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I have a 2014 E350 with Lane Tracking already installed. About how much $ would it require and how difficult would it be to retrofit distronic (I know it's called driving assist now, but I already have the lane tracking so I don't need the whole package/all the parts) and active parking assist? Is it something I could do on my own? Would a dealership have to do it? I have been going through EPC net and making a list of parts I'd need but it's pretty vague about some of this.
- would probably be hugely expensive (several thousand as a 'WAG').
- no accessory kit that I know of.
- a dealer would never install it (you'd need to find a willing 3rd party).
- probably would require s/w changes (not sure who could do that).
- there would be no warranty on it (except for whatever parts might have).
I cannot imagine it would be worth it to do it. If you really want it, I'd recommend just getting it in your next car.
noka is right. Prohibitively costly in my view.
Distronic says you can pay less attention and as such make you lazy in my view.
You should be focused all the time.
Distracted driving in my part of the world is the leading cause of accidents.
More toys taking your eye off the ball in my view is a problem. Sure it could save you but if it malfunctions when you need it, and they do, what is the point?
I agree on the distronic. Just paying attention to the road is a much less expensive substitute.
But the parking assist has to be doable. When I bought the car, they searched the whole country and could not find one with these options, just lane tracking. I understand supply/demand, but if Mercedes wants to advertise all these options and safety features and then only produce 3 cars that have them is kind of counter-intuitive.
I put together a partial list (It might be all of them, I don't know) from EPC Net of parts that you would need for this. I want to put the prices together and see just how bad it it is. Are there even guides on doing this? I'm pretty sure it would involve drilling out the holes in the bumpers for the sensors, adding the grille camera and new side mirrors with the side cameras, then putting the sensors into the bumpers, the control unit into the compartment (I believe with the W212 it is now under the co-driver foot area) and running the wires. The hardest part definitely seems to be running the wires. If I can't have the NEW parking assist with the cameras and all that..I'm okay with just the sensors, but that would not be OEM since OEM parktronic now includes the cameras and the active parking assist.
A 000 900 37 06 - CONTROL UNIT PARKTRONIC SYSTEM
A 212 540 32 00 - ELECTRICAL WIRING HARNESS (This looks like the sensors from the EPC diagram)
A 212 540 43 00 - ELECTRICAL WIRING HARNESS (Also looks to be sensors, front or back)
Item No. 10, 20, 80, 90 - Surround view cameras
A 025 545 32 26 - Not sure, part of diagram for parktronic
A 029 545 55 28 - HOUSING FOR LIGHT
A 001 542 46 23 - PARKTRONIC WARNING LIGHT, FRONT
A 001 542 47 23 - PARKTRONIC WARNING LIGHT, REAR
A 211 542 01 40 - BRACKET PARKTRONIC REAR DISPLAY
That must be several thousand in parts. Hardly worth it, considering what the factory option cost,... unless you have money to burn for such things... then why not?
That must be several thousand in parts. Hardly worth it, considering what the factory option cost,... unless you have money to burn for such things... then why not?
Would a dealer even try it? On a scale of 1-10, how hard is it? Also, what's the best place to get prices from?
Even if it turns out to be a no-go, I want to have the satisfaction of knowing I figured it out.
What else did you get? Did you get your color preference and other options or did you have to sacrifice certain items?
I got my color preference and every option I wanted. If I would have ordered it, I probably would have gotten leather, however I had MBTex before in my C300 and it wasn't a bad experience. Otherwise, I would have had to order it and at the time the 360 surround view camera was unavailable and they were not certain if it would be available. That was a must for me. My signature has most of the options I got, except a few like 115VAC socket, Comfort Box.
I got my color preference and every option I wanted. If I would have ordered it, I probably would have gotten leather, however I had MBTex before in my C300 and it wasn't a bad experience. Otherwise, I would have had to order it and at the time the 360 surround view camera was unavailable and they were not certain if it would be available. That was a must for me. My signature has most of the options I got, except a few like 115VAC socket, Comfort Box.
I think it is because you got the sport model. The sport models are more common than the luxury, which is what I was looking for.
Not sure why you need the active park assist. Maybe I shouldn't ask. I live in a big city and with all of the parallel parking here and cars equipped with some sort of active parking I have yet to see one car actually parking with hands off. I have Parktronic and back up camera and that is all one should need. My car has the parking assistant that will find you an appropriate parking spot and then "guide" you into it on the dash screen. I have never used it.
I guess I am showing my age but in order to get a driver's license when I was starting out at 16 you had to do 2 parallel parking tests. One on the right and one on the left (one way streets).
I remember the old man setting up garbage cans as references on the street and practicing as he increasingly made the box shorter.
