As some of you know...I have had problems in the past with COMAND. (I have the multimedia package with pop out screen.) I would come out to start the car in the morning and COMAND would be dead. By pulling fuse #26 and reseating it...all would be well. This has happened about 5 times since I purchased the car in March, 2008.

Well...what happened yesterday was VERY weird. I was driving to lunch and the COMAND door started opening and closing by itself. The radio would power down each time and power itself up...opening the door. It did that three times...so I powered off the radio for 1 minute. When I turned it back on...all seemed well.....until I headed home.

So...about 5 miles into my 30 mile commute home...the same thing happened. The COMAND door began to open and close by itself...cycling the power on the radio. Again, I turned the radio off for one minute, and when powering on it seemed to work. But then I noticed that I had no "information" in the speedo other than the mileage info. NO audio, NO nav, NO phone info. It just displayed ----.

I called my brother who works at the Benz dealership (and who has the same car as me) to tell him what was happening, and letting him know that I need to bring the car by the dealership to have it looked at. The car then disconnected the call and shut down COMAND. I pushed the button to open the hatch and noticed that the passenger airbag began to flicker on and off...almost as though someone was sitting down and getting off the seat. There was no one in the car with me. I dialed my brother again (without bluetooth enabled) and before the call connected, the wipers flicked across the windshield one time and the horn honked. SERIOUSLY.

COMAND then opened up and "synched" the call, which allowed the call to play over the car's speakers. I explained that I had a dr appointment to go to, and that I would try to bring the car by after that. He said that sometimes a critter will chew wires, causing a "Christmas Tree" as the service guys call it, but I assured him that no critters were chewing my wires, as I have a pretty "critter free" garage.

After the Dr. Appointment, I pulled and reseated fuse #26 and all "seems" to be back to normal. I will say that it was kind of freaky...all that stuff happening while driving. And SERIOUSLY...on the way to the doctor's office a van tried to turn in front of my and stopped suddenly. If he didn't stop, we would have hit. On the way HOME from the Dr...a lady started to pull out in front of me and she stopped. If she didn't...it would have been a wreck.

I will probably take it up there today or tommorrow to have them run a diagnostics on it. Has anyone ELSE had freaky electrical issues...while DRIVING the car????

Haze

 

Who did you **** off that recently died?

 

LOL...I thought about a ghost too.....

 

Final Destination... 5?

 

You might want to talk to your local priest and ask him to perform an exorcism on your car.

 

sounds like you got a loose or pinched connection...

my command was doing the exact same thing when i was trying to put back the head unit after installing vim...

it kept going crazy and popping open and then closing sporadically (the command screen)

i took out the command, and saw that the power harness where the power connections was loose and not seated right and pushed it in till i heard the locking click...

then the problem stopped, no more random opening and closing.. (still couldnt get the command back in though, lol, had to take it to an audio shop to get it back in properly)

 

Thanks RB. It is at the dealership now. Funny thing is that I installed the VIM in March 2008 and have not had any other problems except the COMAND dying 5 times over 18 months. A simple pull and plug of fuse 26 fixed each of those. I can't see the VIM affecting the wipers, horn or airbag light....strange

Maybe the computer can tell the dealer dudes what happened.

Will keep you posted.

 

The dealership found some error codes that pointed them in two directions. The wiper/horn issue was most likely caused by a SAM issue..and they are replacing that under warranty.

The opening and closing of the radio has been traced to a KNOWN MB problem with the FACTORY ipod harness...which my car has. There is a TSB out for it which I will attach. The PROBLEM is that I have VIM, and since the ORIGINAL MB part failed..that is covered under warranty...but they have to remove and reconnect the VIM module and it was a ***** to get into the dashboard. They said that either I can replace it all myself...(which I can't even remember how I did it), or they can bill me for the labor to have their tech spend his time fixing my mess. (Even though it was THEIR part that failed.)

Depending what they say...I might have to get my car back...remove the VIM....allow them to perform the warranty replacement of the ipod harness...get the car back...and install the VIM again. What a nightmare! The VIM is NOT the problem...but since it was "in the mix" it has made warranty replacement a pain. Since there is no spicing of the wiring harness, and I can fully remove the VIM..the factory warranty cannot be voided.

But.....it sucks none the less.

*TSB attached

Haze