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Are the 2015 S-class steering wheel buttons backlit at night?
I recently picked up a used 2015 S550 coupe. I drove it for the first time in the evening last night and noticed that the steering wheel buttons, to the left and to the right of the horn, were not backlit. Is this normal?
Sorry, I posted here because the S Coupe forum has much less traffic/readers and I figured my steering wheel is the same as in the 2015 sedan.
Thanks for that picture! My steering wheel definitely doesn't light up the buttons like that, even with the headlights on and the dash illumination set to full. I didn't find anything in the manual for a way to dim or brighten the steering wheel buttons backlight intensity so I guess I'll inquire with my service department...
Mine have never been lit. Does not really bother me. I just figured they where not suppose to be lit up. There is quite a bit of ambient light in the car from the ceiling mounted led ambient light projector. Try turning up your ambient light on the settings screen.
Hi Thanks for response. I bought my car when it was 3 years old with only 7000 miles on the clock, the switches didn't light then and I assumed it was poor design and cursed Mercedes for being so mean. After all I thought it couldn't be faulty could it? Not with such a small amount of use and the switches worked. So I have lived with it begrudgingly to date. But I cant see the switches at night, very poor! I now find out that actually some of these cars do in fact have illuminated switches on the steering wheel as shown in the photo in a previous post which is identical to my steering wheel. So I suspect that mine are faulty and would like to find a cure if there is one without having to remortgage my house to pay for it. Still only has 14000 miles on it very light use and in the past year the DVD player has stopped working unable to read discs (again hardly ever used) and the drivers seat cushion no longer heats up (again hardly ever used). This is the most expensive car I have owned with the lowest mileage and very little use but has had the most faults. Could I recommend Mercedes? No!
I've had the opposite experience, I had a 2015 and now a 2017 and had great luck. Like I said turn up your ambient light and that illuminates the buttons, if you look up at the map light there's a LED there that illuminates the interior some with ambient light, works for me.
I'm looking at that picture with the light on steering wheel above, I think that is just reflected light from the ambient lights, I was looking at mine tonight and I have the exact same steering wheel as the one in that picture and there are no provisions for lights. Myself, I really never had a problem not having lights on those buttons as I know in my mind what the buttons do and where they are by feel, the Volume up is the top one on the right and down the lower one and the scroll arrows on the left. I really don't even use those much anyhow, I normally use the volume on the center console and of course the cruise control is on the lever so not like the 2018 plus cars where it's one of the steering wheel buttons.
On the 2016, they are backlit. However, they aren’t noticeable until I turn up the dash light brightness enough. That is the tiny dial between the two Dash screens and underneath the activator for the power rear sunshade.
Your right lol. Just noticed on my 2017 they are lit. Turned up the dimmer as you said and cupped my hand over the buttons and yep the dimness goes up and down as I rotate the knob.
Mine don't light up even with the dash brightness turned up full unfortunately. With my steering wheel being in a silver finish the lettering just blends into the background of the swtich even in daylight its not great, as opposed to the black wheels which have highlighted white lettering on the switches which is much clearer. Day or night. Imagine if you blacked out the lettering on the black wheel with black paint. That's how my silver wheel is.
My 2015 S65 has this wheel, the picture was taken in the sun with the drivers door open. The buttons for me are easily legible during the day. At night they are backlit to a comfortable light level, I have my lighting at about 2/3 brightness. If the buttons are not illuminated at night something is not working correctly.
This is my wheel in the dark with and without interior light. I think the consensus is that they should be lit. Next question anyone know how to fix it? Everything works on the wheel except the switch illumination?
Mine don't light up even with the dash brightness turned up full unfortunately. With my steering wheel being in a silver finish the lettering just blends into the background of the swtich even in daylight its not great, as opposed to the black wheels which have highlighted white lettering on the switches which is much clearer. Day or night. Imagine if you blacked out the lettering on the black wheel with black paint. That's how my silver wheel is.
LOL. This reminds me of a horrible mistake I made some 20 years ago on my home computer. I was playing around with the options of a background color. I chose BLACK and clicked OK! After it made its adjustments, I could no longer see anything! Just an entire screen all black. I couldn't turn it off, reboot, or anything so I had to keep guessing where the cursor was to get to where I could make changes back to where it was to begin with. LOL
This is my wheel in the dark with and without interior light. I think the consensus is that they should be lit. Next question anyone know how to fix it? Everything works on the wheel except the switch illumination?
- Have someone pull codes and check for software update.
- Wiring diagram: switch block left (s110), right (111) – steering wheel electrics / contact plate (n135) – clock spring contact (a45) - steering column module (n80). -
- DIY: check contact plate, switch block, and harness connections/pins your wheel may differ but disassembly images generally apply.
Last edited by konigstiger; 08-24-2020 at 07:22 PM.
I have located the fault! The problem was not in the switch modules but in the the contact plate, I did think it would be unusual for both switch assemblies to go faulty at the same time and when I tested them with a 12 volt battery to pin 3 positive and pin 8 ground/negative on the connector plug they lit up. I then checked the output socket on the contact plate pin 3 had no power. I then checked the input to the contact plate pin 4 had 9 volt and pin 6 had 12 volt. So I deduced that the contact plate was faulty. I ordered one up from Mercedes which arrived next day, cost £64.00. Once fitted everything was working fine. The most difficult part of the job was undoing the three T20 torx head bolts to get to the contact plate. I snapped three T20 torx bits trying to remove them they were so tight, They weren't Snap on quality but why so tight?? I resorted to using the nose of a mole grip on the head of the bolt by pushing down on the spring loaded retaining ring which allowed me to just about get a grip on the head. I had to adjust the mole grips so they were really tight. This allowed me to turn a small amount to break them free. My other problem is that I now have a code showing on the dash re the airbag. Obviously I disconnected the battery before removing the air bag for safety reasons but when I wanted to check for a 12 volt supply on pin 4 and 6 as described above I had to reconnect the battery whilst the airbag was still disconnected. When I turned the ignition on I assume the car detected the air bag was missing and recorded a fault. Well at least the lights are working I will just have to find a friendly technician to turn the code off.
MANY THANKS TO KONIGSTIGER FOR THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDED
Oh the part number on the original contact plate is 099 464 15 17 the replacement is 099 464 14 00. I wonder why, couldn't be the original had a faulty circuit could it ???
W222 S Class with Panoramic roof, Distronic plus, Fridge, Towbar and TV!
Originally Posted by MBS63AMG
LOL. This reminds me of a horrible mistake I made some 20 years ago on my home computer. I was playing around with the options of a background color. I chose BLACK and clicked OK! After it made its adjustments, I could no longer see anything! Just an entire screen all black. I couldn't turn it off, reboot, or anything so I had to keep guessing where the cursor was to get to where I could make changes back to where it was to begin with. LOL
when my oldest son was about 10, we built his first PC together (He's 34 now and a computer programmer...) he came to me one day and said he couldn't get it to start... sure enough, it wouldn't boot up. So I asked him if he had done anything... after about 10 minutes, he eventually admitted to cutting and pasting all of the files on the C: drive into a folder because it "looked untidy in file explorer"... never did get it working and had to reinstall everything again
MANY THANKS TO KONIGSTIGER FOR THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDED
Oh the part number on the original contact plate is 099 464 15 17 the replacement is 099 464 14 00. I wonder why, couldn't be the original had a faulty circuit could it ???
06-24-2018, 07:29 PM
