Prochambers

Greetings all,

I had to put my search for my S550 on hold. Decided to pay off my daughter's school loan because I was a co-signer on the loan. But I still will be hunting for my first S550 in the next few months.

I wanted to know how many of you have invested into the Mercedes Star Diagnostic machine? Thanks.

Nickthegreek

I have and its worth every penny... just takes some time to get to learn how it works. Dont get one with virtual image sofware, get an actual Dell D630 with original HD and SD C4 unit. you can get the whole set for about 700-800 on ebay

Prochambers

Cool! Thank you.

Nickthegreek

I've done stuff like reset the adaptations on my transmission, drive-in adaptations on the transmission, and relearning of the throttle plate and sunroof. I had changed my battery and afterwards the sunroof would not go back smoothly. I went into the relearn function and voila it worked.

Nickthegreek

in a nustshell you wont have to visit the dealer all that often because you can identify faults in your car.

REL_

Are you in the NYC area often?

Welwynnick

I bought MB Star.

Definitely go for the D630 with internal HDD.

There's quite a learning curve, but it goes a long way up.
Nick

just1time

800dollars is not a bad investment. What else can this be used for other than finding and reading faults?
coding? adding and remove features?
I currently have a W221. And more than likely will get a W222 in 2 years. Will this be useful for the W222 also or obsolete by then?

snovvman

Does it allow one to update TCU/ECU programming to newer/latest versions (presuming you get a recent release)?

WHPH28

You can also lower the suspension via star, correct?

marthyh

For this you have to have access to dealer-network to get the latest and greatest, which is highly unlikely with a Chinese clone system.
If its not broken don't fix it,especcially with complex stuff you are not sure what you are doing.*

For the rest its an expense well spent if you are technically inclined and doing your own maintenance and/or repairs.

Yes you can lower the suspension with Das-Xentry, there is a howto somewhere on this forum.

Another thing is, you want to acquire the 'developer' version, as this allows you to modify and adjust settings on control units( as well as add oem equipment) which are unavailable in the standard version.
*Be carefull in using in developer mode as you can seriously screw up all the controlling car-confusers and no dealer ever knows how, or wants, to fix it for you.

Yes,get a complete system for obvious reasons; consisting of a dedicated laptop(with pre-installed and 'authorised' software)cables and multiplexer and do not use for anything else then this purpose, I would recommend.

Nickthegreek

I agree with marthyh pretty much use it for diagnosis and repair itll payoff for itself alone. If you have any questions on how to use it lemme know ive done quite a bit of stuff on it. As for software updates never tried it on mine but Im not going to try it. You need to have an account with MB anyways

Nickthegreek

As fo lowering the ride....why? Ill just never understand why people do it. It ruins the ride

snovvman

Thanks. I asked because I had a BMW GT1, where it self-contained all the flash for the vehicles. I was able to flash the DME to U.S. programming and back to Euro (one of my BMWs was a Euro model), as well as updating the TCM programming. I would imagine that BMW now does the same thing as Merc, only networked connections for updates. This allows them to track the firmware running in each vehicle...

From a tech perspective, it would be great to see a complete list of release notes for each firmware update. This would help one decide if an update would be beneficial.

snovvman

I presume the C3 multiplexer is sufficient for the 221?

Nickthegreek

Actually the c4 is highly reccomended. The c3 got phased out i believe in either the 3/15 or the 5/15 release. The c4 is more up to date

Nickthegreek

I wonder if the c4 might even get phased out soon because they have the xentry connect now or the c5. Hopefully it wont

snovvman

I think C4 was utilized as of the 3/15 release. If I can get a C3 with a late 2014 release, that should work fine for all that I need to do on the 221, right?

alx

the c3 is recommended for a chinese clone setup as it talks slowly and is error free.

the c4 clone is faster, but can corrupt things in the car.

if you can get by with a c3 - do it.

i have zero experience with a clone of a c5 - do they even exist?

Nickthegreek

Theres some actually legit ones from russia for sale on ebay for 6k. Also theres a whole xentry tab kit with tablet and all for sale for 12k on ebay from greece. Probably dealerships that closed and want to sell the equipment

Nickthegreek

Yes 12/2014 should work just fine.

Nickthegreek

Thats good to know i did not know that. They are a hell of alot cheaper.

Prochambers

Can one of you post a few pics of the unit you have. Thanks.

Nickthegreek

Prochambers

So you purchased all of this together or was the laptop separate? Thanks for sharing.