Darrington

Venting...

Right before the Thanksgiving holiday, I was backing the car out of the garage, and the backup camera didn’t come up on the display. I put the car in drive, and it was still stuck on the Warning screen. Then I noticed the audio was stuck on one channel, couldn’t access my media, change channels or anything. I figured there was probably a minor hiccup in the system, and once I restarted the car, I would be fine. Not the case. The audio system is completely frozen, and even the climate control is now a little whacky.

Called the dealer. Since I needed a courtesy car, they couldn’t help me for another week. I got a base CLA 4matic, which is a POS, but that’s another story.

They did several days of troubleshooting with no success. Then they opened a case with MB Germany. Waited days for responses. All of the software troubleshooting has been unsuccessful, so next step is them pulling things apart. My car has ZERO rattles, so I’m a little concerned that messing with the dash will cause rattles.

Should know know more on Monday, but not happy.

fabbrisd1

I wouldn't worry about rattles in Germany authorizes unit replacement - replacing the entertainment unit is expensive - and Mercedes has protocols in place that the software and programming needs to be checked/reloaded in several steps before Mercedes approves replacement of the actual unit. The software download/install takes hours and hours on the online shop system - at each step Germany has to be messaged that step didn't work - before Germany will approved the next step.

Do Mercedes Comand/Audio-20 units fail - rarely - but it does happened - and under warranty Mercedes will authorize replacement if the instructed programming steps do not solve the issue.

Keep the beat !

chutak

Had this happen to me just recently, the Comand system had frozen up completely. After a few days it worked, but I was unable to access radio and media functions. Everything else on the Comand unit was kinda laggy and glitchy. Took the car to the dealership and about 5 days later they figured out that the whole Comand unit needed replacement along with software reload. All was repaired under warranty, but the cost Mercedes was over $5000.

I thought the glitch was just a software bug, but apparently it needed new hardware. Thank goodness for warranty.

Darrington

Thanks guys, appreciate the info. Just aggravating that a 2015 car is sitting for troubleshooting for this long. I bet I'm another week away from having it back if they need to order and replace the head unit. I don't want to head into the holidays with this CLA either. Not a fun ride.

chutak - this is pretty much like what I'm going through. Maybe I'll get a CarPlay version of the audio unit for a replacement...

Darrington

Happy to say that 3 weeks to the day, got my C400 back. After a bunch of testing, they determined the head unit needed to be replaced. Once they figured it out, they had the new unit and software ordered and installed in like two days. So, good recovery and I have it back for the holidays. Happy again.