E43uk

hopefully they'll sort it....let me know if the zones option works for you.

Guess80

Picked up my 2018 E300 on a European delivery a couple of weeks ago. The upper ambient lights worked the first day. After that, every time I entered the car the upper lights did not come on. Had to fiddle with the brightness setting every time to get the upper lights to come on.

Car is currently in shipment to US. Dealer has been notified of the issue. Will be December before car is delivered here. Hopefully software update is in by then.

I also had the illuminated doors sills installed on this car. When the doors are opened they flash bright and then go dim, so dim they don’t even look like they are on. Spent two extra hours at the delivery center in Sindelfingen and they kept saying the lights were supposed to be like that. What??? All the other cars picked up that day had bright door sill lights. Hopefully this gets cleared up before final delivery.

BeachBunny

Just took delivery of my '18 E300 last night... Yesterday everything worked fine. This afternoon, everything fine. Tonight, top strip all the way around the car doesn't illuminate. Tried shutting off the car, restarting, nada. Tried messing around with the lighting controls and got it to work... until we shut the car off again and then it stopped working again.

How does a bug like this make it past QA? Doesn't anyone test this stuff?

E43uk

As promised by MB the software update to fix the problem is now available...my car is booked in for this Thursday...fingers crossed all will now be sorted.

Suggest all that have the issue get in touch with their dealership.

NFAREVIEW

Yet Beach Bunny's car just got off a ship from the factory and the update wasn't done? FAIL

E43uk

ua549

Is the US version of the software update is available? The US is often last to receive updates thanks to MBUSA.

bellavance

In my 2018 E300, ambient lighting is dimmer in the center of the dash. Is this normal?

Briandavid

Hi All my brand new 2018 E300 is having the exact same issue. The console ambient lights do not come on automatically. I need to go into the menu to turn them on myself every time i start car. This is a brand new car delivered 2 weeks ago not even 200 miles on it. So annoying. Clearly they havent fixed this since the 2017 model year!!!

ua549

Even on full brightness many of the colors are not visible during daylight.
I originally thought I had the same issue until I set the color to bright blue.

Briandavid

ua549

Take it for service.

konigstiger

Service Campaign and additional bulletin released for 2018 ambient light malfunctions, see attachments.

BeachBunny

I'm not sure what good that will do -- I took mine in last month for it. Dealership: "Unable to duplicate problem, no error codes found." Even though for me it's about 85% of the time that the Welcome Lighting fails and subsequently the ambient lighting fails. They said my car's VIN wasn't part of the service campaign. So, in typical Mercedes fashion, no matter how much evidence you have (I have 40+ videos of it occurring), unless the magic computer throws up an error code, nothing's wrong with the car.

THIS is by far my biggest complaint and frustration with Mercedes-Benz corporate. The dealerships aren't allowed to work on something unless there's an error code. Drove me absolutely nuts with my lemon W212. The car is a computer + electronics. Intermittent glitches WILL happen and will be very difficult to replicate. I've long wished they'd let the dealerships work through problems using the schematics, but that's not the way it works. Unless there's an error code, MBUSA won't pay a single $ to repair the car.

BTW, Tapping the AC temperature control up or down will remedy it...

BUT this sort of crap should have been caught by QA. It's not exactly a confidence booster in the product.

Todd522

Hello! I'm so happy I found you all. I purchased a new 2018 E300 4matic last month. From day 1 I have also had some strange issues with the ambient lighting. Just as many of you stated... when the lighting mysteriously disappears... I can reactivate it by going into the settings and just clicking the multi color button off and then on again or messing around with it in general.

I know this will sound like a run-on sentence probably because it is but please try to read and understand it .

Now in my situation... I notice that if I do this reactivation it stays on for days. And...As long as I am the only person to enter or exit the car through the drivers door (locked or unlocked) and... (even if I have a passenger but I unlocked the car from my side and I hit the start button)... it remains lit just the way I like it. However...If I show the car to a friend and let them enter the driver side and I'm entering from the passenger side to unlock the doors... when my guest gets in the drivers seat and hits the start button the lights are out again! I reset them from the passenger seat while we sit there and then we turn off the car, stay in our positions, open the doors and shut them...restart and it's out again! But if we both get out and I lock the car... when I go around to the drivers side and open the door myself... start the car... activate the lights back on through the system again, get them lit, and exit with the car off... lock the doors... return through the drivers side and start they are on again! And they stay lit for me! So... What do you think this means??? It seems E43uk is really investigating this... Any ideas. I'm going to call the dealer tomorrow as I can replicate this easily but... Is it possible that the car remembers me as the driver with the settings I like and when a stranger opens and starts the car it goes dark??? That seems a little creepy but possible. As advanced as this car is does the car know my touch? I don't want to sound crazy and I don't want to have them rip anything apart and I don't want to make the problem worse with software stuff.

