brownboy

My car was sitting for awhile and my concierge called to say that my lights were flashing. I went down and they were flashing but no sounds were being made. Ever since then I don't get any beeps when locking or unlocking the car from the fob. And if I hit the panic button I just get the fog lights flashing. The horn works fine on the steering wheel.

The manual says something about the warning chime being able to be turned on and off via programming. Anyone know what that programming sequence is? I'm guessing I need something fancy equipment anyway.

Will see if my indy can do it at my next service.

next2pool

Was your lock/unlock feedback set to honk the horn or the siren?

Rudeney

Sounds like (no pun intended) the ATA siren has died.

brownboy

I don't see anything in the owner's manual that says this can be changed. The closest thing I find is:

"When unlocking or locking the vehicle with the SmartKey an acoustic signal sounds. The acoustic signal is activated at the factory. If you wish to deactivate the feature, or adjust its signal volume, contact an authorized Mercedes-Benz Center."

brownboy

In searching around some more I think you're right! And given the cost of the part and the fact that I don't care about this functionality I'm not going to bother fixing it.

Now if I could only find someone to fix the tears in the side bolster of the driver's seat from my fat azz...

next2pool

I think that setting requires the Star computer. Mine was set to chirp the siren instead of honking the horn. If set that way, and the siren is dead, you can't tell if the alarm is working because the horn still works normally.

kbob999

The siren dies quite frequently due to batteries corroding inside and frying the circuit board. Get a used siren for any MB of this vintage (not just the R230) on eBay for $30-40 and use it until it dies. New ones are like $200!
Or, just disconnect it and don't have a chirp.
It can also cause a battery to drain, so a good idea to fix or disconnect it.

Rudeney

The chirp is a function of the ATA siren itself. Prior to MY2005, they did not chirp. There was a "secret" setting that would enable a chirp. I think it had something to do with setting national coding to The Netherlands. Later, midway through the MY2005, the chirp was added to the ATA siren as a standard feature for all models. This was a fleet-wide change (as most all MBZs use the same ATA siren). I am not aware of any factory settings that would use the horn for the lock acknowledgement. I know there are some aftermarket solutions that will use the horn, like the SmartTOP module.