jrobgood71

I just took delivery of my 2011 E350 Sedan about a week ago. Third new Mercedes I've owned in the last 4 years, and I'm fairly confident in my ability to operate the car.

HOWEVER... this one's got me puzzled, and my dealer (probably) thinks I'm nuts. Which may or may not be true, but here are the facts:

• P2 package, using Keyless Go and a healthy, recent-firmware iPod Nano 5G via the media interface (not MI Plus) and its normal iPod/iPhone lead.
• Despite conflicting theories/advice found here, I do not disconnect the iPod. I'm not worried about draining a car battery with what amounts to a couple watch batteries, given my daily driving habits.
• No funky charging adapters (for the older 12V iPods) or aftermarket ANYTHING is in the signal or power path anywhere on the vehicle.
• Second key fob is on a hook in the house about 80 feet away from the vehicle.
• Car was configured during early production, and I was practically waiting at the harbor when it rolled off the ship here in SoCal. Point being is that it did not sit very long before I took possession, and I theorize that this means any small batteries in the various subsystems have had plenty of recent charging cycles during production, quality control and the 350 miles I've put on it in the last week while finding every excuse possible to "run an errand" ;-)

THE ISSUE:

Returning home, I turn off the car with one press of the pushbutton start. When I open the driver door, the COMAND head unit powers off, as expected. I exit the car and lock/arm it with my thumb on the door handle outer sensor, being careful not to put my hand on the inside of the handle.

The headlights turn off in a few seconds, and at this point the car is dark and quiet.

If I come back outside an hour later, without touching the car or the fob, I can hear the audio system running, and clearly see the lit COMAND display happily playing my iPod.

IT GETS WEIRDER:

At this point I can unlock and enter the vehicle, press the start button, but NOT engage a gear. To me, this sounds like a condition where the car thinks it's been running but then has lost contact with the key fob, which by definition dictates that it should immobilize as soon as it comes to a stop and not re-engage a gear. Then, if I turn off the car via the pushbutton, exit, lock via fob, unlock via fob, I can pushbutton start and engage a gear properly.

If left all night, it will drain the car battery and I'm required to use the blade key and jumper cables to get to the dealer, where they clear some low voltage codes and tell me it was just a fluke.

If I remove the Keyless Go button and use the fob, things work properly. If I remove the iPod, things (so far) seem to work properly. I've tried three iPods and they all seem to trick the car into waking up after it cons me into thinking it's gone to bed for the night.

Anyone seen this kind of behavior before or am I witnessing the plot of dozens of sci fi movies where the machines conspire to rid the earth of us humans?

WGB

I have a two year old iPod classic which I have just left in the glovebox connected all the time.

No gremlins or flat batteries that I know of yet but there seems to be more strange things that happen with the 212 than with the two 164's that preceded it but not as bad as my 2003 W211 E 320 when it was new.

Bill

Tjdehya

Do you have split folding seats? I think it might be the Trunk Monkey entering the cabin to listen to some of your tunes.

Honestly though I haven't had any problems with mine. Also FYI the iPod wont drain your batteries because it only starts charging when the door is opened. I don't know at what point it stops but is does stop charging at some time after you leave the car.

petee1997

I have the same 5th G ipod nano and it works well except it will not charge. MB keep telling me they have not found the fix. Does your ipod charge? I am presently using my old ipod and it functions well.

jrobgood71

Funny you should mention that. Yes, I did order the 60/40 rear seats!

jrobgood71

I'll verify. I'll hang the iPod out of the glovebox so I can examine without touching the car or bringing the fob near it.

jrobgood71

The iPod has maintained 100% charge for 10 days now, despite the on-device message that says it's not fully compatible with the head unit. I wonder if there was some firmware update that was rolled at the factory since mine was a special order and not sitting on the lot?

jrobgood71

UPDATE!

The iPod is not the source of the issue. The attach/detach cycles of the iPod and disappearance of the problem was only a coincidence. After a few days I have suffered the problem again while the iPod is not attached.

So to recap: With the Keyless Go button inserted, sometimes the vehicle puts itself into key position 1 (accessory mode) by itself, with the car locked and armed, requiring the blade key to force unlock the door, removal of the Keyless Go button, then one arm/disarm cycle* and start the car with the physical keyfob.

* Without performing the arm/disarm cycle, and just pulling the Keyless Go and starting with the keyfob, the car will start but it will NOT engage a gear.

mg-E550

Just an idea- maybe take a video to show the dealer? Does this always happen in the same place?

jrobgood71

LOL guess what I'm editing right now as we speak ;-)

Erratic electrical systems in glorious 1080p!

park423

Sorry no problems here, I have an old iPhone 3G attached 24/7
Now after shutting the car down (pushing the keyless go button), the engine shuts down but the electronics do not until I open my door, could there be a problem in that connection with door that is not telling the radio to shut down or start up again?

jrobgood71

No, once the system goes from position 1 to position 0 after the driver door opens, it does not and should not go from 0 to 1 until the pushbutton is pressed, or 0 to START if pressed with the foot on the brake. Those actions work as designed; it's just the phantom 0 --> 1 action that happens with no interaction while the car is supposed to be off and armed.