My car's production date is November 9, 2017. Do you think I need that December -> update? This sounds very similar to many of your same comments... Any shared story of how they fixed this... what I should do... or if I should leave it alone... let me know please! I don't want to bug the mechanics if this is a ghost problem that has no real solution. THANKS THANKS THANKS

ua549

Check the profiles. There should be one for you and one for Guest.

BeachBunny

Todd -- PM me your VIN # and I'll pass it along to MB Tech Services to add to the case file along with mine. My car's currently at the dealership for this problem. FWIW, my car's production date is very close to yours, if not identical.

I spent some time with the dealership's best tech last week and we kept working over the car until we were finally able to duplicate it with damn-near 100% accuracy.

To make it happen 100% of the time:
In the Ambient settings (I'm doing this from memory):
Multi-brightness OFF
Multi-color: OFF
Welcome Lighting: ON
Climate Lighting: ON
Brightness 100%
Color: 34 (not sure if this matters, but it's the easiest to see in the daylight)

COVER the light sensor on the windshield. (IMPORTANT!) I used my mobile phone's rubber back in the service drive.

Start the car. Let everything boot up (give it about 30-60 seconds). Shut the car off, open the driver's door. Whatever you do, DO NOT lock the car. After awhile, the colored ambient lighting will turn off, only leaving the door handles and footwells illuminated in white. At this point, feel free to close the door and lock the car.

Unlock the car, and if everything failed as it should, only the door handles and footwells will be illuminated. Start the car and only the door handles and footwells will be illuminated, but in Color 34 -- blue.

If you have the same settings I have above, you can get the lighting back by simply tapping the AC temperature control warmer/cooler; much easier than having to root around the menus for the option.

To make the problem happen less:
Enable Multi-zone brightness, adjust each zone to a different brightness, and don't use 100% brightness for any one zone
DISable Welcome Lighting.

Todd522

BeachBunny... I sent you the VIN PM. I saw that PM message before this one.Thanks for the details and the procedure to follow. I just read how to test this your way. I will do this. I will also have my best MB mechanic on this. They were puzzled today when I explained the situation, but they remembered that it kept going out the day I bought it... so they know I'm not playing a game with them. Of course, I couldn't make it happen while I was there Hopefully between the two of us and perhaps the other people on the forum... we can find the cure! Stay in touch.

seanthephd

Hi all. I have the same issue as the very first message on this thread: " I find that the ambient lighting across the dashboard does not always come on. The footwells and door handles do...". Dealership told me that there will be a software update in December that will solve this problem. That update is mentioned in this thread as well. I called last week, no update was available. Did anybody get the update yet, in other parts of the world maybe? Was anybody successful in solving the problem?

Chadmum23

BeachBunny

Ironically... My car's in the shop again for something unrelated...and the loaner (9/18 mfg date) has this exact problem. P1 / AMG-trim car, so it's not just the P3 models which have it.

@seanthephd: They updated my car's software in March and that has 100% fixed the issue.

@Chadmum23: UNcheck Welcome Lighting in the Ambient Lighting control panel, and I believe it will take care of that for you.

seanthephd

@beachbunny: Thanks. I see that you are in FL. I am as well. All the dealerships in my area (Ft Lauderdale) are Autonation dealerships and they are terrible. What area are you in? Do you know who your dealership belongs to?

BeachBunny

I have a similar distaste for Asbury-owned dealerships after the crap I went through with my '15 E350.

Currently using MB of Bonita Springs (north Naples), which is a Terry Taylor / AMSI dealership. They also own the Naples, FL MB location as well. If you wanted to bring your car over here to either dealership, drop me a PM. After going through the abortion that was my E350, I'm well-familiar with their service department and they treat me quite well.

dudley07726

LAC300

Isn't that just the welcome lighting option?