First, a HUGE shoutout to Max from Elebest ( @EleBest - forum sponsor/vendor for coding services)! Once again, he proved himself to be incredibly honest and reliable. He saved my "a$$" yesterday when I ran into trouble with the car the night before a road trip.

I owe all of you a few updates as promised: 1. CarPlay module installation issues; 2. CarPlay Full screen update: 3. ILS+ Adaptive Headlights Coding (did it 2-weeks ago)

1. CarPlay Installation Issues:
Story: I received the full-screen Apple CarPlay module (from another vendor—details in point #2) and rushed to install it the night before our trip. I had to move and unplug the passenger seat plugs to fit the unit underneath. Then after installation, the car displayed an SRS airbag error (because I didn’t disconnect the battery negative terminal before unplugging the seat cables). I went to AutoZone and Advance Auto Parts around 8-9 PM to try to clear the error just before they close. However, they both said hat their policy only allows them to read codes, not clear them. I tried to explain the situation being urgent as am traveling tomorrow, and regardless we I found in both cases that their tools didn’t work for newer Mercedes models.

Went back home I messages Elebest on WhatsAp, who did ILS coding on my GLS before and also my W2223, and turned out he was traveling out of town and out of work/office.... but still didn't shy away from helping. My laptop had the software he installed from previous ILS coding, and from his phone while traveling he signed to TeamViewer app on my PC, virtually connected my laptop that is connected to the car via OBD, and within 3 minutes he cleared the code. He was in a restaurant!! ---> This is how much I appreciate this guy.
Point is: if you buy the carplay unit, make sure to remove the negative pole from the battery to prevent the airbag message otherwise u'll have to clear codes later.

2. Full Screen Apple CarPlay module:
I bought the CarPlay Box for full screen mode from Kremersino Store (see their website or find them on AliExpress). Installation was easy and I just followed their video for the GLE (same as GLS). Works great, and syncs with my phone each time I get into the car within 3 seconds (actually faster than factory wired connection). I can still use the Mbenz factory for music to get high quality sound. I also enabled the AC temp and settings toggle window from the Advanced Setting menu in the modules setting so it shows up even when in full carplay screen (see photo #1 and #2, for the full screen caplay as well as the AC readings disappear 2 seconds after changing temps)

3. ILS+ Adaptive Headlights
I also owe you an update on the ILS adaptive headlights coding that Elebest did for me. I did that 2 weeks ago, just a day after I bought my new-to-me GLS. The functionality works great, he also coded it to be functional even at 15 MPH. I contacted him, no equipment needed, no tools renting or wait time, as I only needed my laptop with TeamViewer access to him within 10 min. He installed all his software tools remotely, and process was done within 15 min. Other stuff was Auto Stop/Go memory, and driving mode (Individual) memory. Also tried AMG and Maybach infotainment theme, but asked him to remove as I felt they are too fancy for a car that mostly my wife and family drive as I daily a Sedan.
See photo #3 and #4 for the ILS adaptive headlights. They say that the GLS has the brightest headlights allowed by low in the US, and this has just made it even better. Wish I know how to upload a video here!


Full Screen Carplay


AC window toggle - disappears 2 seconds after adjusting AC in full carplay screen


ILS adaptive headlights operation with a tunnel around the car far away. Coding done by Max from Elebest


ILS operation in settings. Coding done by Max from Elebest

 

Elebest always seemed like a promisingly reliable coder like RJ. He wasn't around when I had my ILS programmed. I like RJ but he is limited in his programming. For example, I asked about programming ILS+ to a lower speed but he said he didn't offer that. Glad to hear you had a great experience with Elebest.

With #2, does the navi guidance still display on the HUD when you're using the new CP system? Please do keep a list of nits with it and update us. You're the first one on here to install and post about using one of these fullscreen boxes. This has really piqued my interest in this box now. Thank you for being the Guinea pig.

 

I tried/contacted every single coder known for Mbenz and on the forum. Elebest was extremely quite, no pressure, no weird or sales pitches and the experience has always been personalized, respectful reputation, and I appreciate that he'd even turn WhatsApp video on when he's done working on your car to confirm things are working (good to see in person who u r dealing with). He's the best for what I want. He's too busy sometimes to be even around here that often, but he always responded to me quickly on forum messages or via WhatsApp, and to me what I care about is that his method of coding can't be matched to anything else I've seen. RJ was also great sure, but I still prefer the quick responsive nature of Elebest.

Next mod: I'll be ordering from him next the factory OEM air balance system, he said he can help with installation remotely as well and will do coding. I haven't purchased that yet but planning to do so sometime this Fall.