Arrie

Your car is working correctly. Radio or what ever is playing does not shut down when engine is killed. It shuts down when engine is OFF and door is opened.

This is a handy feature if, for example, you are talking to someone on the phone while you arrive to your destination. You don't have to keep car running to continue with your phone conversation. It gives you 15 minutes or so time before everything shuts down and I think it gives you a warning in the Comand screen befor it turns systems off saying that if you want to continue with systems powered you need to turn your key ON (or press button once without foot on pedal).

jrobgood71

That's right Arrie... and I was agreeing that what park423 describes is in fact as-designed.

Currently, we're exploring EU/NA firmware conflicts and the possibility of Bluetooth module weirdness causing undesired system wakeup.

Stay tuned!

Arrie

Sounds like you have a bad Start/Stop button?

jrobgood71

I would've thought that was the case, but the random lockouts and inability to engage a gear after start speaks of something far more entangled than that.

Hopefully we'll have some answers before 2011.

sclex

Hello,

I've got the same battery drain issue and inability to shift to R or D after starting the car in the morning.

I've also got another symptom (read below).

Car:
New (<3000 miles), 2011 E350.

Similar setup: Keyless Go in my house and not close to the car, iPod hooked up (but I have not noticed it 'playing' while I'm gone, song position remains the same as when I last used it).

Issue:
Occasionally when I come into my garage in the morning my wiper blades will be on the windshield stopped as if in the middle of a wiping cycle and I will be unable to shift to D or R after starting the car with the Keyless Go.

To 'reset' the car and get it to shift into D or R, I will have to push stop, exit the car, close the door, open the door, push start and it will act normally.

If I simply 'stop' the car and 'start' the car again (without exiting), then it will continue to not allow shifting.

This weekend, I did not drive my car and when tried on Monday morning, the wipers were on the windshield and the battery was completely drained (no lights, dashboard, clock reset, etc.). I had to jump start it and drove it straight to the dealer.

They have had the car for 2 days and have been unable to find anything wrong with it.

Hmmm..... ghost in the machine... anyone else experiencing this? Any solutions?

If anyone is interested, I've got a video to confirm this non-shifting behavior.

Thanks,

CY

jrobgood71

Did you order your car or did you buy it from US inventory? So far, my solution has been to remove the keyless-go system entirely in favor of a new unit that will be installed this week. I am told that it's a conflict between firmware across multiple systems in the car.

I would suggest that you remove the button, and if you can wait a few days, I'll let you know the result of the replacement module that should be installed in my car by this weekend.

Otherwise, like me, you'll have your car at the dealer for days on end, and you'll come away feeling like you're just doing something wrong until you push the issue and they actually witness it themselves.

sclex

Thanks for the quick reply.

I bought the car from US inventory, so I guess we could have a bit of a different configuration. That said, I'd be very interested if your problem gets resolved, so keep me posted.

The car is currently at the dealership, so maybe they'll come up with something. If you don't mind, what dealership is working on your car? I could have my tech call your tech to see if our problems are the same.

Thanks,

CY

jrobgood71

So sorry to have left you hanging. My problem persisted, but I will know more tomorrow. If all goes well I will PM you the service manager's name.

sclex

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear you still have issues.

Mine stayed at the dealer for 4 days and they were unable to reproduce the symptoms, but they reinstalled (updated?) the firmware and it has been good ever since.

The service guy wasn't there when I picked it up, so I got this info from the sales rep. No telling what they actually did, but it's been good ever since.

Camel1970

I took delivery of my ordered 2011 E350 in mid-January. It's equipped with the P2 package, Driver Assist and is a 4MATIC. I don't use an iPod with it. And have owned three E320/E350's over the last ten years (so I do know how to operate the car).

The cold morning after I took the car home, I was unable to unlock the doors using either the keyless-go or the smart key. After being able to unlock the door with the mechanical key, it took me about five minutes using the keyless-go and then the smart key and again the keyless before the car finally started.

On other occassions I have either not been able to enter the car, not been able to start it and/or not been able to put it into gear without a number of attempts.

I have had the auto into two dealers' shops at least five or six times over the last two months. Mostly they say that they are unable to duplicate the problem.

So far they have "performed software flash to SAMS", "waiting for updates from Mercedes", and "replaced EIS".

Sunday morning the car would not go into gear!!!
After several attempts and many minutes, I finally was able to drive it. I had a guest in the car, so it was embarrassing, as well.

Has anyone found a solution to similar problems!!!?

jrobgood71

Did it rain the night before the problem?

Camel1970

The problems have all occured first thing in the morning. The weather was cold (but then it is winter). I don't remember rain. Why?

Thanks!

jrobgood71

After changing out the Keyless-Go module and the EIS, most of my problems went away, until one morning after some overnight rain. I found that since I usually leave the wipers in automatic mode, something caused the system to wake up (go into accessory mode) and the presence of moisture on the windshield caused the wipers to fire up. They ran for a while and then the car shut down the electrical system to protect the battery, causing the same symptoms as you have; car locked and armed, blade key required to enter, removal of Keyless-Go button required to properly start and engage a gear.