Frenetic

Anyone else experience door handles not popping out when you approach the vehicle. It’s kind of random: sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t, but quite often the car will sit in the garage unused for a few days and it seems to happen more often after those longer dormant periods.

Is there a software update that fixes this? It’s kind of annoying.

Also, I remember the dealer telling me when I purchased it that I can press the handle to have them pop out. It doesn’t work very well. What part of the handle should I press? I’ll lightly press the middle of the handle but it takes a while to respond.

Bubba1

Press the middle of the handle. Sometimes you have to do it twice. Yes it is annoying! Please chime in Streamliner…lol!!

To lock I press the indentation at the end of the handle towards the rear of the car.

Frenetic

Thanks. I found the section in the user’s manual and the way the salesperson showed me by “pressing it” doesn’t work as well as simply sliding your finger back and forth over the center section of the handle.

konigstiger

Reference attached bulletins to have it checked under warranty.

crabman

The handles don't pop out by design if your fob is in range of the car for too long, or if they have been out and went back in after timering out.

I never found a good rub, swipe, slide, whatever, to get a consistent open. I find it works every time by simply pressing in the middle with modest pressure. In no case do mine quickly pop out, no matter how I do it there is a delay.

My fob is kept in an anti-theft bag by the door so the car gets no signal, is always locked, and the car is 100% on the handle pop. It is possible to have it working although I'd have totally traded it off for having the mechanism that holds the door whereever you stop it when you open. That would have been a lot more useful than the whiz bang pop-out which has a cool factor that I admittedly like but otherwise adds nothing.

bishop64

Mine works 100% all the time.

I suppose, the issue has less to do with the door handles not popping out but more to do with MB's lack of a full description of the operation of the door handles.
As noted above, there are situations where the door handles do not pop out. The Manual does mention a few situations but those seem to be rare ones. There are other scenarios that the door handles do not pop out and these are by design.

Eg I park along the sidewalk and lock the car by pressing the square indent on the door handle. FOB is put into my jeans' pocket. I go into a store to pick up a newspaper. All the time, I am just about in and out of range of the detection range. After a couple minutes, I walk back to the car, the door handles do not pop out.

I do not think this behaviour is a software bug but is by design. I only learn this after going through this many times.

Frankly, MB's lack of full documentation (actually, I believe many of us would agree that the Owner Manual is not written very well. Sometimes, the English is kind of funny. It is hard to describe...but this is for another thread) of the operation of the door handles/FOB forces the owners to learn by actual experience. This is not a very very big deal but sometimes it can be annoying. Anyway....

A few tricks in this FB video:-
https://m.facebxxk.com/mercedeshager...3814622091921/

Frenetic

I think you’re on to something Crabman. I store my keys in my closet, which is kind of close to my garage, but I have to walk a good distance out and then back to reach it. I’m going to buy a faraday pouch and see if that changes things.

Streamliner

You rang?

Is now the time to once again talk about the absolutely PERFECT, simple door handles MB had been using for years, as used on the W222 models? I have them on our 2019 E450 Wagon and our 2019 SL450 and after a day of fighting with the truly idiotic handles on my 2022 S580, they are a breath of fresh air! This falls into the category of “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!” The handles on my S580 pop out about half the time that they should. The rest of the time I need to play games for they to extend, seemingly always when some guy in a BMW is waiting for my parking space.

For many of you, it may not be a huge deal and I’m happy for you, but one must ask WHY they found it necessary to replace a perfect system with an overly complicated, sometimes infuriating system that is in NO WAY better than the previous one? Aerodynamics? Give me a break!

Frenetic

I also find this needlessly complex and just another critical item that will eventually wear out and fail. The door handles and gas cap are two very simple but often overlooked items that make driving difficult if they don’t work.

It looks nice, though.

Bubba1

Stream, you and I do have some differences of opinion…respectful as they may be. But with the door handles issue, I am fully in agreement with you my friend.

Mine work about 75% of the time. However, it’s also annoying mentally because you go will it…will it not…and then it’s like oh f**k here we go again!!

bishop64

It is just like this topic of 'automatically door handles' in this forum!!!
Each day when I come to this forum, will I or will I not see another thread or post about this door handle thing!
And, then it is like oh ****, here we go again!!! LOL

Streamliner

I mentioned this about a year ago, but since we now have so many new 223 drivers, I’ll say it again:

A W223 is involved in a serious crash. Gasoline is leaking and there is a great chance it will ignite. The occupants are injured, perhaps unconscious. Way before first responders arrive, average citizens—NONE of whom have any experience with retractable door handles—rush to help BUT they can’t open the doors. They beat on them, but the handles do nothing………………Need I go on?

