This thread is about obeying warning messages in current MB vehicles. Since my most recent new MB was a 2022 S580, I am posting it here in W223.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been driving a pretty much “bare bones” 2024 GLE350, as a loaner while my 2020 S560 is in the shop. I have remarked in other forums on how much I have enjoyed driving this lowly GLE.

Today, after parking the GLE at a store for ten minutes, I got in and as I drove a few hundred feet, the red warning message shown below popped up. So, WHAT do you do? I immediately pulled into a supermarket parking lot, shut off the engine, waited a few minutes and restarted it. The same message popped up. So, I call the dealer that is about three miles away and they tell me to DRIVE the GLE back to them. Well, I was only about a mile from my office, so I figured if they are telling me I can drive the vehicle, I’d just go there instead, which I did. The red warning message remained.

About four hours later, when I went to leave for the day, I started the GLE and NO MESSAGE. The vehicle ran perfectly, so I drove it four miles to my home.

My point of this story is, let’s pretend that this message pops up when you are on a vacation road trip to Mt. Rushmore—with your wife, two kids and loads of luggage, etc. WHAT do you do? Keep driving and chance having the engine seize—in which case MB says you did not obey the warning and thus they are not covering the repairs under warranty, OR, since having our W223’s and knowing that many—if not most—of the warning messages are complete horse pucky, do we throw caution to the wind and just keep on driving?

It is a sorry state of affairs that so many post 2020 MB models, including the very expensive W223 and R232 SL’s are plagued with a seemingly constant barrage of WARNING & MALFUNCTION messages, so many of which end up being meaningless. Prior to getting my S580, I NEVER had a warning message in a car, telling me to “STOP & SWITCH OFF VEHICLE.”
I’m so glad this didn’t happen on the freeway.

SO, what say you? Shut ‘er down or just keep driving? Enquiring minds want to know!

 

Any obvious oil leaks visible? I might not drive the car even if no leaks found.

Does this GLE have any means to measure engine oil level other than the instrument cluster computer? I believe the current W223 have dipstick tube, not to mention a dipstick. These new engines however have an engine oil pressure sensor unlike MB engines from the past. Should make careful driving safer even if low engine oil level was indicated?

 

That situation has to be the most worrisome of all the messages. If the oil level is low enough to bring on the low oil level light, and the car continues to be driven, the engine could easily be damaged beyond repair. The dealer should have offered to tow it, assuming there were no other ways to confirm the oil level.

 

No dipstick?

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the first thing I did after shutting the engine off was to look for leaks, but I found none.

 

That was certainly my thought as well.

 

Sounds like the oil level sensor malfunction and a couple of reboots it fixed itself. The sensor provided data to the ECU saying it is too low (below minimum), possibly,

 

If it is the 350 then it has the M264 so no dipstick indeed.

 

I was under the impression that MB did away with dipsticks on most all their vehicles a few years ago. Perhaps they are still present in things like G Wagens or AMG cars. That said, I cannot remember the last time I checked the engine or transmission oil levels in a vehicle. When I started leasing my cars and took them to the dealer for all scheduled maintenance, I pretty much left all that to them. I have no problem relying on dashboard lights, warning messages and malfunction notifications, IF they are reliable. From my experience with my S580, a car that seemed to flash warnings & malfunction messages constantly, that almost never amounted to much of anything, I don’t give them much credence. This particular “Engine Oil” warning I have never seen before and I at least initially took it seriously.

The GLE has sat in my driveway overnight. I’ll check again for leaks and if I see anything, I’ll call the dealer. If no leaks and the warning comes back on, I’ll drive it to the dealer. If no leaks, no warning, I’ll just drive to my office.

 

Unrelated, what was the reason why the W222 was in the shop again? Just routine maintenance right but it has been a few days since you have been stuck with the loaner, no?

 

How about I leave that story for another thread? Suffice to say that the car was not sold new until 2021, is still covered by the original factory warranty for another 8 months and has been in the dealer’s service department for 18 days and counting……..

 

Fair enough, was hoping it was just routine maintenance and not warranty issues/repairs

 

Well, yesterday morning, I fired up the GLE and no oil on the driveway, no warning message, it drove perfectly all day. So, what must have been an electronic hiccup turned out to be nothing and I was only very slightly inconvenienced, mostly because of my past experience with my S580, which taught me that MOST of these warnings turn out to be nothing more than glitches. However, IF the GLE driver was someone much less sophisticated about vehicles in general and new to post 2020 MB’s and had never before experienced these glitches, this incident could have created a VERY serious situation and tremendous inconvenience for the driver & occupants, depending on where and when the glitch occurred. They need to fix this in all their models.

 

Yup because it sometimes give a very loud chime and red font in front of your eyes. The system thinks there is a "real" issue and then even cuts power or turns off and refuse to start. Certainly an issue that shouldn't had been an issue. Especially like in your experience of in bumper to bumper traffic last time.

 

That car doesn't have service menu like w223 with precise oil level?

 

I have no idea, but with that thought, IF the red “Engine Oil” warning was going to come up, it would be great if the menu would automatically show the oil level screen, so the driver could immediately see what is going on.

 

If you had cell service you could contact Mercedes and have them run remote diagnostics.

 

Is that right? I was unaware of that.

 

So I've read the thread, and I do have a thought: I need to see if Mrs Crab would be interested in a glass of wine.*

*No representations were made as to pertinence.

 

 

Yes but the loaner wouldn't had the cell services activated anyways, here is an image explaining the feature courtesy of another forum member: https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...6028fad498.jpg