Alan0354

I have the 2018 E300, The radio station switch by itself intermittently within the preset stations.

We have 3 preset stations, AM560, AM650 and FM96.5. We can be on any one of the station, and the car will randomly switch the station to another station in the preset by itself without touching anything. This is regardless we are in HD satellite enable or disable.

Anyone has the same problem and how do you resolve this?

Thanks

Alan0354

Also, is there any indication on the screen that we touch the touch pad at the center arm rest area? The service dept claims he can see on the screen that we touch the touch pad. I watch the video we taped when the station changed, I did not see any sign or indication on the screen that we touch the touch pad.

ua549

I had the same issue. Software updates during the first service in September cured it.

Alan0354

We have problem dealing with Mercedes of Stephens Creek in San Jose. they keep changing their stories. First they said they didn't see the problem in the computer, so they kicked it back to us. Second time, they up graded the software but it did not help. We went back and fore, we then agree to let them drive the car a few days to see whether they can duplicate the problem, but they claimed they didn't see the problem. So finally we started video taping the problem, spending hours to catch the problem, we caught a few. We brought the car back.

At first, they didn't even want to accept the DVD disc, it was until we talked to the manager before they took the disc. then they came back and claimed we had the HD satellite enable, the station will switch if the signal is weak. They advice us to disable the HD satellite radio and go with just FM and AM. We took the car back and video taped the same problem with HD satellite disable. It still changed.

So we brought the car back and with the DVD. Now the foreman telling us that the touch pad in the middle arm rest has been touched to cause the station to change. He claimed it showed on the screen in the video that the touch pad had been touch to cause the problem. We did not touch the touch pad, we were very careful not to touch anything. In fact, I watched all the videos, I don't see any change in the screen right before the radio switched, there is no indication on the screen the touch pad has been touched. That's why I want to know where to look on the screen that show the touch pad has been touched.

Now we are in a stand still.

ua549

It's time for you to go to a different dealer's service department. FWIW my dealer is never argumentative. My first service took 4 days instead of one. I had a GLE loaner. The shop foreman, who I've dealt with for almost 40 years, elected to keep the car until he could reproduce and repair all the items on my squawk list. Most of the items were transient software items such as the entertainment system. There is only one item that wasn't fixed - nav saying an entry from the address book isn't complete when it actually is. No one can figure out what the nav system really wants. They updated all of the software in the car including engine, transmission, COMAND, ...

Alan0354

I am at the process in complaining to Mercedes, at the same time writing to the manager of the service dept. I saw another thread here that the person keep accidentally touching the touch pad. We make absolutely sure NOTHING is touching or rubbing the center area. It still happened. The problem is the foreman of the service department, he refuses to do anything, another thing is we never got our garage door opener working. The foreman keep saying that our garage remote doesn't match the car, that if I buy the original Craftsman remote, it will work. Problem is they don't sell the original Craftsman remote anymore, even Sears website don't have it. We bought two remote all together, one recommended by Sears and never got it to work. We just gave up and use our own garage opener and clip it onto the sun visor. The foreman blame our garage door opener instead of the car!!!

Anyone know how to read on the screen that the touch pad is being touched? The foreman insisted he saw the indicator on the screen that show the touch pad is being touch before the radio station changed. I watch those videos carefully, I did not see any indication before the radio changed.

nycebo

Disable the TouchPad to prove it wasn't you.

Alan0354

No, I don't trust the foreman anymore, he'll come up with other lame excuses again. We know for sure we did not touch the touch pad, it takes more than one step to change the station on the touch pad, not just accidentally touching it. We even have video showing my wife's hands are on the steering wheel what that happened. We are so careful with the touch pad because we were warned.

nycebo

What does trust have to do with it? It's for your own confirmation. Always good to eliminate all possibilities no matter how rare. Anyway, good luck.

stephos

Agreed, it's a process of elimination.

rbrylaw

nycebo is right. Turn off the touchpad (easy to do by yourself in settings). That way you can determine if the fault is in the touchpad or the system itself. As a matter of fact, my touchpad is set to off. I don't need it and I was accidentally changing stations by inadvertently touching it. So, I turned it off. Problem solved.

jojot

My 2018 E300 definitely switches stations on its own. The first few times it did it my wife was in the car with me and I thought she bumped it. Many times after that I was in the car alone and I had both hands on the wheel. This is not imagined or accidental. It switches on its own. I only have 4k miles on car so I will address it when I get first service.

