About a year ago, the keyless go started to display "key not recognized" then went onto display "key not detected". After taking the car in for a service, spending $600 on a new key, the problem could not be found. Unless the key was held up onto the driver side window, the keyless go would not open the car. If you managed to get the car started with keyless go, the key would 'undetect' during driving which wasn't a comfortable feeling. I decided to not bother about it and use the key as the next step was replacing all the keyless go modules one by one until the problem is fixed (if it got fixed).

One afternoon the car alarm went off and by the time we got outside, the alarm was off and the battery was completely dead! We had the car towed to the dealership where they replaced the battery. 3 months later they still had the car because overnight, randomly the battery would drain. After getting onto MB in germany and endless hours of trying to find the problem, the ignition was replaced, a missing rear antenna for the keyless go module was replaced (which never fixed the problem) and it was still happening. It was put down to a faulty IC on the rear of the instrument cluster which meant replacing the whole cluster. All this was done at no cost and the car was up and running perfectly again bar the keyless go.

A week ago, I adjusted the time for daylight savings and noticed that whenever I turned on the car after doing this, the clock would be stuck on the time the car was previously turned off and it would sit there winding until it got to the correct time. I didn't pay much attention to when it did this the first time but it did it every time up until last night when everything went wrong! I was driving home and noticed the entire cluster went off, nothing was functioning on it at all. I then couldn't get the headlights to turn off. I pulled over and turned off the car, started it up again and after a few seconds of the car starting, everything came back online. A few minutes later everything went off again and the headlights were stuck on and would not turn off. I parked the car and took another for the rest of the night. This morning I decided to have a look to see what was wrong and now the cluster wont work at all, both battery voltages are > 12v so I don't see the battery as being a problem. The steering wheel buttons will not work, none of the AC controls work, nor does the AC digital display and any other buttons along that AC panel and the lights are stuck on as soon as the car is turned on. Before the cluster stopped working there was two errors on the dash, one saying something like "SRS brake Visit workshop", and the other one displayed once and I can't remember what it was :/

I find this so frustrating considering the car has only done 90,000k's and am considering selling the car. I am going to check the fuses as my Nissan Z32 use to play up in a similar way when certain fuses would blow, I knew that car inside and out but am still learning about the w211. Has anyone experienced similar problems? If so where do I start?

 

It's nearly 10 years old, things go bad on old cars.

Have you taken it to another dealer to see if they do better work?

Electrical demons are not easy to get rid of. Good luck!

 

this last situation sounds like either your secondary battery or your alternator has gone bad. good luck whatever you decide...

 

Gotta hate electrical problems on any car. I can't suggest much but I think you need to find a more competent dealership rather than one that just throws parts at a problem. Also, if they worked on something behind the cluster right before the headlights and cluster glitches started, they did something wrong back there - maybe a cut wire or loose connection. BTW are you in Germany? Over here in the U.S. a key costs between $150-250 USD, not $600.

 

I bet its the second battery is bad most people dont even know its there

george

 

You sound like you are in the "willing to try anything" frustration phase.

Always worth a try to disconnect the battery for a minute or 2. THE REAR ONE! Then reconnect and MAKE SURE to start the car and turn the steering wheel end to end a few times (resets ESP).

Heck it's worth a try and sometimes can reset a few gremlins that pop up on my car. Kinda think it's like they posted above though. Something showing up from install of cluster.

Keep us updated and sorry for your trouble.

 

Secondary battery, in engine compartment, left side under the cabin airfilter. Do the reset as descided, but chage the mini battery.

Also install a new battery in your key fob. That was the first issue I had : Key not recognized. Went to sav-on, got two batterys for $4.00.. never seen the problem again

 

Sounds like a charging system issue :-/. I had something similar happen when my alternator interally started to fail. It was impossible to diagnose, and finally the part failed. Check your secondary battery and resistor. Those resistors pop easily, and the mini batteries fail all the time. And your alt-batt voltage should be between 12.2-13.2 Volts.

 

Last thing. I would be violent at my dealer over that key rape charge!!

600$ is just SOOOO far over the top for a new key. Unless they were cutting me a screaming deal (when I bought mine) , my invoice says 192$ and that is list on a brand new key and they charged me much less. Mid hundred range.

Even if they wanted to be ultra scums and charge you time for programming it, wouldn't add up to 600$.

That is gang rape and new dealer low.

 

I got a 10 pack of key batteries on ebay for $5 - i think dealer wanted $5-6 for ONE!
PL

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I managed to check every fuse, driver side fuse box, rear box and engine bay box and found no blown fuses. I checked the voltage on both the convenience battery and main battery and both are > 12.3v, even after not having started it for several days. I haven't driven the car since parking it because I simply don't trust driving it. Just now when I unlocked the car to check all the fuses, the dash was still dead, after checking all of the fuses, the dash suddenly appeared to work when I put the key back in the ignition. The car started fine but now displays "SRS Restraint system malfunction Visit workshop" and then "Service brake! Visit workshop!" I turned off the car and now the key doesn't unlock or lock the car. The key has new batteries. Will have to book it into a dealer some time this week and I will keep you all posted to hopefully help someone if they ever have issues like this later on. I am in Melbourne, VIC Au.

 

I had some similar issues w/ BMW, and replaced battery. Then still had issues - replaced alternator, and now everything is fine. Apparently w/ some cars, you need battery up to 14v - 12v not enough was was causing some electronic issues. Good luck.
PL

 

Could it be the SAM which controls all the Electronics?
Just turn your steering wheel all the way to the left and right and that will clear the code and that code is usually there when you unhook the power for a short period of time. Something in your car is fully powering off when you shut it down but it should be always running in the background aka the SAM controls it.

 

Car was built in the Northern Hemisphere...you're in the Southern.

Have you tried reversing the battery connections ?

 

Thanks for all the replies. I am taking it to a workshop this week coming (didn't get a chance to take it last week) I will have them check the SAM module and post any findings the workshop comes across. I haven't tried reversing the battery connections as they are labelled accordingly.

 

Has the car ever been boosted by someone who may not have known what they were doing?

Have you ever used your car to boost someone else's?

Lots of times, electrical gremlins like these start with something like this...like a power surge on your CPU.

 

Got the car back today!! The following was done to the car:
SBC module was replaced under warranty - this fixed the SRS warning and the brake warning
There was a loose fuse (spades) which was causing the dash and aircon unit to completely turn off, this was a fuse inside the engine bay (drivers side). The relay for this was also replaced. As for the car not locking/unlocking, turned out a fuse was missing, it must have been on the verge of falling out because it was intermittent and then completely stopped working.

Am so glad that this was the only issue!! Best of all it cost virtually nothing, had the car serviced and is running like new again

Thank you ALL for your help and comments, hopefully this may help someone with the same issue one day

 

Good to hear it was not that your car was bad, it was human errors evidently with loose and missing fuses. Enjoy your car!

 

do u know how much it charge for the sbc module

 

I hope this was a Joke !!

 

does anyone know were the fuse to the alam is. i dont have the manual
help please

 

Mine is having the same issues and the car was built in SouthEastern hemisphere What do you all suggest i should do

 

Flush the toilet and see what direction it flows; that should help you determine proper polarity. When I moved to the US from Australia I had to do this; I ended up having to change the batteries in my portable devices as well.