e-class abuse tracker?
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e-class abuse tracker?
have any of you flks heard of a possible abuse tracker for the e-320 sport?
i was speaking with an mbz technician, and he claims that there is a mechanism on board the car to track a whole bunch of things, including over revving rpms, shifting into lower gears at high speed, driving too fast before the 1000 mile mark, etc.
just curious!
i was speaking with an mbz technician, and he claims that there is a mechanism on board the car to track a whole bunch of things, including over revving rpms, shifting into lower gears at high speed, driving too fast before the 1000 mile mark, etc.
just curious!
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From: Boston
'05 A4 1.8TQM6
from what i've heard, that data is stored in the computer onboard. The dealer can plug their computer into the car's computer and pull data, such as RPM's, speed, etc. But I could be wrong.
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it would be interesting to see actual specs on what type of information is stored, what the sampling interval is, is there some sort of events notification system, etc.
does anyone know what the interface to the car's computer is? is it something as simple as serial or usb? i assume that benz has some proprietary software to query the car's internal computer...
does anyone know what the interface to the car's computer is? is it something as simple as serial or usb? i assume that benz has some proprietary software to query the car's internal computer...
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From: 2000 ft over the FL coast in a B-17
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I've seen an actual print out of this type of info on a E46 BMW M3 board. This was used by both the dealer and manufactuer during the early period when M3 engines were blowing and BMW tried to pin the faliures on some owners that abused the cars.
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here's the thing i heard about bmw's system that ultimately failed them on the m3's, perhaps you can find out if mb has the same loophole. even if they track this data, they have to have a time stamp on it. since there is no automatic adjustment of time and date via some external source other than the driver, this creates an issue. the thing is, they can say the engine is over revved, but they cannot pin an accurate date and time on it. as the driver you can claim you never overrevved it and say, the technician on a prior visit must have done it and get more upset now that you know your car was abused (not by you). so the key is, if there is any chance the absue was done by someone other than you, they cannot use the information against you. it might even help prove that technicians were the absusers and not you.
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From: Torquay, England
E-class E300e Estate, Sprinter (stretched limo)
Originally posted by phyber2004
the particular car in question is having serious transmission issues... random revving... shifting... benz is refusing to do anything about it, claiming operator error...
the particular car in question is having serious transmission issues... random revving... shifting... benz is refusing to do anything about it, claiming operator error...
It has been reported that Ford has installed a similar ‘black box’ for a number of years. It is only used however for there own industrial use.
I would be interested to hear of any Dealer refusing to carry out warranty repairs because of information they have from a ‘computer printout’.
Regards,
John
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so i did a little research on this subject over the weekend, mainly based on vendors that offer aftermarket diagnostic software for those mechanics that aren't affiliated with mbz or a dealer.
this is an example:
www.carsoftusa.com
it appears that there are two types of monitoring.
"live data" - engine data, such as rpm, gear, engine oil temperature, speed, emissions stats, etc are polled frequently and displayed on a monitor while the engine is running.
it would be impossible to store all of this information, because the sheer amount of information recorded would most likely fill up an 80 GB hard drive in a couple of weeks of operation - i'm not sure how much memory the onboard units contain, but this seems impractical.
"event data" - whenever an error occurs within the system, all of the relevant engine data sampled at the time of the event is stored along with the event code. these can be viewed and reset by the mechanic who works on your car. i believe that in the initial break in period of a car, the first 1,000 miles of its operation - an event is stored when the car goes over a certain speed, although i'm not 100% positive on this.
this data could be used against you in theory, take this example. if you were driving in 2nd gear at 100 mph ( the car would never allow this, it would automatically shift for you ) and a catastrophic transmission failure occured, it would store the error event along with the engine rpm and the gear you were in - a dealer could say that hey, the engine was at 7,000 rpm in 2nd gear, and the car was travelling at 100 mph - operator error.
this is an example:
www.carsoftusa.com
it appears that there are two types of monitoring.
"live data" - engine data, such as rpm, gear, engine oil temperature, speed, emissions stats, etc are polled frequently and displayed on a monitor while the engine is running.
it would be impossible to store all of this information, because the sheer amount of information recorded would most likely fill up an 80 GB hard drive in a couple of weeks of operation - i'm not sure how much memory the onboard units contain, but this seems impractical.
"event data" - whenever an error occurs within the system, all of the relevant engine data sampled at the time of the event is stored along with the event code. these can be viewed and reset by the mechanic who works on your car. i believe that in the initial break in period of a car, the first 1,000 miles of its operation - an event is stored when the car goes over a certain speed, although i'm not 100% positive on this.
this data could be used against you in theory, take this example. if you were driving in 2nd gear at 100 mph ( the car would never allow this, it would automatically shift for you ) and a catastrophic transmission failure occured, it would store the error event along with the engine rpm and the gear you were in - a dealer could say that hey, the engine was at 7,000 rpm in 2nd gear, and the car was travelling at 100 mph - operator error.