About your CarPlay question: No, the new carplay does not sync with driver infotainment or car system, but that's exactly what I wanted. This way I can run both, car navigation that will show map-like on the driver screen as a 2nd navigation method, and also carplay. With the car native CarPlay, you wouldn't be able to do that (Carplay will cancel out car-factory navigation and would be limited to turn by turn as it comes from Carplay). I haven't contacted the CarPlay vendor to see if there is anyone around it but I like it that way anyway. What I really want though is for the steering wheel capacitive touch to work to control carplay... right now only the central console touch pad works (or the screen touch as well), although the volume adjustment and Siri button on steering still works for CarPlay.

 

RJ Automotive says that he could brighten the lights but cautioned that it might cause "flickering."

I opted not to have the extra brightness coded, but brighter is better in my mind.

Do you see any evidence of "flickering?"

 

As I said in a previous post, I only owned the car for ONE day before the ILS was done, so I don't want to give a dishonest feedback about brightness as I barely drove it enough before ILS. My experience/feedback about how great ILS worked comes from how it also worked in my W222, and in the case of GLS, it seems to be working even better (brighter in general, and dances really well, and the tunneling effect is much much much more clear in the GLS). I can't speak to brightness before and after. I didn't ask him to make the lights brighter as I never know this was an option, but I simply asked him to do whatever will help lights perform better for adaptive headlights. I will ask on Wtsp if he made them brighter but he never mentioned that to me. (or maybe let me just try and tag him @EleBest here) If he hasn't done that on mine, I'd be curious to make them brighter but would like to understand what flickering means first (worst case I can revert back). In all cases right now there is no flickering at all but surely the lights are very bright. Highbeam is almost always on including city roads, and surely more often that my W222 and stays also on at lower speeds.

 

I missed this part in my first respond to you above. You're welcome and no worries about sharing feedback... That's mostly what I enjoy doing although I feel that the GLS sub-forum as a bit too quite compared to W222/W223 actually. No nits or issues honestly so far with the CarPlay really (probably the only thing I wish it had is a priority list of phones connectivity when two phones are around for CarPlay). Right now I fixed that my unticking the (auto-connect) from my apple device phone for the CarPlay module cause am not the daily driver of the GLS, but I kept it on for my wife's phone. The only issue this way is that when I drive the car by myself I have to manually click connect via the bluetooth or wifi for CarPlay to turn on. If I keep both of them on, and we are both in the car going somewhere together, CarPlay will randomly select one regardless of who is actually the driver. Signal is too strong that it can even detect the phone in the room near the garage!. I shared this feedback with the manufacturer this morning to see if they can issue an update soon that allows the module to search and select certain phones before the other when both are available to connect. BMW has that in it's native phone/bluetooth system. Mbenz doesn't even have that for it's Media system unless I missed that, so I can not even blame the CarPlay box for not having that when Mbenz itself doesn't have it for it's Media Bluetooth connectivity.

The installation was easy, but there are certain steps missing from the installation video but very easy to navigate. You just need to remove the seat, remove the side trim panels and the seat-belt lower b-pillar (be careful when you do that, as there is a wire extended from the ground to the side air vents and you do not want to accidently stretch and cut that thin wire used to monitor whether the air vent is closed/opened to adjust flow through that column). I was glad to see Mbenz adding something like that for a sensor so that the air can be stopped completely from flowing there when the mechanical vents are closed to avoid air noise due to obstructed vent... pretty neat.

One last point, don't worry about the AUX wiring for the CarPlay box. Just let your phone always sync with the car Media to get the highest sound quality, and let the CarPlay box be the module that displays carplay for you. You would still be able to change music and things like that from the carplay menu, but it will be your car that is running the music behind the scenes (which means u will also seem music info on the driver infotainment screen). I probably should write a dedicated thread for installation and tiny little things like these for an ideal experience with this unit. It works well really no complaints is my conclusion.

 

​​​​​​I only have one profile in my GLE and *I think* the phone is tied to your profile, and that might be MB's way around multiple phones connected to the vehicle.

I would also prefer the MBUX navigation guidance to be on the HUD since it provides way more detail than the connected phone apps so that makes sense, except that it would be annoying to have to set the destination for both. And I'm assuming you can easily mute the MBUX voice guidance while keeping the CP voice guidance active?
​​​​​​
Yes a separate thread on the new CP box would be great.

