RACE_MX

Ok I will have to drive around and see what happens.

I.T. Guy

@Keith66 any updates on the OBD toy?
How is it at reading and clearing codes?
Any suspension places to dig around in? I'm having an airmatic issue. I could take it to the dealer but also like fiddling...

RACE_MX

I put my high beams on and it was hard to tell if anything was happening but the reflection from the street signs was blinding so I probably wouldn't use ILS+. The streets where I live/drive are really well lit, I think I've driven with the headlamps off before and didn't notice.

TugboatBill

No. Any device or programming that disables start/stop is a misnomer. It disables eco mode which is start/stop, 4cyl mode, and sailing.

S_W222

Hi @Keith66 Awesome thread man. Thanks for posting. I'll try this very soon. We got an Accord last year as a bonus house car, and I do regret now not getting the E-class. I thought we will keep our S-class for long, but now that it's gone I hate the garage without the benz. We got a great offer from a local dealer to buy our bonus ar, and soon I will be shopping for an E-class to take it's place and first thing I'll try is the above.
Thanks for sharing knowledge. People need to learn all of that to avoid anyone getting accidently stuck with any nasty or greedy folks charging a ton of money to flip a code line. The BMW community long time ago started by few threads like yours so that now everyone knows how to work on their car. Your post above shows how straight forward it is.

W205C43PFL

Wait you sold the W222? When was this and how come (out of curiosity) I remember you stated how much you liked it.

S_W222

Lol, most of my daily drives won't last more than 1-2 years on average. I love cars and I like to enjoy a new ride once every year. I think my average is about 14 months (for my daily) during the last 8 years. It's the main reason I (usually) avoid buying new, and would never ever lease too. And, yes, I loved that W222 in particular soo much, it was one of a kind and if time goes back I would buy it 10 more times.... but first it was time to let it go (I just can't hold on the same car for too long), 2nd I wanted something else and wanted EV next, and 3rd I got a very good deal on it.

MB2timer

I am not a big fan of the auto start stop feature. I think that feature, when active will significantly decrease the life of the bi-turbos. The way I get around it is, I push the start half of the button, then leave my finger hovering over the auto off half. As soon as the engine is idling smoothly, I push the auto off button and check for the icon on the dash display.

Wolfman

I hope you know that this is nonsense and misleading at best. Virtually none of the BMW owners actually code their own cars. Much cheaper and safer for them to have it remote-coded and Bimmerpost has actually great resources for that. DYI coders (myself included) went through the costs, learning and process to use ESYS but I was only semi successful and wasted valuable time. In hindsight I was better served having all customizations done remotely. Its quick and they can do the more complex coding tasks...

I will suggest that this is the same here. It works for some (and its actually fun) but for the majority, commercial providers fill an important gap.

W205C43PFL

I see, what vehicle did you ended up getting? I guess I wasn't following.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Are we talking Mercedes or BMW here? If Mercedes, please share with everyone who that might be so we can make good informed decisions. Thanks!

S_W222

I hope you know that your information are outdated at best and incorrect. Right now, there are several options (some are even free) and easy to use options for BMW owners that are even cheaper than the approach which Keith posted above: 1. To code most BMWs at leat up to ID7, you can code most of the features FROM YOUR PHONE using a 35-45 USD app by BimmerCode (all you need is an OBDLink bluethooth module and your own phone!).; 2. You are also absolutely incorrect about ESYS (if you are referring to nowadays approaches); The version that most people need for ESYS is 100% free now and you can easily find it. psdzdata are being shared for free too by several good fellows from the BMW community and widely available for free too. 3. For those who found ESYS a bit complicated (even though it's free now like I said), BimmerUtility is becoming very popular to compliment esys, and it's a cheap tool for 109 USD yet with ONE click pre-customized and built-in functionality to flip 10-15+ lines for a certain function (e.g.: anti-glare is build into BimmerUtility automatically via one click beside a few other popular features). Check their new youtube videos and you will see how intuitive it has become. To say that "Virtually none of the BMW owners actually code their own cars" is very misleading/interesting to me at the very least. From what I am seeing, most BMW users on forums are coding their cars themselves and on daily basis an seeing dozens of new questions under the coding dedicated threads. I've seen many of them even going from simple coding/features recently, to more complex ideas such as changing LED colors to non-factory ones, sharing knowledge of their findings and user instructions, with outstanding threads that I myself found them to be useful and super easy to fund. In fact, it's funny because almost every BMW owner/friend that I know has done the free-esys coding or at least has the 35-45 USD BimmerCode app and does his coding (including two of my sales people contact at BMW dealer, and my service advisor!!!). As far as forums, I post a question and am guaranteed to get at least a few users answering, so what i said is based on my own personal and fresh experience. It took me 2 minute to find 2 threads with free esys link and free psdzdata files. Alternatively, It should take the average user 2 minutes to download the BimmerUtility app. No doubt that commercial users are filling a gap that some users need (and 2 out of these 3 options for BMW are being filled by solid commercial users obviously), but what am referring to is the knowledge gap that BMW community did a great job filling themselves by users and members from the community itself, so personally I would rather give credit to those who are willing to do the same and share knowledge in our Mbenz community instead of discouraging them. The BMW community has done a tremendous job in the past few years only to help each other. I'd be happy to share a copy of esys and PSzData if you need them, or share a link to several threads offering them for free.

