Strange Electrical?




Both times, I pulled over, turned off car, waited a minute and restarted and system worked fine since.
Made a stop and pressed button on Smartkey to lock doors. Didn't work. Tried it several times. Used the manual key, went into a store, came out and tried Smartkey to open it. No luck. Drove to next destination and Smartkey working fine and has continued to. Used it several times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Battery in Smartkey is about 3-4 months old. The Smartkey battery check per manual shows good.
This week-end did a lot of driving with cruise on and set, but disengaging by slowing down and then resuming. No problems.
Today drove over 125 miles with cruise on and no problem even though slowing down and resuming cruise. I did stop once for about 10 minutes after an hour or so.
Parked car in garage about 1:00PM and locked it with Smart Key. Went out through garage several times today and car just sitting there. About 8:30PM, my wife was in garage and noted right rear light and central (total mileage) display in instrument cluster were on. When I went out, rear brake wasn't on, but display was. Got in and started car (with garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. Right high beam light was blinking off and on. Turned car off and light continued to blink. Started it again and turned headlights on with the switch and turned on high beams. Then turned lights off and they all went off. Turned car off and everything is off as normal.
UPDATE!Checked car at 10:00PM. No lights on, but then central display light came on and I walked to hood and heard a "fan" type noise from under hood. Noise stopped and light went out. Used Smartkey to open and lock car. Everything normal. After a few minutes, fan noise started and ran a couple of minutes and then stopped. Display on while fan on.
High today was 97 when on road and is still 87 in garage per car temp display.
Understand there is an automatic fan of some type? But, I have never heard it before. Maybe just never noticed it.
Probably not related, but guy next door started grilling earlier and really filled air with smoke and odor. Smoke smell still fairly heavy.
Will call MB dealer, but any body got a thought on what is causing these problems????
Car Battery is not 2 years old. 2010 with less than 20,000 miles on it.
Thanks for any advice.
Last edited by El Cid; Jun 21, 2015 at 10:21 PM.




Both times, I pulled over, turned off car, waited a minute and restarted and system worked fine since.
Made a stop and pressed button on Smartkey to lock doors. Didn't work. Tried it several times. Used the manual key, went into a store, came out and tried Smartkey to open it. No luck. Drove to next destination and Smartkey working fine and has continued to. Used it several times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Battery in Smartkey is about 3-4 months old. The Smartkey battery check per manual shows good.
This week-end did a lot of driving with cruise on and set, but disengaging by slowing down and then resuming. No problems.
Today drove over 125 miles with cruise on and no problem even though slowing down and resuming cruise. I did stop once for about 10 minutes after an hour or so.
Parked car in garage about 1:00PM and locked it with Smart Key. Went out through garage several times today and car just sitting there. About 8:30PM, my wife was in garage and noted right rear light and central (total mileage) display in instrument cluster were on. When I went out, rear brake wasn't on, but display was. Got in and started car (with garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. Right high beam light was blinking off and on. Turned car off and light continued to blink. Started it again and turned headlights on with the switch and turned on high beams. Then turned lights off and they all went off. Turned car off and everything is off as normal.
UPDATE!Checked car at 10:00PM. No lights on, but then central display light came on and I walked to hood and heard a "fan" type noise from under hood. Noise stopped and light went out. Used Smartkey to open and lock car. Everything normal. After a few minutes, fan noise started and ran a couple of minutes and then stopped. Display on while fan on.
High today was 97 when on road and is still 87 in garage per car temp display.
Understand there is an automatic fan of some type? But, I have never heard it before. Maybe just never noticed it.
Probably not related, but guy next door started grilling earlier and really filled air with smoke and odor. Smoke smell still fairly heavy.
Will call MB dealer, but any body got a thought on what is causing these problems????
Car Battery is not 2 years old. 2010 with less than 20,000 miles on it.
Thanks for any advice.
Next time it happens take a video of the high beam light blinking as there should be no moment that the high beam blinks on one side only. You will need the video as when you take the car to MB service they need to be able to reproduce the problem before they can do anything. If your car is out of warranty they will be clad to diagnose it for money though.
If one rear light is ON and/or one high beam light in front blinks there definitely is something wrong with the car.




In the meantime, I would add some holy water to the windshield washer fluid reservoir.
I seem to recall that the light switch position indicator had been moved. I think the valet had either not turned the car ignition all the way off and/or then tried to turn the lights off, but that won't work with the lights on set to 'auto' and the car still turned on (in a dark parking garage).
I agree that I would see about recording the behavior if you can, otherwise, I would suggest try fully turning off the lights by setting the switch to '0' (off) and turning off 'auto' lights in the console....
As KEY08 said, the fan noise is normal.




I seem to recall that the light switch position indicator had been moved. I think the valet had either not turned the car ignition all the way off and/or then tried to turn the lights off, but that won't work with the lights on set to 'auto' and the car still turned on (in a dark parking garage).
I agree that I would see about recording the behavior if you can, otherwise, I would suggest try fully turning off the lights by setting the switch to '0' (off) and turning off 'auto' lights in the console....
As KEY08 said, the fan noise is normal.
I assume the central instrument display comes on when the evaporator fan comes on?
Things still running normally now so just observing to see if repeats.
Thanks for your input.
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More troubling, head and taillight of car were on again. Narrowed it down and after reading several sections of the Op. Man., concluded they were the right side parking/standing lights. Forgot I had them and the bulbs are in with the high beam lights.
Have never used the parking lights at all, much less the left vs. right.
Still do not know why they should have come on as car was locked. Smartkey was in house about 25 feet from the car.
Will contact dealer, but trying to get as much info. as possible.
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DVD also has one on it for early Toyota pick-up which called it the Frankentruck.




Went out and checked it, there was a lot of something white between moonroof and windshield. Cleaned it off with no problem, but what was it?
There is a partial loft above parking area and I looked up. There was a dirt dobber nest on one of support posts for the loft. Under it was a white area where one had been. Must have fallen when garage door closed.


