NastyAluQuadra

UK / Euro owners -

Can you change the miles readout in the dash to kilometers? Every other merc can do this easily in the "change settings at standstill" options menu, but my new SL can't - its stuck in miles all the time as a UK car - there is no digital or analagoue km read out. There is a digital "mph" read out on one of the menu screens (right had side display).

Any one else find this? Driving across Europe its difficult to calculate your kph speed. Sounds easy enough - we can all do km- miles in our head - but at a glance its not so easy, and a major ****up on MBs part if they have deliberatly left this functionality out. Do they think UK drivers never go abroad??

Any other experience / thoughts?

Other than that the SL is awesome of course.

SL Boy

Interesting question. I have a kph digital readout in my left screen which I cant change via the change settings option to mph

NastyAluQuadra

Bloke at the garage was trying to explain something about Mercedes marking small changes like this to distinguish imports.

Whilst I bought mine in Brussels, he said that it was a "UK spec car" (i.e. everything in miles unchangeable is "correct"), and that this km-mile thing had been changed on real UK cars.

I thought he was making it up, but now I'm not so sure.

Is your SL55 an import? If not then the story maybe the other way around. In which case I'm more than a bit annoyed.

Mustard

This is an important point.

My imminent car is continent supplied, but I have a longer term plan to perhaps take it, or a 500, home to NZ, requiring a KPH speedo.

I'd assumed the speedo in the dash would be digital and it would easily switch between MPH/KPH. I also do a lot of continental driving, and although switching between speeds is now pretty much second nature, having an instant KPH switch would really help. (Especially since the French don't like radar detectors)

Further, I hope the HID lights are easily switchable to continental shielding. The BMW switches with two small levers on the lights. How do you do it on the SL?

What happens with KPH on UK supplied cars?

SL Boy

Mine is an UK supplied car, not import. And just been out to garage to check this. Analogue speedo is mph, digital is kph and although the instruction book says these can be changed, on my settings menu there is no option to change either analogue from mph to kph or digital from kph to mph.

SL Boy

Lights are assymmetric and adjusted to illuminate the nearside (left side in the UK). Instruction book says if you want to drive on the right ask your dealer to adjust the lights to symmetric setting.

NastyAluQuadra

Hmmmm

Doesn't look good. Having asked for a "UK spec" car, I'm a bit annoyed if Merc are messing around with these settings just to highlight EU supplied cars. The fact that it is first registered abroad is a surely enough of a give away - no need to start stealing functionality, especially when its so important to know how fast you're going in a foreign land. It sounds easy to work out from MPH, but having driven across Europe this week, its not an instant calculation so is frustrating. I just want to be able to choose either, not be stuck with one or the other!

On the basis that the dealer has effectively lied to me I may do something about it.

Mate of mine has asked a dealer to adjust his SL BiXenon lights to the symmetric setting, but no joy - they say it can't be done despite what the manual says. Haven't tried this yet myself with my local dealer. Anyone asked their dealer yet?

PS Just realised the interior mirror has a memory setting - how cool is that! How do they do it? (still adjust by hand of course)

Mustard

Bugger is right!

You've touched on a real topic.

Paul - thanks for checking. Surely there must be an adjustment for KPH. If it says so, and you can't this must be a serious issue. Maybe its dealer resettable.

You guys will want to drive your SL55's abroad sooner or later, so the fact that it cannot be changed easily is a big factor in a car priding itself as a technical tour de force.

Then the lights. It is illegal to drive on the continent without adjusted lights, especially HID. You really can't be telling me you have to go to a dealer for ajustment before going abroad!

NastyAluQuadra

Lights - not only do you have to goto dealer, but when I asked my dealer to do it before delivery, they said it couldn't be done!

I've mailed the "owners manual" contact with both problems. I'll let you know if I get any useful info. Not sure they are really the right people though. Anyone else have a good technical query email address for MB?

NastyAluQuadra

Have had several conversations with MB customer services. It appears that the headlamp issue has been clarified - it IS possible to set the headlamps up for a symmetric beam, although this is a dealer only change. This is contrary to what my dealer said when I picked the car up - he was wrong so I hope he will reimburse the cost of a local dealer doing the work. The car will still not pass a German TUV in 3 years or so, but it is no longer illegal which is the main thing.

Second point on KPH/MPH still not clear. It seems the car was ordered correctly, but MB CS are saying that MPH-MPH is correct for a UK car. The truth seems to be that they still are not really sure what they are talking about but they are looking into it. This MPH digital is at odds with SL Boys UK SL55 experience. We need more input from UK owners with either imports or real UK cars to get to the bottom of the issue. Any SL500 UK owners here - it occured to me that the SL55 dash is a bit different due to the 300kph speedo, so this may explain the difference.

In any case I've complained to MB, that whether the car is UK spec or not, the omission of a KPH readout is totally unacceptable and MB should seek to change this ridiculous situation.

Anyone any more experience? SL Boy - are you sure your digital KPH is in the left hand side display? On mine the MPH digital display is on the right (same menu screen as outside Temp).

SL Boy

Yes KPH is in left display - as you say there must be differences between SL500 and 55 displays.

vraa

vraa

I think i got the information for the SL500 for yall, should i post specific's or anything?

NastyAluQuadra

Looks identical to mine.

