Good afternoon,
I am currently a service consultant at a Mercedes Benz dealer in Florida. If you are experiencing "Brake Visit workshop" illuminating in red its most likely either your brake pads have worn to the wear sensors or the SBC unit (Sensotronic Brake Control) has failed and is due for replacement. Just so you know MBUSA has an extended warranty on this part for most 211 models. This will even cover vehicles that are way out of warranty. Shoot me your vin and mileage at
DZupkosky@courtesycars.com. I will run your vin and tell you if it is a covered component. Most dealer will have you sign for a diag charge of about $120 but if it is that component then have saved about $1000 in the long run. 99% of independant shops have no idea what they are doing when replacing/diagnosing MB models equipped with this high tech braking unit. If you try the do it yourself method of replacing your brake make sure you disable this unit by a computer SDS or by unplugging the SBC unit. I've also heard there are some systems out there that are made just to disable and enable this system. Make sure the independant knows what they are doing otherwise they will do an unneeded job and you will have the same error message and you will have to visit the dealer. Hope some of this info helps