El Cid

Look at what they did for you under warranty and loaners are totally up to the dealership to offer or not. COMAND updates generally are NOT considered warranty related. They could have dont that to you.
Not a "stealerhip!"
BTW, highly unlikely an indie would have been able to diagnose the problem and definitely would have not repaired it without a huge charge.

Johnny Rad

Yes, I'm grateful for my s/dealer's effort on my behalf. Yes, I fully intend to frequent my s/dealer for the duration of my warranty and potentially beyond depending upon how the relationship goes. I treat them well and hope they'll treat me well in kind.

With respect to experiencing a Command error while under warranty, that's warranty in my book. All day, every day. Not saying that it'd get me anywhere, but I'd be furious w/Merc and the s/dealer if it wasn't covered. Is it truly excluded?!

Fair point about an Indie's somewhat limited capabilities I suppose, but a dealer will also be a stealer to me. Indies remain a valid deterrent to s/dealers acting up too much.

P.S. My comment about the loaner was tongue-in-cheek given the other lengthy post here. As we all know, sarcasm doesn't often convey digitally.

Johnny Rad

I intended to replace my OEM set of A/S P-Zeros just before winter, but frustratingly picked up a screw in the side wall ... enter my new set of non-staggered A/S Conty PureContacts w/ECO Tech. Here's a recent W212 thread on "new tires" where I posted my initial review (<500mi). In short, they're off to a good start.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ml#post6438415

Johnny Rad

Pano Popping Update: Just had my pano roof serviced for a second time. The popping noises went away for a few months, but came back. The stealer attempted the same repair again and here's hoping that it's a more-lasting remedy this time.

Pano Won't Close Update: I've concluded that my pano won't close properly when the car sits outside in hot weather with the sun beating down on it for awhile. I have to coax it closed by holding the close button in these instances. All (most?) other times it operates as designed. I'm kinda over it now that I better understand when it happens, but how could heat (or something similar) contribute to a mixed up pano roof?!

Arrie

Heat expands the rubber seals around the moving glass so it puts more friction between the seal and the opening when it tries to seat down.

Johnny Rad

THANKS to the solid info on our forum (and a sister forum? http://www.mercedescla.org/forum/62-...r-install.html), I successfully swapped my steering wheel trim today for a new, OEM piece of AMG-badged trim (Merc p/n A0994642313). Please leave your "it's not an AMG" argument at the door. All in all, it was a simple and straightforward job and I'm no Alois Ruf or Jonathan Ward.

The original trim was beginning to peel / bubble on the edges making for annoying sharp edges. Plus the little black "airbag" doohickey at the bottom of the wheel squeaked when you'd bang it ("that's what she said").
As cnolke posted (and I think someone else, but I can't find that thread now), the most complicated part of the job is getting the airbag assembly unclipped, which requires blindly pushing two retaining clips with allen wrenches or similar. It took a lot of fooling around with little to no progress - kinda like your first time - until the airbag magically popped off.

Johnny Rad

In the interest of putting the tweaks to my car in a single place, I really like my EU-spec aspherical side view mirrors that replaced my NA-spec mirrors. It took about a week to train my eyes to stop going cross-eyed and my brain from freaking out, but that's all behind me now and I'm not going back to flat mirrors. The install was simple and the benefits are easy to see.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ror-glass.html

Johnny Rad

This summer I also tossed my bland Keyless GO button for a carbon faced button from Eddie @ kallegamento@gmail.com

I vacillated between red and black before eventually choosing the black one. I also had it made without the AMG script, so some level of customization is available.

It's been nothing by unicorns and rainbows. In my experience, they’re top-quality and built on an OEM Merc Keyless Go button. I can happily confirm they’re plug and play with my W212 … simply pop out your boring silver button and put Eddie’s custom carbon button in its place.

Johnny Rad

Finally did a little debadging on my car.

Getting rid of the silly BlueEfficiency badging on the front quarters was on my radar from day one. Just never made it a priority until a cousin asked me if my car was a diesel - ugh! Two weeks later it was gone and it looks great. No residue. No nothing fortunately.

I also intended to debadge my rear deck lid, but got cold feet. I wondered what a future buyer would think - was my car wrecked, vandalized, repainted, etc. I'll also admit to a wee bit of pride on the "550" badging since the 350 and 550 are visually indistinguishable.

Johnny Rad

Hi, All. I need your expert help with wheels...

My wheelset was banged-up before I dented a lip last week, grr.

As you know, the 2012 E550 is a square set-up (18x8.5 +48 with 245x40x18 tires). I intend to stick with stock tire size.

I see three wheel options and am leaning to option 3 (replicas):
1. R&R existing OEM wheels. Refinishing appears to be about same or slightly more than new replicas, but I'm not excited to open a potential can of worms only to find that some or all of my rims can't be saved.
2. Buy new OEM replacement wheels (I'm against buying refurbs). OEM isn't cheap and I know firsthand they're not bulletproof, so I don't like this idea.
3. Buy replica wheels. Which replica mfg's are more trustworthy and higher-quality than others? Who do you like and who do I skip?

Offset question - Can I safely go from my square +48 wheelset to a square +35 wheelset running the same tires? In other words, going from "18x8.5 +48 running 245x40x18 tires" to a "18x8.5 +35 running 245x40x18 tires?" Online wheel calculators show the +35 wheelset will stick out ~0.51" versus my stock set.

cetialpha5

Well you're pulling up an old thread to answer a few questions, aren't the 18 inch rims using 245/40/18 not 45 series tires? Refinishing around here is around $100+ per rim. I've had mixed results with refurb/replica. One thought was that OEM was better than replica rims so when I had some cracked rims, I went with refurbs instead of replicas. Then those refurbs cracked. So the next time I got replicas. Jury is still out, may be the same, had refurbs for about 2 years, only had the replicas for about a year now so they may also crack just like refurbs. So they might be the same thing. The price might dictate your choice. Refurb might be more than replicas, depends on the type of rim. For me, that was on my W211 and the rims there are cheaper than the W212. I think any style on the W212 is at least over $200 a rim whereas getting them cleaned up is much cheaper. When I can buy a brand new looking rim for about $150, there's no point paying about $100 to redo a rim. But if they're $200+ a rim, you might think of just getting them cleaned up.

Johnny Rad

Yeah, this is “my” original thread.

Yeah, I think 245/40/18 is correct. My bad.

I think factory W212 sport wheels are >$500/ea.

Can I legitimately go with 35 offset rather than stock 48?