mikedr

Maybe 10% of the time, when I start the vehicle receive "updating channels." Current channel comes thru loud and clear. But otherwise I'm locked out -- can't change presets or do anything else with satellite radio. Radio has been re pinged by Sirius.

Anyone else experience this? Never had a prob with Xm on our Cadillac. Should I ask for the Comand unit to be switched out?

bop11

That seems to be a standard practice for Sirius, but the update should only take about 3 -4 minutes. Annoying. Seems only to happen in both MB's and not other receivers around the house and boat.

mikedr

Great. The shine came off this vehicle in record time. Dealer is unwilling to replace the radio unless they can see the problem first hand (my video of it taken with my phone apparently isn't good enough for them).

Should went with another American car, I guess.

Bob338

Yeah, you should have if the radio is that important to you.

Understand, it's a problem with Sirius, not the Mercedes radio. I don't blame your dealer as a replacement would result in the same problem. Mine is just the reverse. It happens on one of my older MB's all the time, never on the newer ones.

mikedr

I dunno -- if Mercedes is the only vehicle manufacturer that seems to have this problem with Sirius, that strikes me as a Mercedes problem.

But, again, silly me for thinking that satellite radio that works on all other makes and manufactures of cars would also work on a vaunted Mercedes.

Bob338

Yeah, you're right!

It happens that while the other car with the problem IS a Mercedes, the radio is aftermarket, an Alpine. Nothing to do with Mercedes. It's a Sirius problem!

fabbrisd1

Standard dealer proedure would be to reboot the system - then put it outside to see if it accepts SIRIUS update - if it does not then the COMAND unit would be ordered in to replace your unit.

If that is not what your dealer is offering to do - call MB Customer Care during working hours and i a factual way outline the situation - that will start a back channel "request" from MB for your dealer to get this taken care of to your satisfaction.

koalatm

Not a Mercedes problem, it's a Sirius problem. My VW GTI does this fairly often.

mikedr

Status update. The dealer had the car for the week. They were able to duplicate the problem. They switched out the control unit. Day after I got it back . . . problem reappeared.

Going back in for another week on Monday. They're going to try replacing the antenna this time.

Note that this is not a Sirius problem. It says "updating channels" for hours at a time. I was traveling on business, and rented two different GLKs, both with Sirius, both for a week (different cities). Neither exhibited this problem.

Hopefully the antenna switch-out will do the trick. I'm not sure what is left after that. The COMAND unit? Not certain if the dealer would be willing to replace all the wiring harnesses among the various Sirius components.

Sadly, I've already begun now the process of documenting this in such a way that I can have the dealer buy back the car under the lemon law if necessary. Which is a huge bummer. Really like the car otherwise, but I am a satellite radio addict, and can't live without that -- the way Benz does switching between stations (left-hand side controls on the steering wheel, press on a button immediately switches stations) was a huge factor in us getting the GLK over the Q5 or X3.

tbirdvet

I just got my new GLK350 4 weeks ago and have the same issue. I contacted Sirius and they sent the activation signal again but no change. The "updating channels" stays on until I shut down for several minutes. When I restart it usually starts working again for a day or two. I'm afraid since it is not consistent the dealer will not find and repair under warranty.

mikedr

Ugh. I got my GLK350 four weeks ago, too. Dealer was able to reproduce the problem, and their diagnostics were showing that the signal was coming into the control unit, but that the control unit was saying it wasn't getting a signal. But switching out the control unit didn't do the trick.

Hopefully it's an antenna problem. I had thought that perhaps it was a bad wiring harness, but if you're having the problem, too, then that's unlikely (my thinking is that the wiring harness got nicked in installation).

I'll let you know what happens once the antenna has been switched out.

tbirdvet

[QUOTE=mikedr;5982450]Ugh. I got my GLK350 four weeks ago, too. Dealer was able to reproduce the problem, and their diagnostics were showing that the signal was coming into the control unit, but that the control unit was saying it wasn't getting a signal. But switching out the control unit didn't do the trick.

