Mercedes W204 / W207 / W212 / W447 / W176 Electronic Steering Lock (ESL) Emulator Supply & Programming service

Mercedes W204 / W207 / W212 / W447 / W176 Electronic Steering Lock (ESL) Emulator Supply & Programming service

Various Mercedes model can cars suffer with faulty Electronic Steering Locks also known as ‘ESL’ – replacement ESL units are very costly & require specialist tools to program them to your car. If your car is a W204 / W207 / W212 / W447 / W176 (NOT FBS4 TYPE EIS) chassis type, a simple alternative is to disconnect the ESL & fit an emulator. The emulators for these models still require programming to your vehicle but are a fraction of the cost of replacing the ESL with a new one. Simply remove your ‘EIS’ (Electronic Ignition switch)+send it to us along with a working key for your car & we will supply & program an emulator that will plug into your existing wiring with no need for further programming thus eliminating the need to replace the ESL. If your ESL is jammed in the ‘Locked’ position, and you cannot remove the ESL yourself from the column then you can send us your steering column with the jammed lock & we can remove it for you.
Common symptoms of a failed ESL is that the key will turn in the EIS but no ignition lights come on, the car does not crank & there isn’t the familiar noise of the steering lock disengaging, there may be a fault code stored in the EIS of ‘Fault with ESL’ or ‘No comms with ESL’ but this fault code is not always present.

*Please note: Mercedes changed the immobiliser system on their vehicles from ‘FBS3’ system to ‘FBS4’ beginning in 2013 on some models & was fully integrated on all models by 2019 we can only supply keys / emulators for ‘FBS3’ systems & NOT ‘FBS4’ Systems – to tell if your vehicle is an FBS3 or FBS4 system there is a 7 or 8 digit code printed on the key – 7 digits is FBS3 & 8 digits is FBS4, please view the pictures above for details*

For information on how to remove or unplug your ESL in order to replace it with an ESL emulator then follow this link:

Mercedes ESL removal guide