S_W222

Well, as of this moment, we got the new X7 LCI earlier this year that my wife is driving, and I have my X7 from last year. My daily/personal and work drive (which is usually/always a sedan) this year has been the new Tesla Model S, which I really liked more than I thought I would. We got a good deal on the Accord as a bonus/guest car last year that mainly my parents use when they are here or we use for some of our bi-monthly trips to a nearby city/airport. However, now after I sold our S-class, I feel that I should have went with the E-class, which is what am doing now. I accepted a virtual offer on the Accord a few days ago which we barely drove since last year, and if it gets sold this week, will be looking at the same options I posted about last year for the E-class. I usually sell my cars myself on Autotrader and other places, and in fact I also found most of my non-BMW cars that way or on forums too. I bought my W222 through someone on this forum who introduced me to the buyer, and I also sold it to a user on this forum, so that was awesome. Once the W223 facelift is available next year, it might replace my Tesla, but am not sure yet about that as I think I'll go again with an EV which is hard to find now as I must have 350-450 miles of range. I wish the EQS will be due for a new design soon but I doubt it, and am not a fan of the i7 design language. The W223 plug-in hybrid is the only (EV-ish) attractive option, but I keep hearing discouraging feedback from forum fellows here about the smaller engine. So next on my list for this year should be the E-class replacing the accord, and a TBD sedan that will be likely a PHEV W223 or some other EV.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Well, I'm sure glad your disparaging remarks weren't directed at or referring to anyone in the Mercedes community. Sure wouldn't want to overpay for a service.

W205C43PFL

I see, my fault for not remembering. I remember someone went electric from the W222 but I forgot it was you. I am glad to hear you enjoy the vehicles you currently have. I also appreciate you sharing your thoughts on what you are shopping for next.

RACE_MX

The BimmerCode/BimmerLink apps are amazing tools with a surprising array of items that can be easily coded with little or no coding experience. Unfortunately (I have heard) the company that provides these apps have stated these tools are not compatible with the latest generation BMW's, particularly the G90 5-series, and not sure they will be able to sort it out - which is disappointing. BMW no longer has a button to disable auto start/stop, you have to drive in Sport Mode 100% of the time if you don't want to deal with this incredibly annoying feature. The M5 will maybe have the button, not sure. This along with the horrible appearance of newer BMW's (my opinion) was enough for me to make the switch back to MB.

S_W222

I agree. BimmerCode offers a huge value for it's one-time 35-45 USD app cost tat you can keep and use on your own for the lifetime of your car or future cars. Actually, what you said about the restrictions/applicability with newer cars only applies to IDrive 8, but as another evidence of the BMW community being super active on the DIY topics, there are several threads now showing the you can also use BimmerCode with ID8 to unlock some features. I tried it myself on the X5 and was able to make several changes successfully including anti-glare. The only issue is that after a recent software update, they canceled the ability to do edit/flip the *** memory line and I don't think this has been sorted out just yet (even the same for older ID7 with some of the newer software releases), but most* of the other functions can be coded just fine on ID8 now. If you have a BMW, just google "BimmerCode + iDrive 8 || Confirmed Working" and you will find a thread on Bummerpost. There are several folks early on who coded their new X7 for anti-glare with ID8 via esys by just changing the VO, save, and then waiting for next OTA software update, and some of the VO related features like anti-glare would start working as the new OTA would re-write some values based on the modified VO (but it only works for some features like anti-glare). However, anyway now BimmerCode can do it anyway. Sorry @Keith66 for hijacking your E-class coding thread : ).

