favor.

Given you just got the car, MB should be able to take care of you. Show them the RAV EV and MB EV links I posted above, and show them Toyota's recall press release of 3/11/2015. Keep the pressure on MB so they too will do the right thing -- fix it.

I suspect by now, Tesla, Toyota, and MB are very aware of this particular problem. The MB B EV is a very good electric car otherwise. Let's see what they do.

p.s. please keep us posted even if they buy your car back.

Hello,

This is what the service director sent to me:

"Our Shop Foreman, along with MBUSA Technical and Engineering Department, have concluded that there is an internal fault in the drive unit of the vehicle. We have ordered a replacement drive unit and it should arrive here Thursday. We will install it once it arrives and I will advise you of a completion time on Thursday. Thank you for your understanding and we appreciate your patience in this matter"

Anyone seen this before?

And did replacing the drive unit fix the problem?

Thanks

We just picked up our 2015 B-Class ED at the end of June and already is has been in the shop twice. Two times now, we will be driving along and the car will go to neutral. The power needle on the cluster shows the motor at full regen, but the car will just coast to a stop with no regen. First time at 35 mph and second time at freeway speeds. There is no thumping noise and no warning lights come on at all! Has anyone had this kind of issue? Right now the MB dealership cannot figure it out since it is not throwing out any fault codes and they have not been able to duplicate it.

Simonb said:

We just picked up our 2015 B-Class ED at the end of June and already is has been in the shop twice. Two times now, we will be driving along and the car will go to neutral. The power needle on the cluster shows the motor at full regen, but the car will just coast to a stop with no regen. First time at 35 mph and second time at freeway speeds. There is no thumping noise and no warning lights come on at all! Has anyone had this kind of issue? Right now the MB dealership cannot figure it out since it is not throwing out any fault codes and they have not been able to duplicate it.

Click to expand...

Tell your Mercedes service manager about Toyota's recall of the RAV EV with the same problem. You are not the only one with this problem here with your MB B EV. I assume you read above posts and also the following thread as well: http://www.mybclasselectricdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=374

Here is Toyota's RAV EV recall letter in PDF: http://www2.dth.net/rav4ev/recall/20150504safetyrecall.pdf

Keep the pressure on MB, and please keep us posted of your interactions with Mercedes. BTW, where are you located approximately?

Car still in shop.

8th day.

Drive train delivered, but only one person can put it in - "our Shop Foreman in the only one authorized by MB to work on this vehicle."

I wrote a letter to:

Mr. Stephen Cannon
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mercedes-Benz USA
P.O. Box 350
One Mercedes Drive
Montvale, NJ 07645

Mr. Peter Zieringer
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services
Client Care Center
P.O. Box 685
Roanoke, TX 76262-0685

and cc'd to:

Mr. Gareth Joyce, VP Customer Services
Mr. Andy Gillman, Regional General Manager, Northeast Region
Mr. Bart Herring, General Manager, Product Management
Mr. Harry Hynekamp, General Manager, Customer Experience
Mr. Ralph Fisher, General Manager, Customer Assistance Center
Mr. Marco DeSanto, General Council

Mercedes-Benz USA
P.O. Box 350
One Mercedes Drive Montvale, NJ 07645

and "revoked acceptance" of the vehicle. “revocation of acceptance” sounds legalistic, it stands for the simple concept that you can return a defective product for a refund. (http://lehtoslaw.com/if-you-didnt-get-what-you-bargained-for-or-it-doesnt-work-return-it/ I have no relation with this law firm. Simply found this on the internet.)

I asked for another vehicle - "Mercedes-Benz must replace the leased vehicle with a new traditional gas powered automobile at approximately the same MSRP of the Vehicle I leased 14 days ago - $48,950."

In the end, I just want them to do the right thing.

Will keep you posted how it goes.

aloizi98

ps. By now MBUSA has probably signed up for this forum and is following these strings. Call me paranoid, but I would do the same thing if I were in their position.

Keep up the good work aloizi98! You are doing all MB B EV drivers a favor for being proactive. See my next post!

Happened to me too! (But I am pretty sure my car did not suddenly go to neutral. My car stalled.)

My 2015 MB B EV suddenly stalled when I was waiting at a red light yesterday. The car has 300 miles on the odometer. I only had the car for 4 days, of a 3 year lease.

Here is what happened ...

On a busy street, the car was in "D", I stopped at a red light, my foot was on the brake, both hands on the steering wheel, definitely not touching anything else, A/C was on, battery's SOC over 90%, car suddenly stalls, all lights on instrument cluster came on, and it showed it was in "D auto", but GREEN READY LIGHT was not on, could not drive car. A/C is still on. There were no error messages.

(I know I was driving in "D". I also know it was in "D auto" at some point when all the lights came on in the instrument cluster. I'm pretty certain it was not in "N" at first when it suddenly stalled. When I saw everything in the instrument cluster light up, I might have put it in "D auto" from "D" when I tried to move the car? Nonetheless, no green READY light when everything was lit up in the instrument cluster.)

Foot still on brake, I put it in "P", I turn A/C off. I push ignition button to turn car off. I waited 2 seconds, I pushed ignition button again and turned car on. Back to normal, I put it in "D auto" and was able to drive the car again as the traffic light turned green.

I continued to use the car the rest of the day putting on about 100 miles without further abnormal incidents.

I will bring the car in to Mercedes service ASAP to see if there are any error codes logged. As mentioned, I did not see any error messages.

Very unsettling experience. I was lucky the car was not moving at the time, or going at high speeds on the highway.

I will definitely not let my wife drive this car until this problem is completely resolved.

I will let my MB service manager know this is completely unacceptable & dangerous.

Will keep everyone posted.

Here is list of owners who experienced sudden lost of drive or power:
http://www.mybclasselectricdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=380

tom said:

Keep the pressure on them aloizi. By doing so, you are doing all of us a favor.

Given you just got the car, MB should be able to take care of you. Show them the RAV EV and MB EV links I posted above, and show them Toyota's recall press release of 3/11/2015. Keep the pressure on MB so they too will do the right thing -- fix it.

I suspect by now, Tesla, Toyota, and MB are very aware of this particular problem. The MB B EV is a very good electric car otherwise. Let's see what they do.

p.s. please keep us posted even if they buy your car back.

Click to expand...

If I experience a problem I will take action. My 6 month old car to me manufactured in August of 2014 has been fine. I purchased it on January 19, 2015.