Hopefully it's an antenna problem. I had thought that perhaps it was a bad wiring harness, but if you're having the problem, too, then that's unlikely (my thinking is that the wiring harness got nicked in installation).

I'll let you know what happens once the antenna has been switched out.




Maybe there is a batch of bad control units. Seems more likely than antenna.

mikedr

Yeah, I would think a bad batch of control units -- but they replaced mine already, and still have the problem. Who knows? Really bummed.

tbirdvet

Do you know where the Sat. module (control unit) is located in our GLK350? I thought it was in the cargo area but all I can find are the Harmon Kardon stereo amps. I was going to see if the antenna and wires were secure before taking back to dealer.

RSNovi

I have owned my 2014 GLK for around 12 hours and on the second drive the SAT came up "Updating Channels" and never completed. I wasn't able to listen to the Sirius on my drive in this morning.

I have owned probably 6 other cars with Sirius/XM and have had channel updates on rare occasion, but they would only take a few minutes to complete.

mikedr

Wow. So this is definitely an endemic issue to new 2014s. Today the dealer is switching out the antenna. I hope that does the trick. Frankly, what I'm wondering is that perhaps this is ultimately a software issue.

I don't know where the satellite module is, unfortunately. I'm now on module #2.

RSNovi

Please report back your results with the new module. Thanks.

Chris

mikedr

Well, I already have the second module in the car, and the problem persisted. That's why the dealer is now trying the antenna . . . . .

mikedr

Spoke at length with the dealer today. They replaced the antenna, and the problem was still present. They were able to do a lot of troubleshooting, however. Furthermore, they contacted the national Mercedes people -- this problem is widespread all over the country. Mercedes is aware of the issue and is working on a fix, which will be a software fix. FWIW, my car might speed the process along, as they have a lot of data now to work with.

The dealer believes that the problem manifests itself only for channels equal to/greater than 24 that are even in number. To me, this would suggest that the problem occurs when, in binary, when the car first starts, the sixteen and eight bits are set and the one bit is not set for the channel number. I'm guessing that the radio is seeing this somehow as "satellite wants to update channels" (perhaps by applying the wrong bit mask, or the right bit mask to the wrong data), and constantly waits for a channel update, when none is forthcoming. An easy hack, I think, would just be to stop the update channel process if no update is forthcoming within "X" seconds. But, I hope they fix the root cause of the problem.

I'm going to now try changing the channel to an odd number under 24 before I turn off the car, and see if that is a temporary work around. If I'm brave, I may try changing the channel to an even number over 24 and see if I can trigger the problem.

There's no ETA on a fix right now.

tbirdvet

Just took my vehicle in and my dealer stated they have seen similar issues in the past and usually requires a software update. This issue is the first time he has heard of this one. I guess he will call me later stating he did something but looks like it will not be fixed based on your experience. I always have my radio on station on #6 when I shut down and the issue returns. maybe I will try station 5.

mikedr

Interesting re station 6. I'm going to try odd numbers as well to see if that does the trick.

My service guy is going to check with Mercedes every so often to see if there has been an update. As soon as I learn of there being one, I'll post it here, hopefully with identifying information (TSB, etc.), so that others can let their dealers know what to do.

tbirdvet

As expected my dealer could not fix the issue but did verify. They contacted MB and they also confirmed they are working on a software fix but TBD timing. My dealer said they will inform me when the fix is available but just not sure when. I was just wondering if you have the push button start? I was thinking maybe something with that circuit since it only happens at startup.

RSNovi

i have push button start and had it happen.

I spent a few years developing automotive audio systems. These types of things where the radio gets stuck in a weird state is very common and one of the biggest challenges we faced in designing these systems. There are so many different processors communicating with so many things outside of the car these days that issues like this crop up.

mikedr

Ahhh, fascinating! Yes, I do have push button start in fact! I'll let my dealer know this as well.

tbirdvet

I'm going to just use my key for starting the next few days and see what happens. I will let you know the outcome.