Joe Alonso

So, two days ago my screen went blank and I could not turn on the radio, navigation, etc. It's like if COMAND went out of business. The screen does show my rear camera when I put the car in reverse, but that's about it.

I checked the fuse, and it was not blown. Before I call the dealership and brace myself for the financial headaches, any one else had a similar scenario and found a fix for it?

Mine is a 2016 W212, low miles (26k), so I know it's not been beaten to death. Would love your opinions and thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

LILBENZ230

Are you on the original battery?

COMAND is one of the things the car will shut down during low voltage situations. If you haven't changed/checked the battery recently, I would start there.

Joe Alonso

Yes, I would imagine it's the same battery. I bought the car Nov 2019 and the seller was the original owner who seldom drove it. I will definitely check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

LILBENZ230

I would bet that's your issue. COMAND failures are not common at all. As a matter of fact, most W212 electrical gremlins turn out to be due to dying batteries.

Joe Alonso

Man, I hope you're right. I was getting nervous ($$$$).. Will check out the battery tomorrow at my local auto store. Thanks again!!

Joe Alonso

Let's say it's the battery,.. is there a recommendation for a battery for our car that's not from the dealership?

LILBENZ230

I am not sure if it is H6 or H8 AGM.. but it is definitely AGM. Ours was replaced at the dealer and we haven't had to touch it yet. Hopefully someone else can answer on correct sizing.

DFWdude

Have you held down the Comand button for 20 secs or so to see if it resets? Even if you get a new battery or fully charge the old one, you may need to perform the reset.

Left Coast Geek

my favorite H8 (group 49) style batteries are from East Penn aka Deka The Deka Ultimate H8 is an exact fit AGM batt.

bmwpowere36m3

Champion AGM from Pepboys gets good marks from the folks on BITOG, especially when they run their 25% off promo.

Left Coast Geek

that looks suspiciously like a rebranded East Penn / Deka Ultimate :-)

DubVBenz

I've had this happen once or twice in my 2015 (different command version). It didn't persist after a restart, so I'm hopeful it was just a glitch.

cetialpha5

Champion is JCI/Clarios. They're also the same makers of the Varta battery which was OEM for Mercedes. If the car hasn't been driven much, you could always throw the battery on a charger. Most auto parts stores will charge up the battery for you. You could also do a load test on it to see if it's still good.

nota_amg

My E550 has an H6 battery, I've had good luck with the factory batteries, but only having a 2 year replacement kinda sucks. My H8 I bought just over 2 years ago for my R before it was totaled. I charged it and load tested it and it tested fine. Put it in the E and started the car, no problem. Turned it off and tried to re-start...stone cold dead. Made me a little sick to my stomach. Oh well...

cetialpha5

There's only about 3 makers of batteries in the country. Most brands are just relabeled batteries. The Champion is basically the same battery as the factory one as it's the same maker. Pepboys sells it and it has a 4 year warranty instead of the two from Mercedes.

Left Coast Geek

those three primary domestic makers of lead acid car batteries are...

Johnson Controls, East Penn, and Exide.

Exide sells the vast majority of its batteries with house brands. Exide has been involved in endless controversies over toxic dumping, executive malfeasance, labor malpractices, etc., and I will go quite far out of my way to avoid dealing with any Exide product.

per friends in the battery industry, East Penn runs a tight ship and clean operation, JCI is OK too.

cetialpha5

Basically most AGM batteries out there are JC/Clarious. (JCI sold their division to Clarios) The only Exide AGM battery I know of is Bosch. They just relabeling their batteries. And the Exide has a bad reputation. East Penn is also good but they seem to be smaller so you don't see their batteries around as often. Autozone, Advance Auto is also JCI/Clarios but they just have regular 3 year warranties.

kcjois

Same here, only 360 degree camera and Mercedes logo is displayed. my dealer says that i need to replace with a new one. Not able to find any solutions.