turbocad6

so I bought my 06 R500 about a month ago, and I notice it has a button on the dash for DSR with a picture of the vehicle going down a hill. press the button and a little red indicator lights up on the button. I then read the owners manual, and what I originally gathered is that this thing has some kind of hill holding type setup? I did notice that when I do come to a stop in my uphill driveway and then try to inch up a bit further that the brakes do kind of hold a little bit, and it does this even with the DSR button not on... never really thought too much about it but I just figured this button turns that hill holding thing off...

I then also noticed that I have no button to turn off the parking sensors. the day after I got the R I threw my front plate on, and I didn't have the right screws nor a screw driver handy, so I just threaded in the screws I had, in a few threads by hand and it wasn't going anywhere for now, but the plate stuck out a little on one side. later when I drove it, sometimes when I put it in drive the right front bumper would intermittently "see" something and the parking sensor would go off. it was erratic and intermittent AND very annoying almost every time I stopped at a red light. I thought something was wrong with a sensor or something but could find no way to turn them off, took me a few days to realize the plate sticking out slightly was causing the parking sensor trip, didn't want to believe it was picking up a reflection from just the tip of the plate sticking out no more than 15-20mm but it was.

anyway, I decided to do a little custom dash work to install an android system in the dash, and to do this I needed to relocate both the climate control and this whole button panel. well moving the climate control down to the lower console worked out fine but really I can't find anywhere at all to mount this whole button panel. sticking it in the console, glove box or behind the tablet was ok as a temporary thing but I need to find a permanent and correct looking more permanent solution, and the easiest way for me to do this is to chop up this button panel, it's just too big as is, so I decided to hunt for a donor button assy on ebay so I could chop that one up, while still having the original to use until the remote switch assy I'll have to build is finished



so I find one about the same as mine on ebay, there are a lot of different configurations for these button panels and there used on the R, GL and ML's too, closest one I could find was about the same as mine, but it had a parking sensor switch instead of the DSR switch mine has.... I ordered it

I get the new switch, plug it in, and of course first thing I do is hit the parking sensor button and check, well I'll be damned, it works, the button actually turns off my parking sensors.... now I really start to get confused... why wouldn't Mercedes have a button for the parking sensors? then, curiosity made me investigate a little further... I put the original switch assy back in, hit the DSR button... well it lights up, as of course I've already seen it do, but then I decide to check the parking sensors and sure enough, the damn DSR button is actually turning the parking sensors off, always has I guess, I just never even realized as I've never even touched that button except once just to see the light go on, and of course this was in park so it never dawned on me that it was actually the parking sensors being affected.

ok this is weird.... wtf... what are the chances that I have the wrong switch in the R I just bought, AND that I just happened to wind up unknowingly buying the correct switch for my R on ebay? very strange. then, to make things even more strange, I compare the part numbers and the software numbers and everything is exact match between these 2 switches! according to the part and revision numbers these 2 switches should be exactly the same, also a very weird coincidence... then I start searching this forum for DSR and I come across very little in the R section but I do find one picture of a switch assy that has the same DSR button as mine BUT it also has a parking sensor button in a space that's blank on my panel.

so now my questions... does anyone have a DSR button on there dash? does anyone have parking sensors without a parking sensor button? does anyone have any other idea or input about this issue? my only guess is at some point the original switch was damaged and someone substituted an incorrect button? but then they must have just swapped the face button not the whole panel, explaining why these 2 different assemblies can have the exact same pt. and rev #'s. but this is a 2 owner, always serviced at benz with full extended warrantee car and doesn't really appear to have been tampered with until I got my mits on it... doesn't seem likely at all someone just happened to have already butchered the switch that I'm about to butcher...... very strange but this seems like it was the original button that came in the dash and I really can't figure it out


here's a pic of the original switch from my R (on the bottom) along with the new ebay switch on top



and the 2 labels, only difference in the date code




and here is a picture I found of one R that had both, but no comfort/sport tranny button? instead it has an off road button like the ML/GL's. anyone have anything like this???



any input is appreciated, I just can't figure this out



here's a shot of the tablet install, not 100% finished cosmetically but has been installed and functional since week one, this button panel mod will take a little while to finish though, still haven't really figured out where I'm even putting the buttons yet, seat heaters on the console behind the cupholders seems natural, but everything else still thinking

TopEndS62

Looks Great man.. To be honest i commend you for tackling this. Cant wait to see the finished product with the buttons re-positioned..
My speculation with your Park-tronic button missing is that maybe previous owner replaced the whole board for whatever reason. Maybe you should try plugging in a board that has the actual park-tronic switch. I live in Brooklyn as well so if you want to swap and test, let me know. Ive had my r500 for about a week, currently doing exterior/suspension mods for now. cant wait to tackle my interior.

All the best

turbocad6

hey, thanks for the offer bro, but the switch I got on ebay does have the parktronic button and it does indeed work when plugged into my R .

as far as the DSR function I have no idea but I'm thinking I may not even have that. I too want to do more mods to mine and lowering it a bit is def on that list, along with nicer wheels, etc, but the tablet was first priority over all the other mods. I did try bending my sensor arms a bit and got a little drop out of it, but def needs a bit more, gotta get back under there and play some more. what did you do, order adjustable links?

TopEndS62

No prob man.. As for DSR

use this website
http://www.auto-parts.spb.ru/cat/cat...&client=dr2000

enter your vin and then on the top lefthand corner click DATACARD


all your option codes and descriptions should pop up.. what ever code comes up as unknown, enter the code in google for the description. This website was a huge help when shopping for the r500.

In terms of suspension i'm going with AAR. Wouldn't mind bending, actually thats what i did with the E55's rear link, but i'd like to be able to have stock ones available. Ghost performance actually has them cheaper at 250, but they would have to make it for me and i'd hate to be test dummy for their first set of r-class links.

J4GG4

What is the button to the right of the emergency indicator/turn signals??

xxGenericSNxx

Sorry I missed this thread until now. Very interesting that the part numbers are the same but for different configurations of the switchrow. From what I understand based on my research, only the ML and GL cars have the DSR switch. I've never seen or heard of an R-Class with DSR. I wouldn't be surprised if the switchrow on your car has been modified in some way that the backing doesn't match up with the fascia (perhaps something on the swtichrow broke and they had to rig together a solution?). Just some speculation. But I think now that you've got the parktronic switch figured out it seems to make sense.


It just lets you know if the passenger airbag is off.

J4GG4

Not the airbag.. The car going over a rocky terrain ...?

xxGenericSNxx

Just a guess but perhaps low range mode for the transfer case?