OR, it’s late at night as you walk to your car. A nefarious character is closing on you. You pick up your pace. Just a few more feet to the safety of your S Class and THEN, the door handle doesn’t pop out.

Overly dramatic? Surely. Possible? These days? Are you kidding?

One huge reason I drive an S Class TANK is safety. The ridiculous, idiotic, “look-Tesla-we’ve-got-them-too-but-yours-work-ours-don’t” insane door handles are a disaster and at least somewhat unsafe. It may be a stretch, but WHY did they saddle their best customers with them, before they were ready for prime time? WHY? Should have put then in CLA’s until they worked flawlessly. Better yet, should have left simple & PERFECT alone.

crabman

The major fail is the delay in the touch portion. This was done successfully by GM 20 years ago, there is no real excuse for it now. You should be able to walk up to the door with the fob on your person, touch it, and have it pop out immediately. If it did that one thing the complaints would largely go away. This isn't to say I disagree with many of them: If they just had to throw more money at the doors I would have rather seen the money spent on the door hold as I said above. That's a useful feature that I appreciated every day; this one gives you a brief sense of cool that fades away the first time you start stroking the door handle like a crazed perv trying to get it to pop.

rw594

Pretty incredible how such a minor thing can **** so many people off, so frequently.

Of all the issues this car has, e.g. endless software glitches, cheap squeaky plastics everywhere in the cabin, giant door swinging back at my *** whenever I reach inside to grab something... 😂 somehow the humble door handle gets crowned king

Frenetic

I mention the gas cap because the Audi I had was notorious for failing gas cap doors that would leave people stranded because they couldn’t open the stupid gas cap door and they would literally run out of gas lol.

I know most manufacturers have moved away from a simple but fail-safe physical lever that would unlock the gas cap, instead having hatch on the gas cap door itself that was controlled by the ignition and alarm state. Well Audi was one of the first ones to adopt this feature and water would often seep in and corrode the latch preventing it from opening. There was an emergency release in the trunk that was supposed to open the door in case the hatch didn’t work and 9 times out of 10 that would also fail.

This is one of those things where a simple mechanically attached lever works best.

I think our doors are the same. Does anyone know if we have an emergency release handle for the gas cap door, lol?

W205C43PFL

Interesting take on this, hopefully in the case of the crash the door handles pop out automatically when a collision is detected. As for the "follower" you mentioned, another legitimate concern.

If only MB made the pop out handle an option on the S-Class or at least make the non electrical ones standard, non electrical and mechanical pop out handles (since MB cares about aerodynamics) like how they did it on the SLS. You just push on one side and you lift the door handle up.

crabman

Are supposed to pop out when a crash is detected. Supposed to...

bishop64

I reckon the sensor(s) controlling the popping out of the door handles after an accident are different from the ones doing the normal opening and closing.
They ought to be the same 'collision' sensors controlling all the airbags and seat belt tensioners...etc

I will bet my life on it. And, you should not lose sleep over it...:-)

Frenetic

So I followed Crabman’s advice and so far every time I enter my garage, the door handles pop open. So maybe the unresponsiveness was due to me storing the keys too close to the car. Placing the keys in the faraday pouch as soon as I get in the house seemingly works. I’ll let everyone know if the issue comes back.

W205C43PFL

Thank you for the update.

Streamliner

Believe it or not, the pop-out door handles ARE optional—-IN GERMANY! They are part of the “Keyless Go” option. MB knows that many Germans will not want the “Rube Goldberg” complicated handles, so the old, “PERFECT” door handles are standard on the W223 there. Here in the USA, they know they can get away with loading the cars up with unwanted, unnecessary options. Oh, how I would just LOVE to be able to order a new S Class the way the Germans can!

Streamliner

I instinctively knew how to operate every door handle, on each and every of the 92 vehicles I have bought or leased, UNTIL I got the W223. Just as I don’t want my toilet seat to go up and down automatically, I did not want to have to LEARN how to open & close the doors on my car. And now, that I do know how to open & close it, the handles infuriate by seemingly doing as they please anyway. Nuts!

W205C43PFL

I guess it also have to do with German market MBs have way more options while way more is standard in the USA, for example I guess the lesser models, led headlights are standard in the USA while in Germany you still actually get halogens as far as I remembered. The pre-facelift W205 C-Class was when standard was halogen in the USA, the facelift have led and then the next upgrade was multi-beam, not true for Germany.

bishop64

IIRC, there are (at least) 2 members with 223 who reside in Germany.
I wonder, if they have ever seen any 223 with the traditional door handles (not in the showroom but out in the street) ?

js_cls

In Italy I have seen one SWB S-Class with physical handles.