Keyless Go - A small victory thanks to this forum.
It was a one-owner from Texas with 34,500 miles on the clock on Ebay for somewhere over $40,000 and it had a "Make Offer" option.
I made an offer, it was rejected. The car didn't sell and the specialty dealership emailed me saying they'd accept my offer and would like to talk.
The only issue the car had after inspection was that the Keyless Go button on the shift knob didn't work and two Mercedes dealerships had two different answers as to why.
One dealership speculated that I had a "bad key" that the previous owner bought from the Internet or something and the other said I needed a new shift assembly which was over $700 at the time.
I said **** it and didn't bother for a while since the key worked in the ignition... Then I stumbled onto a post on this forum about how to disassemble the shift knob to fix the button. I wish I could find it, but I found it by chance on my phone originally.
Apparently the previous owner had accidentally twisted the knob and caused the two prongs in the button to twist and break off.
As a word of warning, if you ever see a replacement shift knob with any cracks in the wood, avoid it as the button might be compromised.
So, based off this I twisted it just slightly and without touching the button, the ignition switch went into "accessory" mode (if that's the right terminology).
I removed the shift knob and sure enough, both prongs from the button were still lodged in the holes in the metal shift column and were twisted close to each other.
By my just slightly twisting the knob, it brought them back into connection to trigger the "accessory" ignition setting (again, I probably have that term wrong).
A set of needle nose plyers later and an Ebay replacement shift knob, I was able to fix my problem that Mercedes said would cost $700 for around $75.00.
I just wish I got the leather color correct, but it's just a lighter grey and I'll find a proper one later.
Credit where it is due, I just wanted to say thanks to all the people on this forum that take the time to post details to help others.
Thanks so much.
Cheers!