 

I am 100% sure that you can keep MBUX voice guidance on. For CarPlay guidance to be active, I think you will need to also use the AUX-USB cable so that CarPlay voice is functionality connected to the car and the Media in MBUX selected as USB not your phone direct Bluetooth connection (which will lead to reduce music quality in my view). I still wonder if CarPlay will transmit navigation guidance without AUX-USB, because when I click the Siri button in CarPlay, I can hear Siri responding to you even when phone is connected to MBUX Bluetooth media without the SUB-AUX being connected. I don't use Navigation voice guidance at all, but will try to experiment with it.

 

Update: I tried today and navigation guidance works just fine. Am gathering a few more data points about some of the quirks of this unit... so far by the way almost every single issue I found was fixed by just talking to the vendor via their whatsapp support.... all issues were addressed by changing something in the setting menu of their unit. So far not a single issue... I will use it for a few more days before I post a longer thread about all it quirks.

 

I'm waiting and hoping one of these talented coders will figure out a way to code the fill screen Car Play / Android Auto from the 2024 MBUX into the older versions. I've asked RJ and Benz Ninja and they aren't able to do it.

 

Only Elebest and RJ have US licenses with the know-how and already offered any coding services for the newer MBUX cars like W223 or the facelift GLS. I already asked Elebest and RJ, and coding full screen carplay isn't something available..... Looks like they both have just received their new licenses according to them after 4-6 weeks gap. I mean honestly: technically, most of these coding guys do is to flip a factory option (something that Mbenz had already allowed or designed) from one value to another. Mbenz has never planned for a full-screen carplay, and hence there isn't a way for anyone to make that work via coding. You will need to get a genuine software architect to redesign how the modules work, and by then, that won't be the cheap couple 100s dollars, we will be talking about thousands and thousands of dollars for the time/labor that this person charges for : ). Am sure these people are doing something else that has more audience/costumers, hence i doubt that will ever happen. For now, the only work-around solution is to get the aftermarket module just like I did. Am actually very happy with the unit I got, and it works great, syncs with phone within 3 seconds, and still allows me to use all the original functions of the car like opening camera view, etc,... Sure would rather prefer factory carplay to avoid the hassle of adding an aftermarket unit, but now that the work has already been done, am good with it.

 

—> quoted before he changed and softened the language as he should.

Look who is talking about lies and fake stuff with 99.99999% review rating!!! : ) . Some people think they have rights to make claims against other vendors as if they know what they do or offer and how…. U can advertise that and your stuff under your own “0 to single digit replies” threads instead of my thread here.

The nice thing about Elebest and RJ Automotive is that you’d never see them doing anything that has to do with other vendors, and they only mind their own business as professionals, while others are obsessed in acting like they know what others are offering or what tools/licenses they use. That’s why they earned my respect and the respect of all other users.

US based, france based, asian based, russian based, UK based, they are all same licenses for me and I could care less. They may or may not have US based license, but what am sure about is that they have something that works. Also what I mostly care about is that Elebest and RJ Automotive did absolutely awesome and great job working on people’s car and mine, plus they are the only 2 vendors on this forum who have proven (by doing) that they have the know-how, ability and have already coded new MBUX cars. As far as how or which license? I don’t care, good for them for whatever method they use as long as it satisfies my requirements and satisfaction.

As far as making claims against @rjautomotive that he got blocked by Mbenz, this is not why I started this thread, and I ask that you take the crap of trashing other sponsors elsewhere. This is a happy new-GLS owner thread enjoying his car and sharing his experience with forum peers who don’t want to see boring brawls by one vendor against others.

 

I posted a detailed review on the full screen CarPlay back in June if you are looking for more details

ttps://mbworld.org/forums/gls-class-x167/893662-full-screen-carplay-review-carlinklife.html#post8993035ne

 

Thanks!. I just saw that thread and posted all my comments for any recent changes I noticed under that thread. Here is a quick summary (shorter version) here:

