Stereo fails very intermittently
12-13-2005, 06:32 AM
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E500, Viper, and other less-fun stuff
Stereo fails very intermittently
I have an 03 E500 with the non-nav HK w/6-disc changer. On rare occasions, the stereo fails to power up when I start the car. The screen is blank and all buttons except power are unresponsive. If I cycle the power, the stereo hangs at the MB logo. I can turn it on and off, but it never changes from the logo. None of the buttons do anything.
About 90% of the time, the problem goes away if I turn off the car and restart it, but usually I don't notice that the stereo has bombed out until I'm already driving down the road, where restarting the car would be inconvenient. (And even if it was convenient, I'm not happy with the CTRL - ALT - DEL solution on a Benz.) On rare occasions, I can restart the car multiple times and it just won't go away. On one occasion, the problem persisted for about a day and a half, through six or seven restarts -- that actually made me happy because I thought it had fully broken, finally, and maybe I could get it fixed.
I have reported this to my service rep, but we have exactly one local dealer and they take the hard-line stance that if they can't reproduce the problem themselves, they won't do anything about it. Basically the word of the owner is worth nothing at all. Unfortunately I bought the car used, so that knocks me down another peg in the eyes of the almighty Dealer.
I'm approaching the end of my warranty and given the goofy proprietary nature of MB electronics, I'd hate to be stuck with a broken stereo system (or face a $2K+ bill to replace it with yet anoter mediocre MB system).
Does anyone know of any documented chronic problems of this nature, or perhaps have any information that might help me get this issue resolved? Failing that, I haven't been around the boards much lately -- I don't suppose anybody has a reliable aftermarket stereo sytem that'll work with a Benz (short of paying a shop $15K for a three-week custom install)?
About 90% of the time, the problem goes away if I turn off the car and restart it, but usually I don't notice that the stereo has bombed out until I'm already driving down the road, where restarting the car would be inconvenient. (And even if it was convenient, I'm not happy with the CTRL - ALT - DEL solution on a Benz.) On rare occasions, I can restart the car multiple times and it just won't go away. On one occasion, the problem persisted for about a day and a half, through six or seven restarts -- that actually made me happy because I thought it had fully broken, finally, and maybe I could get it fixed.
I have reported this to my service rep, but we have exactly one local dealer and they take the hard-line stance that if they can't reproduce the problem themselves, they won't do anything about it. Basically the word of the owner is worth nothing at all. Unfortunately I bought the car used, so that knocks me down another peg in the eyes of the almighty Dealer.
I'm approaching the end of my warranty and given the goofy proprietary nature of MB electronics, I'd hate to be stuck with a broken stereo system (or face a $2K+ bill to replace it with yet anoter mediocre MB system).
Does anyone know of any documented chronic problems of this nature, or perhaps have any information that might help me get this issue resolved? Failing that, I haven't been around the boards much lately -- I don't suppose anybody has a reliable aftermarket stereo sytem that'll work with a Benz (short of paying a shop $15K for a three-week custom install)?
12-13-2005, 11:23 AM
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'08 AM Vantage V8 - '03 E500
From your description, it's a variation of the "rebooting" bug that plagued '03 HK audio systems. It was very common; my '03 came down with a similar bug. It's an easy warranty fix, updating the audio firmware and/or replacing the "audio gateway", whatever that may be. In our case, the dealer updated the firmware and the problem went away, never to return. I've seen the TSB on it posted here previously; I don't have the number but somebody else surely will. Why your dealer is playing dumb on this well-known problem is a mystery to me.
12-13-2005, 12:24 PM
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'71 Pinto
Originally Posted by McGuireV10
I have an 03 E500 with the non-nav HK w/6-disc changer. On rare occasions, the stereo fails to power up when I start the car. The screen is blank and all buttons except power are unresponsive. If I cycle the power, the stereo hangs at the MB logo. I can turn it on and off, but it never changes from the logo. None of the buttons do anything. About 90% of the time, the problem goes away if I turn off the car and restart it, but usually I don't notice that the stereo has bombed out until I'm already driving down the road, where restarting the car would be inconvenient.
Last edited by konigstiger; 07-01-2006 at 06:31 PM.
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