jumpman726

My 2012 E-class is out of warranty and my highbeam assist stopped working. An error message in the dash pops up when I try to activate it.

The manual just says to take it to a dealer to have it looked at. I'm just wondering if anyone here has had this problem or knows what the solution might be.

thefisch

I assume you have tried disabling and then re-enabling. Have you cleaned the windshield where the sensor is at the top? Any problems with your headlights? I had that error message but the bigger issue with my driver's side headlight assembly was not working properly. Error message would pop up within a minute of starting and then low beam would go out.

jumpman726

Yes, I've cleaned the windshield and I've turned the lever on and off. After I put the lever in the ON position for the second time the high beams stay on until I put the lever in the OFF position, but the assist won't work. My headlights seem to be fine.

thefisch

Well since your low beams work fine, then your issue is different than mine. You should try going into vehicle settings, lights in the center cluster and turn off the adaptive feature there and then back on and see if that helps. The settings enable the feature whereas the stalk position engages it.

jumpman726

*UPDATE* Good news

My highbeam assist (and a couple of other assists) haven't worked since I posted this thread. I got the exterior of my car professionally waxed and detailed a few days ago. Today when I activated the highbeam lever I didn't get an error message. It's working again!

I have to assume that the windshield area by the camera was dirty or blurry causing the highbeam assist to throw an error message. It's strange, because I regularly clean my windshield with Rain-X and a regular window cleaner. Maybe the Rain-X was the problem. Anyway, they did an amazing job detailing the car. It had been about 5 years since I had the car waxed and detailed. The windshield is super smooth now and the wipers don't even chatter after I had the detail done.

thefisch

Thanks for coming back to update. Now you know what to do if this happens again. Strange thing is that with all the construction nearby my windshield can get pretty dirty and yet that hasn't caused an issue yet.

jumpman726

UPDATE #2 BAD NEWS

I tried to activate the highbeam assist the other night and I got the same error message from my first post that said it was inoperable. Seems like an intermittent malfunction. Might need a software update.

Abrown3mtg

I had a ballast fail in my car. This happened prior to it completely dying. I had an intermittent issue with the driver's side headlight not operating that popped up after the assist ceasing to work. I replaced the bulb first and then the ballast.

al300sd

Mine does a lot in the rain. Probably does not help your situation.

Magicman09

Mine throws that error in heavy rain or heavy snow..

My guess is that there is something smudged over the sensor section. There could be wax on there or something else that to the naked eye appears clean, however it distorts the light coming in enough to give off an error.

That or.... It might be a faulty sensor... If that's the problem, I feel bad for you, because knowing Mercedes, the only way to fix it will be to rip off the windshield.

cc16177

I had this error and had to have the whole headlight assembly replaced. Fortunately I was under warranty...