When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I recently purchased a 2016 E350 4matic luxury model with 48k on it. I love it and I’m learning to use the distronic plus and other driver assist stuff. My one question is that I’ve had it for almost a week and the eco start/stop hasn’t shut the engine down at all. Now I know some of you would be yelling “THATS GREAT!” but I just wanted to ask if it was so infrequent that it kicked in.
also- I’ve never had a car that could use the Mercedes Me app or MBrace. Are they worth the money?
Depends on how you drive, how often and the health of both the main and auxiliary battery.
If you have a battery maintainer, charge the main and the auxiliary (need to be done separately). Then go for a longer drive and report back. Also note the color of the LED indicator on the ECO button after you’ve been driving for a while.
Congratulations on a new ride.
As start/stop goes, I think bmwpowere36m3 is right. Drive it for a while get both batteries charged up. After sitting on the lot they might be a bit low.
Also it has been a bit chilly past few days in KY. And start/stop system does take outside temperature into account. In my case as far as I remember (I did disabled it a while back) it would take a while to start "working" in colder days.
Also, pictures are a bit confusing. Where did you get if from Carmax or James motors?
Great car! Congrats, It's a pretty rare '16 Luxury. It's an awesome ride and you will I believe enjoy it a lot! Welcome to the forum.
There are quite a few parameters for start/stop to achieve before functioning, starting with battery health, it very well may start working as it charges and as the weather warms up.
Last edited by pierrejoliat; 04-20-2021 at 12:59 PM.
I bought it at CarMax but I hated the blue and yellow plate so I replaced it with the James plate that I had on the car that I traded in so it wouldn’t have a piece of ugly plastic on the front.
I bought it at CarMax but I hated the blue and yellow plate so I replaced it with the James plate that I had on the car that I traded in so it wouldn’t have a piece of ugly plastic on the front.
I see. I would not want it either. Carmax tag color scheme definitely does not fit black E350
our 2016 Luxury arrived without any front plate holder (ok, it was in the trunk). apparently to mount it, you have to drill that pretty white (in our case) bumper, thanks but no thanks. California nominally requires a front plate, but my wife drove a volvo for 30 years without one, never got stopped for it.
after the car has sat overnight, take a digital multimeter in DC volts, and read the voltage of the main battery (you can use the jumpstart terminals), and the rear battery (lift the spare tire cover, it should be visible, if its a wagon its under another piece of carpet in the rear right corner of the spare compartment). both batteries should be around 12.6V after sitting all night and not being freezing cold when tested. the rear battery only gets charged when the main one is fully charged, and the system is running with minimal electrical load (eg, no a/c, cruising at a steady speed, probably no headlights).
also- I’ve never had a car that could use the Mercedes Me app or MBrace. Are they worth the money?
Absolutely not.
Depending upon when you car was built you may, or may not, have the built-in ability to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto using your personal phone and either one will blow the 2016 era MB stuff out of the water.
It's also possible that even if you car has the correct hardware, it may need to be activated via the OBDII port with a one-time module. There are several options, all inexpensive compared to MBrace.
And if you don't have the MB hardware you can also pretty easily install a secondary aftermarket module to provide CarPlay or Android Auto.
Last edited by cadetdrivr; 04-20-2021 at 03:28 PM.
re android auto, your 2016 *should* have the NTG 5.1 COMAND, and not the NTG 4.x that was used on earlier W212's. see the first picture here, https://pierce.smugmug.com/Misc/Hu5s1-Android-Auto/ and note the chrome strips between the rows of buttons on either side of the volume control. if you have those chrome strips, you have the right head unit.
now, you need to talk your dealer into installing the LATEST firmware on the head unit and rest of the A/V system, mine charged like $150 for this.
then, when you get the module, follow the instructions to install the 'feature'.
finally, see my album linked above, I show the various menus to enable it once its installed and how to use it. enable android auto or apple car play via the cars menus, then plug your android or iphone into USB 2 and boom, your phone's preferred media player (I use Spotify), and maps (google maps) take over the navi and media function. once its setup and enabled, just plug your phone in to the USB cord, and turn on the system, and boom. you control the phone via the main control knob on the center console, instead of your phones touch screen, and it works *great*.
my wife told me the other day, she had second thoughts about me doing this, and was afraid it would be this awful complex kludge, and instead IT JUST WORKS AND SHE LOVES IT. in NAVI mode, hold down the 'talk' button on the steering wheel, "Drive to Brothers house", and boom, you're on your way.
and yeah, skip the whole Me/MBrace nonsense, its useless expensive fluff.
