phoenixone

Wife and I noticed yesterday after bringing in groceries, we tried to close the tailgate from inside the house (about 25 ft away) with the remote as we normally did with the other previous ML's and it wouldn't close. After trial and error, I found the remote close only operates when approx 10 ft away. The tailgate will successfully remotely open from more than 30 ft away.

I called my salesman and he mentioned there was one other customer with similar results and this "maybe" by design to ensure safety...ie avoiding injury by the closing tailgate to an unsuspecting nearby person when the operator of the remote is out of view of the closing tailgate.

Anyone else experiencing the "shortened" tailgate remote closing range?

Thanks!

Vegan

I've definitely noticed this. On my GLK, I could unlock the doors or open the hatch from what seemed like up to 50 feet away. I recently couldn't even close my GLE hatch from 10 feet away in direct line of sight, from inside my house. :/

phoenixone

What year is your GLK?
So you're saying it's something that just started happening?

Thanks.

Vegan

Oh sorry. I had a 2013 GLK before getting my GLE, and I'm only comparing the remote range between the two. The remote range was always much shorter on my GLE than my GLK. I just assumed, despite being two totally different cars, that they would have the same range or that the GLE would have better remote range, but of course this isn't the case. Even my smart car gets better remote range.

phoenixone

Got ya.
So your 2016 GLE 350 also has an unusually short remote closing range as well.
I hope more will chime in to get a better idea if this is abnormal or by design.

JackSheng

I have noticed this as well on my new GLE350. The effective operating range is much shorter than that for my other car (2016 Honda Odyssey). Moreover, it does not seem to work when I am holding the key sitting inside the car either. Therefore, I need to physically exit the car and close the trunk if I forgot to do so. Is there any better options to close the trunk from inside the car?

William Kayen

The hatch closes if you push down on the driver door switch that opens the hatch.

Bamafan

You have to hold down the switch on the door until it fully closes.

phoenixone

I figure more have received their GLE's by now.
Has anyone else experience the lack of remote range closing their tailgate?
I have a feeling I may have a bad receiver actuator or something of the likes.


Thanks in advance.

gle400

Can't you just use the dashboard button to close it in that case?

phoenixone

Finally got the chance to take the vehicle into service for them to check the tailgate transmitter range. The service adviser was surprised at the short closing range of the lift gate. They were going to hold the vehicle and give us a loner so they can look it over. I asked was it a possibility that this was by design and if they had another GLE available to check. They had one in the showroom and low and behold...the damn thing had a short range too. He had to stand next to the GLE in order for it to close. The manager joined in the discussion and said Mercedes purposely did this to prevent unaware bystanders from getting "crushed" by the closing liftgate. Really? Crushed?
Unbelievable.
I'm going to try and find where the liftgate transmitter is located on the vehicle and see if it's easily accessible and hope there is an ajustable range setting because imagine parking your vehicle in a lot and you walk a good distance away and the tailgate button gets accidentally pressed in your pocket and in order for you to close it...you have to walk back to the vehicle. YAY? I have a destroyed knee that has seen 4 surgeries and walking back to close it,....well, it sucks.
Love the car though.

gle400

Just out of curiousity, why do you use the key fob to close the lift gate?

I find that I always use the physical buttons inside the liftgate (close or close + lock) because they are right there. One time I used the driver door button to close it. I don't think I have ever used the key fob to remotely close - only remotely open.

phoenixone

We use the key fob for when we are bringing items inside and when our hands are full, we can't close the liftgate. Once inside side, we use to close the liftgate from inside the house. Now we have to walk outside, down the stairs and stand right next to the vehicle in order to close it.
Sometimes when making sure we locked the door before go to sleep, we would press the key fob but sometimes mistakenly press the tailgate button. Well ****...now I have to put clothes on and go outside and stand next to the vehicle to close it.
I know, I know...from now on, I should make sure I don't mistakenly hit the tailgate button.

davezaristo

A step back on the GLE is that we really miss the kick-to-open feature on our 2014 e-class in which when your hands are full of groceries, you don't need to hit the button on the key or grab the handle to open the trunk. Even the hyundai now has the sensor to let the trunk to open itself when you walk up to it and stand there for 3 secs.

As for the incrediblely short range, I notice that as well but already learned to live with it since I more or less avoid driving the GLE unless I have to

BACnMercedes

I TOTALLY agree. It works great on our E class and I just took it for granted that our GLE400 had this feature.

sciroccopt

Hi, take a look at this thread, is rather easy to perform this mod:

https://mbworld.org/forums/audio-ele...te-remote.html

DragonQueen

Bless your heart. Use the Interior button hun

kajtek1

Somebody pointed that the kick-to-open was deleted on SUVs for safety reasons. Too easy to have the hatch sending you to dentist.
That said I loved the feature on E during Covid. I could open the trunk and put groceries in it without touching the car, so less to worry about contamination.

phoenixone

Kick open is back on 2021 GLE.
🤔 Trunk of your car or key fob would have COVID?

phoenixone

Or you're saying you didn't want to transfer COVID from your hands to the trunk of your car? Not being a wise ***. I'm just curious in a friendly way. 😇

phoenixone

[QUOTE=phoenixone;8437053]
Kick open is back on 2021 GLE.
🤔 Trunk of your car or key fob would have COVID?
Or you're saying you didn't want to transfer COVID from your hands to the trunk of your car? Not being a wise ***. I'm just curious in a friendly way. 😇

kajtek1

Would I have to pull the knob to open the trunk, that would be additional item to disinfect.
With keyless go and kick trunk the knob never left my pocket, till back at home I put it in a drawer.
The only item I had to touch on my car, before grabbing disinfectant was door handle, what I did with 1 finger.

phoenixone

Ah. Gotcha. 👍

BACnMercedes

I must be dancing wrong behind mine. Maybe it’s a part of a certain package or deletes because of a certain package.

BACnMercedes

Nice first post.