Keith66

I feel like I have a certain responsibility to address some of the lies and deceitful fear tactics used by a sponsor in this thread.

The Launch OBD device is not a "toy" anymore than any other OBD connection or device is a "toy". This is only being used as a derogatory term to scare people away from a tool that does the same thing a “coder” does, but much less expensively. He is trying to protect his own profit by deceiving people into thinking it's a “toy”.

“Once your original coding is messed up there will be no return. direction > dealer or BenzNinja”

This is just a deceitful fear tactic, again to scare people away from something that may effect his profits. The Launch OBD device allows you to save a snapshot of all of your original code that can be restored at any time. You can also take recovery snapshots at any time to revert to any point in time you wish. To say your only recourse is a dealer or BN is just simply not true.

“Coding is not a joke on MB and it's not code flipping like some deranged hater with 0 knowledge might pretend.
It required years of experience. BMW coding compared to MB would be doable by a 12yo kid.”

This is the biggest lie of them all. Exactly what “coders” do is the same exact thing these bidirectional scanners do. It is literally changing the options and flags that are already there in the code written and created by MB. Most “coders” want everyone to believe they are writing strings of code from nothing and using deep programming language knowledge and crafting boolean expressions, algorithms and formulas from scratch. That's not true. They are using a software interface to navigate through the existing code written by the programmers at MB to find the parameters they want to change by selecting alternative options that are already there.

It requires years and years of experience! However, I'm able to do it myself with no MB specific coding experience at all and I have not “messed up” anything. I must be a genius!

crashmtb

Thanks to the marketing tactics of that certain vendor, I will certainly not ever be a customer of theirs.

Wolfman

My coding experience with BMW stops at ID7 with the M8, to be sure. The Esys experience goes back to our older 7 Series. That said, it is a fact that virtually none of the BMW owners code their own cars, or that they even know what that means. Users of Bimmerpost (like MBworld) represent a very small sub-section of owners and the percentage of those thinking of coding a car are dramatically smaller.
I had our M8 remote coded for $85 not only because its easier to do for me, they could also deal with features that BimmercCode couldn't do and most important, I wouldn't have to waste time and have a go-to person. That company also took care of our suspension, etc.

We must also have a very different group of BMW owners/friends

S_W222

Well, this is VERY true : )... I'll let you win with this one

rickross

Keith, I bought one of these Launch X431 Creader Elite 2.0 devices to try this out, but I'm having a hard time following the steps you provided.

My car is a 2018 E63S 4Matic Wagon (W213.289). The X431 Mercedes software version is 50.26.

The “Operation Strategy_stop_start” option is not present in the PTCU section on my device, but rather in the ECM section. I have changed it to “Stop-Start Default Logic, Last Mode” and written the data, but the green light still comes on every time I stop and start the car.

I think the group of settings related to "3S" in the PTCU section have something to do with this, but I haven't been able to zero in on exactly how?

Any thoughts why the configurable item in in the PTCU section on your device but in the ECM section on mine? What version of the X431 Mercedes software are you running?

taphil

After reading this thread, I got the Launch scanner. It works on my 2021 E63s for OBD and diagnostic scanning of all the modules. Car is fine, everything works, and never had any error codes that showed up on instrument clusters . But the scanner found several stored DTC codes on various modules, they were all stored codes from unknown time period and mostly about missing signals or invalid signals). The scanner worked to clear the codes, and no codes re-appeared after driving around a little. I didn't try to change the auto-start/stop setting.

The scanner didn't work at all (diagnostic scan couldn't read any of the modules and gave unknown error message) on my 2024 GLE63s so I returned it.

I then got the Autel MK808S that's 3x the price. It's a lot faster at diagnostic scanning and worked on the 2024 SUV. Also found several DTC codes on various modules with similar invalid/incorrect/missing signals and got them cleared.