Depending upon when you car was built you may, or may not, have the built-in ability to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto using your personal phone and either one will blow the 2016 era MB stuff out of the water.
It's also possible that even if you car has the correct hardware, it may need to be activated via the OBDII port with a one-time module. There are several options, all inexpensive compared to MBrace.
And if you don't have the MB hardware you can also pretty easily install a secondary aftermarket module to provide CarPlay or Android Auto.
this is what mine looks like. What do I need to do to get Apple CarPlay?
exactly what I said in post #9 above, and yes, thats the right NTG 5.x version. you need to 1) get Mercedes dealer to install latest firmware via XEntry, 2) get and activate the dongle from Vladimir, 3) follow my visual instructions on using it, but substitute the 'carplay' choice instead of the 'android auto' choice....
this is what mine looks like. What do I need to do to get Apple CarPlay?
Follow Left Coast Geek's directions.
However, you may also want to check if a previous owner already did this. I say that because it's possible that your eco start/stop may have been disabled by similar OBDII dongle update. It's not too far fetched to suspect that an owner that knew about the eco start/stop hack would also know about CarPlay activation.
the Eco hack leaves the eco button off if it was off when you shut off the car, and leaves it on if the car was shut off when ECO was on. if the eco button light is lit, and its not stopping, check the aux battery.
to see if you have car play, press 'TEL' on the dash, then click 'up' with the big knob, select TEL/(globe) on the top bar, tap the button, turn the knob and see if there's a Apple Car Play and an Android Auto selection. choose Car Play, tap the button, and plug your phone into USB 2, and see if it works.
these do NOT do wireless CarPlay, that feature didn't exist from Apple until several years after these cars were made.
There are many constraints built in the ECO functionality. The main one being that the two on-board batteries are proven able to support an ECO cycle:
engine OFF
consumers ON from Main AGM
100Amp restart while AUX feeds Consumers
ECO *never* turning green is a sign of growing issues with the charging components... The ECU won't allow an ECO cycle if it assumes battery can't restart.
I wouldn't waste a bundle fixing ECO because a new battery set may be short lived and the high engine heat, low oil pressure condition it helps create... 🤣
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; 04-21-2021 at 07:31 PM.
I was interested with Mercedes Me for remote start, but even they don't say it in the add, the telephone call confirmed the option started in 2015, so my 2014 can't have it. It might be worth the big money to some, like me leaving car on 120F parking lot and having dogs.
Malone make the hardware for it for $900.
When it comes to ECO, I read that most of owners hate it.
I love it for a change as I spend lot of time waiting at red lights and when the ECO is not available, I am getting annoyed with vibration and noise.
The system can have up to 12 parameters who dictate its engaging or not, so when batteries are most common issue, there is more to it.
E350 Sport, in looking closer at your pictures, I notice a set of foglight assemblies in the lower bumper cover. Do you know if those are OEM factory items (listed in your build sheet), or aftermarket?
EDIT: In looking at the only other LUX 2016 I've seen here, I notice this one also has the foglight assemblies... Hmmmmmm...
re android auto, your 2016 *should* have the NTG 5.1 COMAND, and not the NTG 4.x that was used on earlier W212's. see the first picture here, https://pierce.smugmug.com/Misc/Hu5s1-Android-Auto/ and note the chrome strips between the rows of buttons on either side of the volume control. if you have those chrome strips, you have the right head unit.
now, you need to talk your dealer into installing the LATEST firmware on the head unit and rest of the A/V system, mine charged like $150 for this.
then, when you get the module, follow the instructions to install the 'feature'.
finally, see my album linked above, I show the various menus to enable it once its installed and how to use it. enable android auto or apple car play via the cars menus, then plug your android or iphone into USB 2 and boom, your phone's preferred media player (I use Spotify), and maps (google maps) take over the navi and media function. once its setup and enabled, just plug your phone in to the USB cord, and turn on the system, and boom. you control the phone via the main control knob on the center console, instead of your phones touch screen, and it works *great*.
my wife told me the other day, she had second thoughts about me doing this, and was afraid it would be this awful complex kludge, and instead IT JUST WORKS AND SHE LOVES IT. in NAVI mode, hold down the 'talk' button on the steering wheel, "Drive to Brothers house", and boom, you're on your way.
and yeah, skip the whole Me/MBrace nonsense, its useless expensive fluff.
