Mercedes-Benz C300, model year 2016. Filed by Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. and reported to NHTSA on 15 June 2016. 17 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain model year 2016 C300 4Matic vehicles manufactured November 4, 2015, to March 1, 2016. In the affected vehicles, the electric power steering assist system may shutdown due to a software error.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 16V438 cover?
- Mercedes-Benz C300, model year 2016.
- What is wrong with them?
- Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain model year 2016 C300 4Matic vehicles manufactured November 4, 2015, to March 1, 2016. In the affected vehicles, the electric power steering assist system may shutdown due to a software error.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the vehicle experiences a loss of power steering assist, extra steering effort will be required at lower speeds, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will update the software for the electric power steering control unit, free of charge. The recall began January 2017. Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the vehicle experiences a loss of power steering assist, extra steering effort will be required at lower speeds, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 16V438 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| System at fault | Steering:Electric Power Assist System |
| Reported to NHTSA | 15 June 2016 |
| Model years | 2016-2016 |
| Vehicles named | MERCEDES-BENZ C300 |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the vehicle experiences a loss of power steering assist, extra steering effort will be required at lower speeds, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.
The remedy
MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will update the software for the electric power steering control unit, free of charge. The recall began January 2017. Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 745 notices in the record whose component field names steering. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 39 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 16V438, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/16v438/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 16V438 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
434aa84b - Consequence
333e7cb6 - Remedy
99a1c39e
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 16V438 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Mercedes-Benz C300, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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