I have not experienced this personally, but I have read that a low battery or low voltage output from the charging system will cause ASR and ABS problems. You could throw in a new battery or a newly-charged battery and see what happens. Maybe the whining noise is a bad alternator.

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1993 400E, 256,000 miles (totaled)
1994 E420, 200,000+ miles
1995 E420, 201,000 miles