I just got back from the local MB dealer and I spoke with the guy who is charge of repairing Comand units and infotainment centers (the father of a former student so I trust him). He went through all the TSBs for my year car related to comand and said he couldn’t find anything related to a firmware update. He told me that he’d heard about the modules that you can buy to add the Apple CarPlay but he said (direct quote) “I’ve never heard of a firmware update or been asked to do one for your model or year. Maybe yours is already updated and you just need the module. I know that we had a lot of cars in lately that have the Comand units hacked and different software on them but I just don’t know how you would go about doing it”.
I just got back from the local MB dealer and I spoke with the guy who is charge of repairing Comand units and infotainment centers (the father of a former student so I trust him). He went through all the TSBs for my year car related to comand and said he couldn’t find anything related to a firmware update. He told me that he’d heard about the modules that you can buy to add the Apple CarPlay but he said (direct quote) “I’ve never heard of a firmware update or been asked to do one for your model or year. Maybe yours is already updated and you just need the module. I know that we had a lot of cars in lately that have the Comand units hacked and different software on them but I just don’t know how you would go about doing it”.
opinions?
go to that ebay listing, and use 'contact seller' and send Vlad your VIN, and he can verify if you have hte correct "flashware" (thats what Mercedes calls their firmware). my 2016 was a late production version and fairly well optioned for a 'luxury' (panoramic roof, etc) but did NOT have the right firmware in the head unit or command module.
tell your dealer that you are having issues with erratic bluetooth connections (the phone will link and make/answer calls but sometimes media just won't play) and USB stick based media playing, that sometimes it works fine, other times it just doesn't work, and ask them to run the firmware updates, they'll charge about 1 hour labor because itss a fairly complicated process. there's no explicit TSB for this, and Mercedes doesn't support CarPlay/Android on these cars even though the hardware is capable (the 2016's have the same head unit as the 2017+ W213 cars for which CarPlay WAS a factory option... Vlad's dongle turns on this option IF you have the right firmware).
Last edited by Left Coast Geek; 04-22-2021 at 01:52 PM.
Mine had High_CY15_9 per my indie's Xentry scanner, and that was NOT sufficient, Vlad did give me the list of specific stuff it needed but it was a ton of long numbers only visible in XEntry, and I don't have it handy. The Indy can scan stuff but not do updates.
ah....
your current COMAND SW numbers are:
1769022401+2129025611+2129025910
the latest version are:
1769027702+2129026011+2129025910
so in my case, one of the three modules involved DID have the right version, but the other two didn't.
do note, he's a little terse in emails with folks who try and argue with him about versions (GUILTY AS CHARGED!). after he sent me the above bits, I apologized, and then we moved forward.
he also sent me this example of the internal MBZ database for someone else's car before and after the update.
I just heard back from Vlad. After saying clearly on his eBay page to send your vin number before ordering he messaged back basically saying I was an idiot and telling me to read the eBay page. He was insufferably rude.
Screw it. I don’t need that kind of crap from anyone, least of all someone selling things. I’m going to get MBRACE and use it. I just don’t need that hassle from “Vlad”.
E350 Sport, in looking closer at your pictures, I notice a set of foglight assemblies in the lower bumper cover. Do you know if those are OEM factory items (listed in your build sheet), or aftermarket?
EDIT: In looking at the only other LUX 2016 I've seen here, I notice this one also has the foglight assemblies... Hmmmmmm...
hmm? those aren't fog lamps, just a chrome trim strip in a dark textured insert.
excuse the bugs. its gonna rain in a day or so so I'm not washing it
04-20-2021, 11:09 AM