• Installation : Make sure to check the YouTube video from Kremersino youtube channel - greatly simplifies the process.
• Limited space issues: I recommend tucking only the wires under the head unit but placing the unit horizontally above existing wires slightly next to the head unit.
• To avoid airbag issues:: Disconnecting the battery's negative terminal during installation.
• Software Updates: Try to buy the unit from Kremersino website (they seem to me the main manufacturer) and promised that all units are shipped with the latest updates already installed to avoid the need for additional updates.
• AC control readings overlay: Remember to enable that via advanced settings - no software update was required for my unit; found that feature already as an option in settings.
• Reverse camera settings: change "Reverse Condition" to "Parking Key" in the carplay unit menu.
• USB connections: Two cables.. first is a USB cables for music via AUX or phone mirroring which is optional as Bluetooth MBUX audio is what most people will use. The 2nd USB cable is to connect to Carplay via cable instead of Wifi/Bluetooth (which is nice when 2 people are driving the car to quickly switch from one phone to another instead of confusing the module with two wireless devices trying to connect).
• PIN settings: GLE instructions for display size and PIN settings work on the physical unit itself well for GLS installations - also labeled as 12.3" screen. Instructions were clear to me.
• General performance: It loads up very quickly in about 3-5 seconds.... typically faster than MBUX audio..... , climate control adjustments is still available through physical buttons.
• Touchpad swipe function music: the left/right shortcut swipes does not work in carplay (but the touch pad itself works just fine), but steering wheel buttons to change music from the driver infotainment is still an option that works.. Otherwise carplay menu obviously is the other option just as normal.
• OEM functions: Drive mode button and camera function work normally while using CarPlay
• Simultaneous factory and full-screen CarPlay module: Both factory CarPlay and the CarLink module can run simultaneously when I tried to connect two devices. Also, I can run carplay navigation, and behind the scenes use the car navigation as well so that the infotainment screen shows full map with directions on the driver's screen while carplay full-screen is displayed in the other one.
• Multiple drivers... I'd suggest you set one phone for the main driver to auto-connect as usual via wifi/bluetooth, and then for the 2nd driver to use the full screen module USB method connection. It avoids the module getting confused when both phones around.

 

After reading and researching all this for days, I found some discussion on Reddit that apple has issued some changes recently (couldn't find when exactly but it seems very recent) for software developers to allow car manufacturers to adjust the Aspect Ratio of apple car play in a more flexible manner, while also allowing car settings overlay. The Apple release that they referenced seems to be referring to an announcement that Apple made about a year ago: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10150/
Some folks wrote on Reddit there that they hope Mbenz will take advantage of that through an OTA later on (it was believed years ago that Mbenz will change that anyway through an OTA). The point is, if Apple made it possible or much more accessible for car manufacturers to adjust their carplay screen aspect ratio, technically it could be done now unlike 2-3 years ago when it wasn't possible or at least wasn't as flexible. The issue is: I don't see Mbenz doing that, but given how often they were sending us MBUX OTA even for pre-facelift GLS (I got 3 updates in the last 3 weeks alone), am hopping they'll at least consider that now. Reading through Apple constructions, it seems to be a fairly easy task for the Mbenz developers without hardware changes. Take a look at the video in the link I posted above. In the meantime am happy with my aftermarket carplay unit but hopefully Mbenz will surprise us soon. Thanks all for keeping productive clean discussion.

 

Am starting to notice that with one of our phone, the phone audio tend to randomly default to iphone instead of car speaker's audio, and we have to manually select on the phone screen Bluetooth audio again for the audio to go through car speakers and mic. Did you encounter any of that during the time you used the unit? At this point am not sure if it's an issue with the phone or the carplay unit itself cause it's very random.

I also created a list of a few other bugs (all of which were resolved though) that I will post about soon when I have time along with the solution for each.

 

@007ML500 Any experience/feedback with this?

 

The only time this happens for me is if I switch over to SiriusXm (the Mercedes version, not through CarPlay). Once this happens, you will no longer get music or voice directions from your phone. It's one of the things I do not like about this module. If you want to go back to phone music, or have turn by turn directions through the car speaker you have to select you phone in the car bluetooth menu again.

 

I was actually referring to a different situation. While on CarPlay (just as normal), and phone bluetooth is connected to MBUX as normal too, and you receive a call, which you’d answer normally from the steering or touch screen… have you ever encountered an issue that sometimes the phone call audio once answered goes to your phone speaker instead of car bluetooth? And it’s random like only 1 out of 10 calls… ?

 

I have not experienced this issue yet. I will be curious to see your list of bugs and fixes though once you post it!

 

Are you using it in USB mode or bluetooth mode? I just tried another iphone, both my wife’s iphone and mine are doing the same 5% of the times, so I confirmed it is the unit not the phone, and it’s only 5% of the incoming-only phones (like 1 out of 20 incoming phones randomly default to phone speaker instead of car bluetooth)…

 

I've only used bluetooth mode.

 

I see.... Am puzzled then as to why I have this issue if you've never experienced it with your phone/unit. I sent an inquiry to them and will report back when I hear from them.

I've been traveling recently but really nothing much to report as far as glitches (perhaps once every 2 weeks we get to the car and the carplay is stuck/frozen, but barely occurs once every 10-14 days and need a quick reset by then (hold Siri button for 10 seconds)

 

Is 10 seconds the entire reboot process?

 

FWIW, my Android Pixel phone does the same with the Off button, although it seems to take forever. It feels like I'm choking it to death, and I wait until it just..fades....out