Comand APS: Help! Non-responsive behaviour

[alloam]

Hi all,

Comand APS was working fine this afternoon. My wife got back earlier this evening saying she couldn't switch it from the Radio to the CD Changer. Sure enough when I went out tonight, it is completely unresponsive.

Actually, it is a little more complicated than that. It is responding to the steering wheel comands, so you can change volume and radio station from there, and the screen is working fine. But none of the buttons on the Comand unit itself are responding. Indeed, the illumination behind the buttons isn't even coming on. Volume knob not functioning, On/Off button giving no response. It still shuts down and boots up on the ignition key.

I have tried the 5-3-7 hold reset trick but, of course, it does nothing as the buttons don't appear to be working.

Any ideas folks? Or is it goosed...

Just booked R320 in for a service on Wednesday at Mercedes Specialists in Glasgow... did it know it was going to be heading to the shop?!

Look forward to hearing your wisdom.

Cheers,

 

[whitenemesis]

Pull the fuse(s) and wait a couple of minutes before refitting, should reset the unit

 

[alloam]

Oh pants! Just went to try the fuse-pulling trick only to find no sign of the fuse allocation chart in the tool kit in the boot so I have no idea which fuse it will be...

I think it is going to have to wait until tomorrow morning now and some more light.

I'm gonna have to get myself a service manual for this motor, especially as we plan to keep it for awhile... where can I get one here in Blighty?

 

[whitenemesis]

Is there a fuse box in the drivers end of the dash? Allocation table may be in there?

No service manuals for modern Mercs, all electronic and on-line.

Owner handbooks available from MB ~£18

 

[alloam]

Tried pulling fuses and think I got the right one as when I reconnected the Comand went through a cycle of checking all the disks in the CD changer. However it made no difference.

The car was in to the mechanic for servicing today and there are no fault codes relating to the Comand and they haven't seen anything like it before. Rather frustrating. I'm thinking I may be very glad I took out the audio cover extension on the warranty I bought a couple of months ago.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Do you have Quentin'a warranty?

 

[alloam]

Yep, WarrantyWise. The car is needing a new air strut, plus these Comand gremlins. Will be the first test of the warranty.

 

[alloam]

The plot thickens...

Went over to the garage this morning to switch the R for the E as it is needing a service too and found the R with the bonnet up and the battery being charged. Apparently it was dead as a dodo when they went to fire it up this morning to get it back out of the workshop. Never had this before. So now they are hanging on to it for another night to see what happens tomorrow morning.

Aargh...

 

[alloam]

Car is back

Well, picked up the car today and dropped off the E for its own work. And, go figure, the Comand is working again fine. They reset again all that they could through STAR and that seems to have done the trick.

Car started fine this morning. Weird stuff. We'll see how it goes over the next few days as the car will need to go back in for a rear air strut that is leaking when the part comes in.

The battery collapse thing is really weird, because this is the third time this has happened to me. It happened twice with our now departed Espace. Everything was fine with it up until I took it into the garage for a service. When I went to pick it up, on two separate occasions (over a year apart) the battery was absolutely dead, once it wouldn't even unlock, on the second time I got into the car but it had no juice for glowplugs. After jumping the car to get it started on both occasions it was then perfectly fine. It really made me (makes me) wonder what they do in the garage that causes so much battery drain?

Anyway, glad to get the car back. But bit worried about cost of replacing the accumulators on the back of the W124 which I think are both shot.