Distronic Speedometer red segment lights not working
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Newbie
Joined: Aug 2022
Posts: 1
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2014 CLA 250
Distronic Speedometer red segment lights not working
I have a 2014 CLA 250 which I had serviced by an independent MB garage yesterday. When driving home I found that while the Distronic Plus was working normally, the speedometer red light segments that light up to show the set Distronic speed on the speedometer dial were no longer lighting up.
Apparently, this is not uncommon in various MB models and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a complaint written on this you can read here:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...67078-9999.pdf - It appears that the reset of the service maintenance data is what causes this to occur and the solution provided in the document is to "Perform control unit reset on instrument cluster (A1) using Xentry Diagnostics." which likely most do not have and so a return to the garage would be required.
However, in my research, I found an easy solution in another MB World thread to this issue, which I just tried and it worked.
The solution is to just disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery, leave it off for 10 to 15 minutes, then reconnect the battery cable, and go do a test drive to verify the speedometer red segment lights are working when the Distronic plus is engaged. The lighting of the Distronic red light segments were back working for me after doing this and none of my personalized setting were deleted even though the battery had been disconnected.
Thought I would post the solution in this forum in case any other CLA 250 owners run into this problem. All my prior servicing over the past 8 years was at a dealership and this issue never showed up until the car was taken to an independent MB garage.
Apparently, this is not uncommon in various MB models and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a complaint written on this you can read here:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...67078-9999.pdf - It appears that the reset of the service maintenance data is what causes this to occur and the solution provided in the document is to "Perform control unit reset on instrument cluster (A1) using Xentry Diagnostics." which likely most do not have and so a return to the garage would be required.
However, in my research, I found an easy solution in another MB World thread to this issue, which I just tried and it worked.
The solution is to just disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery, leave it off for 10 to 15 minutes, then reconnect the battery cable, and go do a test drive to verify the speedometer red segment lights are working when the Distronic plus is engaged. The lighting of the Distronic red light segments were back working for me after doing this and none of my personalized setting were deleted even though the battery had been disconnected.
Thought I would post the solution in this forum in case any other CLA 250 owners run into this problem. All my prior servicing over the past 8 years was at a dealership and this issue never showed up until the car was taken to an independent MB garage.
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Joined: Jan 2025
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2013 A180 (W176)
Thanks - This helped me.
Similar thing happened to me, I had my 2013 A180 serviced by a excelent independant garage and discovered that the segments were not working a day or so later. I tried the entire neighberhood's diagnostic tools to no avail and made a booking at MB about 15 minutes before reading your post. Cancelled the booking now - Thanks!
Similar thing happened to me, I had my 2013 A180 serviced by a excelent independant garage and discovered that the segments were not working a day or so later. I tried the entire neighberhood's diagnostic tools to no avail and made a booking at MB about 15 minutes before reading your post. Cancelled the booking now - Thanks!