Alan0354

Turning off the touch pad proves nothing even if it stop the changing. The problem is likely on the touch pad that sends out false signal. I am NOT willing to live with disabling the touch pad. We know for sure we did not touch the touch pad, and nothing touch the touch pad. I am not going to take the car back one more time and waste hours recording with the touch pad disable. I already have video that show my wife was turning the steering wheel when that happened, her hands were shown they are no where close to the touch pad.

We know the touch pad is sensitive, we make absolute sure we don't tough it and nothing is rubbing on it.

The foreman said there is an indicator on the screen that shows when you touch the touch pad. I watched all the videos over and over, I sure did not see any indicator on the screen that show ANYTHING before the radio station change. I think the foreman is lying.

Alan0354

I post this to see whether it is an inherent problem of the E300, so far, out of over 200 read on this thread, just mine and yours have this problem, it got to be just something wrong with our car.

Be aware, they might not willing to even look into it if they can't make it fail in the shop and the computer does not report an error. We went back and fore, finally we actually start tape the video every time we drive the car to show the failure. They still argue back. Now they accuse us of accidentally touching the touch pad which we absolutely did not. They said they saw an indicator on the screen that the touch pad has been touch before the station change. I went through the video over and over, I did not see anything that indicate before the station change. I think they are lying.

You should try to set up a cell phone mount or camera mount and record the screen as a proof.

Also, if you are on HD satellite enable, they will tell you that when the satellite signal is weak, it will switch to the next station in your preset. In our case, we turned off the HD enable, and it still switch. Bottom line they might give you the run around.

BlackjackM

Don't forget there are two touch pads- one on the center console and one on the right side of the steering wheel. Not saying that is the issue, just something to be cognizant of. I accidentally switched the screen in the middle with the left touch pad before, but never the right one. It could also help to turn up the sound of the touchpad, that way if you do hit it accidentally you'll hear the "click".

Alan0354

Yes, we are award of that, the steering wheel touch pad doesn't go directly to the radio, you have to do more steps to get there. If you touch that, it will roll the display on the speedometer. It's not like the middle touch pad that only takes two steps to change station. We are very careful not to touch either one of them.

The fact that we had a loaner car that was a E300, we had it on HD and we did not have a single problem the whole week we had it. It had the same touch pad. We are very careful of the touch pads.

Alan0354

Anyone else has problem the radio change station by itself? Seems like this is not common and it's not inherent to the design of the car. Just something wrong with my car.

ua549

Make sure the software versions are up to date. If not, request updates from your dealer.

Alan0354

They already updated the software the second time we brought it in. We have prove in the video that my wife was not touching the touch pad when the radio switched. We contacted MBUSA to escalate this, we also wrote to the managers of the service dept of Mercedes of Stevens Creek. So far, no reply. This is really bad. They seems to only want to make excuses, not doing anything.

ua549

What are the version numbers?

Alan0354

No idea, they did that around September. That's what they were hoping for to resolve the problem.

bytemaster0

It might be time to contact MBUSA. They are pretty responsive, and will take issues seriously. I had a very difficult-to-diagnose issue on a GLK250BT, and after it spent weeks at the dealer, they were out of ideas. Finally, the regional manager from MBUSA came in and brought a tech. They were able to detect the problem, indicating that I wasn't crazy. After another week in the shop, they found that an alignment bolt was loose by 1/4 turn, causing the car to pull to the left when braking. This wasn't for lack of effort by my dealer - they are very good, and have kept me very satisfied. However, sometimes it helps to involve MBUSA.

I agree with disabling the touchpad for a few days. If the problem goes away, you can tell MBUSA this, and they may opt to replace your touchpad. It's a pretty simple and easy procedure.

ua549

Dealer Menu, item 0 will display all of the software versions on your vehicle.

Alan0354

Yes, we already contacted MBUSA last week, we also email to both service managers last week detailing what we did, the videos we taped. Believe it or not, they did not even response and contact us. They are open today, they did not do anything. Mercedes of Stevens Creek did not do anything, they only read the computer readout, then blame us so far. We try enough already, we have video showing that my wife's hand is no where near the touch pad when that happened.

It is their foreman Arche Hodge that is making all the excuses, first said they could not see the problem, then we let them kept the car for days and drove it, they claimed they could not make it fail. We started taping, but he blame on the HD radio will change station if the signal is too weak, telling us to take it off HD satellite radio, still failed, now he insisted we touch the touch pad. I am not going to do anything more, they'll just making more excuses on our expense.

We sent our complain to MBUSA, to the service manager, ready to send even higher up in the dealer, what other channels we can complain to before contacting the Lemon Law lawyer?

suby01

Navigation view>Options>Map Content>Map Version.

Here is some more info on current software updates.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...e-updates.html