Today, I occasionally mess up an attempt but 99.9% of the time I get it right.
With the rear facing camera, with the right wing mirror selected and the system set to depress the right wing mirror when in reverse I wouldn't personally find any advantage to Parktronic/Active Park Assist. When it comes to Distronic I and others agree. Just another toy to add to the inattention which as I noted earlier is THE leading cause of accidents in BC.
In my case it came with a bundle including the 360 surround view and I absolutely wanted that option. In reality, I probably won't be using active parking assist much, except to amuse myself and others.
Maybe I'm missing something but doesn't ordering allow you to exactly specify which options you want?
I mean, that's why I ordered mine (and to be able to pick it up in Stuttgart).
360 Surround View camera was put on hold (some technical issue with C and not sure about E)... and for a time the option could not be ordered on C or E class. I didn't want to take the chance that I wouldn't get it.
Steve at MBenzNL is the guy you want to talk to. Unfortunately he's been really busy since last December and barely has time to respond to my requests. I'm trying to retrofit some options onto my W212 as well. I've talked to him about Distronic Plus on to the W212 and he said he'd never do that again. The software coding, he told me, is what killed him on the W212 versus the W211 was a much more simple install. W212 era cars are harder to versioncode (basically program the car's software to make all the electronic bits work) versus the W211 which is easy to do.
I'm not trying to sway you away from doing it, especially because I'm also one that hates hearing the word no, but in instances like Distronic Plus and Pano Roof- you're much better off finding a car with those features than adding it in.
I'm looking into doing 3 zone climate control on my E and that's going to be a huge pain.
It's not that I need Active Parking Assist instead of just sensors, sensors would be just fine. It's that the OEM Parking package Mercedes sells now is the whole package, cameras and active parking assist and all that. You cannot install just the sensors as far as I know anymore after they went from Parktronic with just sensors to "Active Parking Assist." Well, you could if you chose an aftermarket solution from a 3rd party, but I don't want to use any of that 3rd party stuff. I don't wires running through the cabin either like in some of the installation videos I've watched. I want it OEM, and if the OEM Mercedes parking package is Active Parking Assist with Surround View, then so be it.
I've talked to some people about this, and for the most part, they tell me I'm crazy to try to install this.
When I bought the car, I insisted on the Parking package, and the dealer searched the whole country and could not find a luxury model WITH my other preferences, color, etc. and there are far more Sport models produced than Luxury to begin with. My current W211 I was trading in was becoming more expensive to fix then to just buy a new one, so I was a deal taker, not a deal maker. I took the closest thing they could find. Now I regret not insisting more. I'm sure they could have found it.
From looking at WIS, I have gathered this much for the retrofit. Please tell me if any of this is wrong.
1.) The front bumper is removed, the parking sensors are added through holes that need to be drilled. If you look at WIS, there is a picture in one of the documents of the inside of a bumper of a W212 that does not have Parking assist. You can see that the holes are pre-cut/perforated from the looks of it. It's kind of like a cardboard carton of orange juice where you poke the straw through, if you know what I mean. You would probably just then drill it out. Once the sensors are added, you run the wire to the passenger foot bay electronics box that's under there.
2.) Do the same thing with the back bumper, this would be harder--running the wire from the rear bumper to the passenger foot compartment. THIS is the part that scares me the most. I have no idea how to get the wire up there--WIS is pretty vague.
3.) Add the front-facing camera to the grille, and run the wire to the passenger foot well. Again, WIS is pretty vague about this, other than the basics.
4.) Replace both side view mirrors with ones outfitted with the Surround view cameras. Run the wires to the passenger foot bay electronics box. I'm sure I could figure out how to get the wire for the passenger door mirror in there, but the driver's side mirror is on the other side of the car, so that's a challenge--getting it over there and all.
5.) In the passenger foot bay, open up the electronics compartment and install the Active Parking Assist/Parktronic control unit. Plug everything in.
6.) In the cabin, install the parking LED warning light display in the ceiling in the backseat and the other one in the dashboard. (DISASTER)
7.) Version coding.
Here is an updated parts list:
There is probably a lot more to this than it would seem on the surface. I'm not even sure if all the wires go to that one location. The thing that boggles my mind is if you look in WIS they have a document on retrofitting Lane Tracking. LANE TRACKING? That sounds WAY more difficult to add than Parking assist--having to add radar and all that. If that's possible, then I would assume you can parking assist.
I just hate hearing no. Anything is possible.
Thoughts?
Last edited by Senatov; 03-21-2015 at 01:28 PM.
Reason: Typo
03-14-2015, 11:49 AM
