C350e owners club

[EVBUS]

My C350e has the Comand Online option. When all connected up, it shows a wifi network in the car. Does anyone know how I connect my iPad to this? Eg how can I find out what the password is for the network?

 

[mbboyracer]

The car is seeing your iPad or your mobile phone so I suggest you find the option in your phone to enable it as an "Internet Hotspot". In the iPhone 6, the Personal Hotspot is in Settings with the other Communication items and you set your own password. I quickly disabled mine after experimenting as I couldn't see a use for it. If you want to load Destination data, it's quicker to do so on an SD card. Otherwise, why do you feel the need to do this - because you can...?

Your iPad will need a SIM card with Data enabled to connect onwards or use a "Smart Phone".

 

[ngeddie]

My C350e has the Comand Online option. When all connected up, it shows a wifi network in the car. Does anyone know how I connect my iPad to this? Eg how can I find out what the password is for the network?

Hi

The password is in the vehicle menu under wifi where you can also switch on / off the feature, near the bottom of the menu from memory. It will have one already but you can request command creates another

 

[ngeddie]

Here are some screen shots

 

[B33fy]

Brief update on mine, took to the dealers yesterday, now in bits with the rear end dismantled, they haven,t confirmed, although it looks like it's the water ingress problem.

 

[Dodgy]

Brief update on mine, took to the dealers yesterday, now in bits with the rear end dismantled, they haven,t confirmed, although it looks like it's the water ingress problem.

Do you charge in the rain?
Do you wipe the socket cap dry afterwards?
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and plugging it in, 'cos it's a better car when it's full of electrons


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[TheCorm]

I charge in the rain, when plugging in and unplugging I try and shelter the socket, but my colleague pointed out it collects a little water in the cap which I am only now wiping out before shutting, perhaps this is the cause?

 

[mardeman]

I charge in the rain, when plugging in and unplugging I try and shelter the socket, but my colleague pointed out it collects a little water in the cap which I am only now wiping out before shutting, perhaps this is the cause?

You shouldn't have to wipe anything.
I for one will not stand in the rain whilst I wipe the cap which should have had a better design in the first place.

 

[EVBUS]

Thank you. Got it working.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

Here are some screen shots

Where do you live? That's some bloody insect on the vents...;-)

 

[mbboyracer]

Just driven 500+ miles across France to the early Alps near Clermont Ferrand at an excruciating 55-60 mph without any top-up electric charging. In "e" mode and Hybrid nearly all the way and using COMAND route guidance. The car seems to work as expected and is giving me 43 mpg consistently and is keeping the electric charge at 1-3 miles. I forced a full charge for a short while and got the electric range up to 16 miles for the first time. That did reduce the displayed mpg to 36 but it soon recovered when those electric miles were used. No problem getting petrol.

Have had to use the haptic once or twice to escape from predatory trucks. Nice.

So this seems to be the going rate. Can't complain I suppose, given a 2L ICE and this heavy car. I'll be back to 55mpg doing local trips back home eventually.

That was days one and two. These are the results for days three and four that make up the second 500 mile of my trip to Lucca in NW Italy.

On day three with easing of the petrol situation in France, driving returned to sanity at 70-75 mph, ECO and comfort and Hybrid using Distronic, no Aircon, Result was 42mpg with electric miles again maintained at 1-3.

Day four, similar to three but driving in horrendous rain and traffic on the challenging ligurian coast road put it in Sport, Hybrid and Aircon ON. Result still 40-41 mpg AND electric miles increased at times to 6-8!

So, what do I think I have learned from all this - apart from the fun of the drive and admiration for the engineering of the car?

After this 1000+ mile drive, I don't think it matters a whole lot how you chose to set it up for a long drive without any base station charging as long as you are relaxed about the mpg within two or three. "Comfort" is all very well, but the car feels much livelier and happier in "Sport" even though the suspension was a little hard going over the ridges on the A26 and A12. Hybrid is best for nearly all situations unless you particularly want to interfere with the charging process for specific reasons.

As for the pronunciation of the French and Italian place names it is disgraceful that the COMAND system ever came to market in this condition and Mercedes should be ashamed - given that my previous 08 C-class had a much better system.

There may be a third report after the return trip in a couple of weeks - if there is anything useful to say.

