Retrofitting electronic bits...

[Telebass]

My last car was a Renault Laguna II Dynamique Techno. This had a fair number of factory-fitted toys, but lacked cruise control. I bought the various bits and fitted them, and hey presto, it all came to life.
Are Mercs built the same way? Can I just plug in a Distronic system, for example? Or indeed, any other bits and pieces?

 

[whitenemesis]

You can retro-fit anything the car was offered with. But MB don't usually build cars with redundant looms etc.. You would need to fit everything and get the car coded for the additions.

What are you thinking of fitting?

 

[Telebass]

Distronic sprang to mind. Nothing else I'd want, to be honest - I'm enjoying this car a great deal! Just need to fix some minor faults, and it's perfect.

 

[mersum1es]

Distronic can be retrofitted, just read a nice DIY report in Finnish MB forum...
trouble is that control boxes may differ between model years, and coding may be slightly different and part numbers may be need to match between the versions. Star coding is then needed to different modules (zgw, instrument cluster, cdi etc.). Newer MY cars are needed additional scn coding.

 

[whitenemesis]

Distronic sensors are horrifically expensive! You might be able to find one second hand but not sure about compatibility with other parts.

 

[Stratman]

Is it not the case that later model cars report back to mothership at each service and if what you have doesn't match what it thinks you bought, it deletes it?

 

[whitenemesis]

I don't think so, it's more you can't code anything new without getting the file from MB Germany. So you can fit what you like but without that file the car wont know it's fitted / it wont function.

 

[Telebass]

Given the need for coding/reprogramming, I won't pursue this idea. Shame...