Wagonsrule

Greetings,


I'd like to survey Forum members about their Bluetooth experience.


I'd like to hear from owners of 2007-2009 E350s who have the Bluetooth puck that is blue and silver and kind of looks like a Star Trek device. Here are four questions:


Does your Bluetooth work perfectly all the time?
Have you ever upgraded your car's Bluetooth software?


What kind of phone do you have?
If you know, what OS does it run?


I'm troubleshooting random failures that I'm having, and these answers will help me out. Thank you.

samaritrey

Three things
First the 09 has the new HU FYI
Second any 07-08 w211 should be the same not just the e350's
Third the Bluetooth is buggy as heck lol but I did find it works better with windows phone than it dose on android and ios.

HKP7Shot

I just recently picked up one of the Star trek pucks you mentioned in my '07 E550 and I'm using a Samsung Note 3 once it was paired haven't had any problems. I've had to push the 'TEL' button a couple times because the phone didn't seem to connect as soon as the car started. But that issue has seemed to corrected itself.

Hope that helps.

-Scott.

Wagonsrule

Trey, can you give a little more detail about "buggy as heck"? And is the new hookup the black puck or built in? Thx.

Blitz2639

Not sure what issues you're having but it's well known that the blue and silver puck sucks and that the smaller black one is much improved

Wagonsrule

Thank you! Any information is very helpful at this point. Can I substitute a new black puck for the blue and silver one? Does that require a software update from the dealer, if it's even possible?
The symptom of the problem is that some days the Bluetooth works, and some days it doesn't, and it seems random. What the actual problem is, and how to fix it, is elusive, which is why I'm gathering information. Is it the puck? Is it my phone? Is it something else?
Thanks.

Blitz2639

The black puck is a direct replacement it was just a better design. Hard to say exactly what the issue is but I'd start there first. I've had plenty of issues with the silver and blue and after having people change over to the black it seems to take care of everything.

Wagonsrule

Did you personally have to switch over in your car? Did you need a software update to do it? where did you get the new one? Did you have to pay dealer price for it?

MoarPOWA

If your car has the iPod/iphone cable in the glove box, I bought this device called tune2air works amazing. Plugs into the iPod cable and allows you to wirelessly stream music through the factory audio system. Works flawless and connects immediately everytime I start the car.

cetialpha5

I have the newer, smaller black one and haven't really had any problems with it. Once it didn't detect my phone which is an Android Droid 4 on Verizon, but I hit the buttons on it and tried reseating it and it's been working fine since. Picked it up on eBay. They seem to go for around $120 and up. The older silver ones seem to go for less.

Wagonsrule

Yes, I have one of those too. It works great, and I can listen to music and audiobooks on my phone. However, it doesn't help me with the Bluetooth phone issues I'm having.

Wagonsrule

Did you replace the silver puck because it quit working entirely? Or were you having random intermittent outages like I am, and it fixed that?

cetialpha5

The car didn't come with one. I guess that's where the ones on ebay come from, someone takes them out and sells them on ebay when they sell the car. Didn't know the silver one had a problem, just thought the smaller one looked better and it was newer so I figured it would just last longer than an older puck.

bsamoul

I'm not super happy with mine. The car won't disconnect from my phone unless I physically move too far away from it. It's because of this, that I keep bluetooth off on my phone unless I need to call someone and turn it on/off.

Wagonsrule

Update: my Bluetooth has been working for almost 3 weeks now, continuously. It was showing "no signal", and I was experimenting with a friend's I-Phone trying to pair it to my car system. It did pair, and the unit showed a "ready" signal, but when we tried to make a call to test it, the car system shut down. This happened 3 times so we gave up. But amazingly, right then the system hooked up to my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S3, and has not quit yet. I'm happy, but this is an illustration of why the problem is so frustrating. It's so random.