It's time I completed my report on my trip to Italy through France and back during their petrol tanker strike without any intermediate HVB recharging. So it was all done from hydrocarbon energy after the intial run to the Plymouth car ferry depleted the HVB.
Nearly all long runs outbound were driven in "E" and "Hybrid" at a maximum of 55-60mph. Most importanlty, each "leg" was driven using COMAND SatNav guidance. The MFD images show one or two interesting moments:
From the left;
Image #1 shows a typical moment at the end of a trip;
Image #2 at the end of the same trip shows that 47.8mpg was achievable when the car was driven as stated;
Image #3 during the trip
Image #4 Got the HVB capacity up to 17 miles! A rare moment
Image #5 the final leg driving the car "properly" in "Sport" and "Hybrid"
The homeward runs with the improved petrol situation in France were driven at a maximum of 75-80.
The whole trip was 2380 miles. The final, individual, image shows the figures for all driving since the car was delivered.
Conclusions:
The car really likes "Sport" mode (so do I!).
Using the SatNav guidance is crucial; it was extraordinary to see the way in which the HVB miles were regulated in anticipation of mountains going up or down or driving on the flat. In almost every case, within about 10 miles of the destination, the HVB miles which had averaged between 1 and 5 miles, were used up and reduced to zero. I actually saw the HVB down at 9% on one occasion.
When driven long distance "properly", I will expect 40.3mpg from my car. Back home around my city I will get the very high figures we all like to see; ie, 50-60. Or even more if driven short distances without starting the ICE at all.
Since the big trip, I've done a 500 miler to Cambridge and back. On the motorway route (M5, M4, M25, A1(M) etc) the car returned 40.2mpg
On the return trip on "A" roads it achieved 35.4mpg. Acceleration is the killer - particularly around those Milton Keynes roundabouts.
So avoid harsh acceleration unless for pleasure or necessity!
Throughout all this the engine used about one litre of oil (it's supposed to - see the manual). I got mine from my dealer at ¼ of the price from Halfords and it's guaranteed to be the proper oil. The dipstick shows oil slightly discoloured as might be expected.

 

[mbboyracer]

My C350e has the Comand Online option. When all connected up, it shows a wifi network in the car. Does anyone know how I connect my iPad to this? Eg how can I find out what the password is for the network?

Hi

The password is in the vehicle menu under wifi where you can also switch on / off the feature, near the bottom of the menu from memory. It will have one already but you can request command creates another

Doing it this way around, aren't you setting up the car as the Server and the Device as the Client? What can you do with this and who is the Internet Service Provider, if any, for the car?

My suggestion is the other way around. The iPhone is the Hotspot and provides Internet to the car using, in my case, Vodafone. I could upload SatNav destinations to the car but it was tedious and much quicker using an SD card.

 

[Dodgy]

It's time I completed my report on my trip to Italy through France and back during their petrol tanker strike without any intermediate HVB recharging. So it was all done from hydrocarbon energy after the intial run to the Plymouth car ferry depleted the HVB.
Nearly all long runs outbound were driven in "E" and "Hybrid" at a maximum of 55-60mph. Most importanlty, each "leg" was driven using COMAND SatNav guidance. The MFD images show one or two interesting moments:
From the left;
Image #1 shows a typical moment at the end of a trip;
Image #2 at the end of the same trip shows that 47.8mpg was achievable when the car was driven as stated;
Image #3 during the trip
Image #4 Got the HVB capacity up to 17 miles! A rare moment
Image #5 the final leg driving the car "properly" in "Sport" and "Hybrid"
The homeward runs with the improved petrol situation in France were driven at a maximum of 75-80.
The whole trip was 2380 miles. The final, individual, image shows the figures for all driving since the car was delivered.
Conclusions:
The car really likes "Sport" mode (so do I!).
Using the SatNav guidance is crucial; it was extraordinary to see the way in which the HVB miles were regulated in anticipation of mountains going up or down or driving on the flat. In almost every case, within about 10 miles of the destination, the HVB miles which had averaged between 1 and 5 miles, were used up and reduced to zero. I actually saw the HVB down at 9% on one occasion.
When driven long distance "properly", I will expect 40.3mpg from my car. Back home around my city I will get the very high figures we all like to see; ie, 50-60. Or even more if driven short distances without starting the ICE at all.
Since the big trip, I've done a 500 miler to Cambridge and back. On the motorway route (M5, M4, M25, A1(M) etc) the car returned 40.2mpg
On the return trip on "A" roads it achieved 35.4mpg. Acceleration is the killer - particularly around those Milton Keynes roundabouts.
So avoid harsh acceleration unless for pleasure or necessity!
Throughout all this the engine used about one litre of oil (it's supposed to - see the manual). I got mine from my dealer at ¼ of the price from Halfords and it's guaranteed to be the proper oil. The dipstick shows oil slightly discoloured as might be expected.

My first long journey with no opportunity to recharge. Very high proportion of motorway @ 70mph. Just one or two lapses in my normal economical driving style.