The digital MPH readout appears in the right hand side and is on the same menu as outside temp, service interval etc. - you need to scroll to get to it.

Can it be changed from MPH-KPH on US models in settings?

vraa

I'm not understanding what you are saying.

Should i scroll and see if i can find the option where i can view the outside temp?

NastyAluQuadra

As you can see the digital speedo is on the first group of menu options - these all appear in the right hand side display.

Question is - assuming you have an analogue miles display - is your digital display in MPH or KPH.

NastyAluQuadra

...it says you can change it. You can't.

vraa

Your right, i tried finding if i could change it.. no no!

NastyAluQuadra

...suggests that it IS possible to switch between MPH and KPH.

This requires a laptop equipped Benz tech to plug into your SL for 15 mins. Apparently. This is just email info so far - not tried this yet.

Still haven't got a definative answer as to whether UK SL500s come with digital MPH or KPH. Am I the only SL owning UK punter on this board who couldn't afford an SL55?

Mustard - have you got your 350 yet? Did you ask for this and the lights (symmetric beam) to be sorted?

Interested to hear what you think of it. I may get a 350 next. Can't bring myself to spec ABC, but it is really cool in the 500.

NastyAluQuadra

...obsidian black, graphite, black wood.

Mustard

Not yet - off on Monday to pick it up. Had to phone MB in Germany to see if it had been built and to get the VIN number for insurance. A slack dealer and I'm getting annoyed.

I'm looking forward to it - am hearing great things about this 3.7 engine. Its all I need, I simply can't justify to myself or SWMBO an SL55, mostly because I have to buy other cars for my managers and for delivery vehicles. If I was single or retired, then perhaps, but I'd also be considering other cars. The 55 is an all time great car, but for me £100,000 is a lot of extra boat or a good apartment.

We are just cruisers now, so 155 mph max and no ABC is not critical, but I will be disappointed if this 350 does not ride well.

I will post an honest review of the SL350 as soon as I get it next week. Plenty to compare it with. Have asked my continental supplier about the lights set-up but won't know what he has done until I get there (France). Still can't believe its more than a matter of flicking a switch - why on earth do we need to visit a garage to change the beam direction for?

Glad to hear the MPH can be switched to KPH. May need that, but wouldn't it have been easy if we could have just dialed in a change for continental touring.

A job for Richard perhaps?

Richard

UK spec cars have the dash set so you cant change the main (analog) display to kmh

If your dealer tells the cluster that its in "rest of world", not in the UK (and also remembers to tell it that it has an internal movement sensor for the alarm) then it becomes switchable.

My SL55 was changed by my dealer when it had a new cluster, and we worked out what the UK / RoW setting did !

Cheers

Richard

NastyAluQuadra

Thanks for this info Richard.

It seems that the US guys can't change the MPH-KPH setting either. How exactly does it work? If its set for "UK" its fixed in digital MPH, but if switched to "RoW", you can then select either MPH and KPH, or is it fixed in KPH digitally?

When you mention the internal movement sensor, I take it you mean that the "UK" setting would normally automatically tell the car this (as they all have them), but when you put it on "RoW", you need to tell the car it has the movement sensor through another setting?

Have you got it in RoW or UK then? It seems that the RoW setting is better than the UK setting, or are there any drawbacks?

Cheers

Richard

>It seems that the US guys can't change the MPH-KPH setting
Yes, the trouble if they switch to RoW is that the US gallon is a different size to the standard gallon, so the mpg calculations will be wrong. Im not sure if there is another place that uses US gallon - Canada uses litres


> How exactly does it work? If its set for "UK" its fixed in digital
Its about "Homologation" i.e what the local markets require.

In UK mode (from memory), the analogue speedo is locked into MPH but you still have the mph/kmh menu setting. In mph, the digital display in the analogue speedo shows kmh, and the digital readout that you can select for the digital tacho display is in mph. Swiching to kmh switches those over.
From what Ive read, the US is stuck in mph everywhere ?

>When you mention the internal movement sensor, I take it you >mean that the "UK" setting would normally automatically tell the
Yes, all UK cars get the movement sensor. RoW doesnt. (like all UK cars get full blown alarms, and the dealers have to put the approved wheel locks on during the pdi) - so when you switch to RoW you need to ensure it still thinks it has a movement detector. A lot of the cars configuration info is held in the speedo and in the electronic ignition switch.
(both of which are gateways between the car's interior network and the engine bay network)

>Have you got it in RoW or UK then? It seems that the RoW >setting is better than the UK setting, or are there any >drawbacks?
Im on RoW - no drawbacks ive found !

R

Mustard

Richard - when you said have your dealer tell the analogue display its in RoW rather than UK, what do they specifically have to do?

Met with totally blank faces at my dealership today on this issue and the lights.

Firstly, they insisted the lights are symmetrical, need no changes for the Continent - then changed their minds. The service manger who had done the courses on the SL could not tell me how its done. Back Wednesday to find out.

The KPH-MPH switch, they told me, is there. It would be illegal otherwise. (which I knew). They couldn't find it. Back Wednesday to find out why and how its done. Told them to change the cluster setting to RoW. Have to change the whiole cluster they say, but afgree its illegal as it stands.

As BlueSL once said, the sheer ignorance of MB service people who should know better is astounding.