vexige

Our car (23 EQE 500) is locking itself (pulling the handles in) even if the key/phone is inside the car or after couple of minutes in the garage. We can' t get inside without using the second phone to unlock or the spare key. Yet, the app sends the notification and shows "car unlocked"..
Called MB and after 40 minute hold was told that it is the "safety feature", which doesn't make sense...
Does anybody know if this could be disabled, or I need to take car for service?

ScottC2

Hmmm. Safety feature... Yes! Apparently the car is trying to protect itself from YOU ;-)
I have only two thoughts on this:
1) Could it be that the handles are pulling in after some time (genuine feature) and that the car is still unlocked...and all you need to do is swipe your fingers along a handle to make the handles pop out again (another feature)?
2) If not number 1, then I wonder if the behavior is the same regardless of which set of keys you are left in the car? If not, then I would wonder if the battery in one set of keys is weak (longshot/unlikely, I know)

vexige

1 didn't work, I tried. The car says unlocked, but the handles are in and I can't open...
2 I will try to switch keys but doubt- the car is 2 months old

Called Mercedes again, it is a waste of time, they have no clue about an app or electric cars.. she also asked me to present the whole vin number in order to identify myself. That was the first one for me..

vexige

1 didn't work, I tried. The car says unlocked, but the handles are in and I can't open...
2 I will try to switch keys but doubt- the car is 2 months old

Called Mercedes again, it is a waste of time, they have no clue about an app or electric cars.. she also asked me to present the whole vin number in order to identify myself. That was the first one for me..

Crito

Kind of makes me wish the AI robots would take over. LOL

Have you tried the back of the hand swipe thing? Hmm.. googled for a video and this guy says you just have to press in the center (not where the button is) so maybe I've been doing it wrong. I always just swipe left to right across the handle to get them to present.

vexige

I will try that. If that works, then I'm at a loss, why retract handles all together if they can be opened by simply pushing them...

bytemaster0

The car isn't locking itself, it's just retracting the handles after about 2 minutes. This is expected behavior, I believe. If you swipe along the handle, or sometimes push it in (NOT on the locking area/rectangle), they'll pop right back out. This is likely a safety issue, as the car doesn't want to appear to be unlocked in case you forgot. It also prevents buildup of dirt and other issues behind the handle. There are probably other reasons as well.

Crito

I can't find the thread now but other people have complained that it stop detecting the key, even if you don't do the two rapid lock thing. Some said jiggling the keyfob wakes it up but I haven't found that to work. I HAVE TO press a button. So probably a combination of those two things: the handles retracting automatically and the key fob goes into battery save mode for no apparent reason.

vexige

Thank you, it worked! But for some reason every other time... And occasionally not at the front door, but rear door handle. Oh well...
Swiping doesn't work, pushing only

ScottC2

I would take it to the dealer to have it checked/fixed under warranty. It should work consistently (on all doors, obviously) and swiping the handle should work too. It does on my EQE SUV 500.

I've only managed to lock myself out once, but I was doing something weird with trunk hatch and doors - can't remember exactly what, but it didn't surprise me at the time that the car was "confused". It gave me a chance to read the manual to learn that I should use a credit card (or similar) to pop one of the handles out and then insert the physical emergency key in the keyhole. It worked. I've never had any lock/key/handle issues since.

vexige

Thank you all for your help!
The problem is solved for now. I will take it to the dealer shortly... It is my wife's car and she's freaking out when anything new pops up... Mercedes didn't help at all. He claimed that the car "locks" itself as a safety measure. Never mentioned that it could be reopened just by pushing or gliding without the key or phone. I'm sure he didn't know himself, just made that stuff up on the fly

bytemaster0

One note, the sensors are capacitive. If the car is very wet, or if your hands are super dry, it won't pick up on the contact.