Navigation was on and set to know the entire trip but without COMAND. Half the electric range was used in the first quarter of the journey. It appears that manual control of the hybrid mode is needed for those of us without COMAND. I flipped into charge for the last few miles of motorway on the outbound and return legs.

The highlight of the journey came when a Range Rover was all over the back of me at a roundabout. Leaving the roundabout on a slip road up to the motorway, I failed to maintain my gentle running in of the new engine. And the Range Rover failed to keep up. So did the Maserati that was trying to overtake both of us. I have to say I enjoyed this moment much more than trying to eke out the fuel over the rest of the journey.


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[Tekky]

Do you charge in the rain?
Do you wipe the socket cap dry afterwards?
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and plugging it in, 'cos it's a better car when it's full of electrons


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just took delivery of mine today, came with no electric range, drove mostly to work before realising I wasn't actually charging the battery at all - gave S+ a go, whilst fast I thought it would be faster - anyone know if having electric range would have made it faster ? or does nil range mean nil battery and therefore no extra BHP/Torque in S+ mode ?

Also, tried charging at work ( standard 13amp socket ) , everything looked ok ( lights flashing etc on the charger ) BUT the car showed no range after 3 hours ............ hopefully i just got something wrong but it shouldn't be this difficult !

 

[Dodgy]

Just took delivery of mine today, came with no electric range, drove mostly to work before realising I wasn't actually charging the battery at all - gave S+ a go, whilst fast I thought it would be faster - anyone know if having electric range would have made it faster ? or does nil range mean nil battery and therefore no extra BHP/Torque in S+ mode ?

Also, tried charging at work ( standard 13amp socket ) , everything looked ok ( lights flashing etc on the charger ) BUT the car showed no range after 3 hours ............ hopefully i just got something wrong but it shouldn't be this difficult !

Nil range doesn't mean nil battery. The battery rarely goes below 10%, so there will always be "boost" available.

S+ just shuts down the stop/start and not much else.

3 hours of charge should make a significant difference. Maybe 10 miles? Something not right there...


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[ngeddie]

Where do you live? That's some bloody insect on the vents...;-)

Spiders are big in the fens beware

 

[ngeddie]

Doing it this way around, aren't you setting up the car as the Server and the Device as the Client? What can you do with this and who is the Internet Service Provider, if any, for the car?

My suggestion is the other way around. The iPhone is the Hotspot and provides Internet to the car using, in my case, Vodafone. I could upload SatNav destinations to the car but it was tedious and much quicker using an SD card.

So it seems to use the data from my phone via the normal Bluetooth connection you make no fuss and no setup it seems. Great for the kids iPads when in the car as they just connect to the in car WiFi no messing just like in the house they connect automatically

 

[Weller]

From a post quite a while back I have also gone past the flashing last bar on the petrol gauge and had it disappear! I was on the M6 with 45 miles left according to the display before disappeared (extremely annoying) and 16 miles to services so figured 30ish should be fine being left in the tank... The bar started flashing and then went for about 3 miles before I reached the services. Filling up I squeezed in only 47.22 litres but was relieved to have made the services "just in case", don't know if I dare take it any further!

Anyone else had a play with the range?

 

[ryeltep]

Just took delivery of mine today, came with no electric range, drove mostly to work before realising I wasn't actually charging the battery at all - gave S+ a go, whilst fast I thought it would be faster - anyone know if having electric range would have made it faster ? or does nil range mean nil battery and therefore no extra BHP/Torque in S+ mode ?

Also, tried charging at work ( standard 13amp socket ) , everything looked ok ( lights flashing etc on the charger ) BUT the car showed no range after 3 hours ............ hopefully i just got something wrong but it shouldn't be this difficult !

Was there a green light at the socket on the car? It should light orange when you first plug in and then change to green in a few seconds once you have switched on at the mains. The charger should have two solid green lights and two or four flashing green lights depending on the current draw setting which you can change with the button on the charger block.


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[SeanC350e]

From a post quite a while back I have also gone past the flashing last bar on the petrol gauge and had it disappear! I was on the M6 with 45 miles left according to the display before disappeared (extremely annoying) and 16 miles to services so figured 30ish should be fine being left in the tank... The bar started flashing and then went for about 3 miles before I reached the services. Filling up I squeezed in only 47.22 litres but was relieved to have made the services "just in case", don't know if I dare take it any further!

Anyone else had a play with the range?

On Wednesday when I parked at the station I had 23 miles range when I got back from the station later that day I got a message saying insufficient fuel E-Mode only please fill immediately. Managed to get about 2 miles to the petrol station with no electric range either.


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