S204 w204 C350 nitpicking issues, dash lights, 7th gear on motorway etc

[philnewmerc]

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone can shed light on the following:

The centre console illumination stays off, even when the headlights are on, until the car deems it necessary to illuminate. Therefore often i cannot see the little buttons due to the dim grey light outside and no backlight. Any way to switch them on????

The car goes into 7th at about 70 mph and will keep in 7th down to about 55 mph, but if I only accelerate up to 65 mph it will not change up to 7th unless I use manual mode. Is this normal????

On auto setting the climate control fan is on a highish speed and quite noisy until manually turned down, even when the car is fully warm. Is this normal??? Any way to change it so auto doesn't blast away?

When de-misting the windscreen the aircon red LED goes off... I thought air con should be on for de-misting? The manual says red led on = air con on, but is this right???? Hard to tell as in winter the air coming in is always cold !

Coming up to a stop the car feels like it coasts the final sub 15 mph distance and then goes into gear again once stopped. Feels odd and not in the manual but I assume it's a normal fuel saving function????? Hopefully!

Cheers!

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

I’m not sure which controls you mean for your first point, but the 7th gear thing is because it’s had the MB emissions ECU update.

After the update, the 7G/7G+ boxes only going to 7th gear at 74 mph, instead of at 54mph before the update. It will also go into seventh gear if you accelerate really hard e.g. onto the motorway, and then cruise, strangely it will go into seventh. On the motorway you have to basically use manual gears if you want to be in seventh and getting the best fuel economy.

It’s because most of Europe has a limit of 120 km/h (which is just a fraction over 74 mph) or 130kmh, it’s only the UK which has a top speed of 70 miles an hour, and they don’t really give a crap about the drivability of their old 7G based cars in the UK.

The aircon is indeed on when de-misting - you can’t turn it on/off in that mode so it just takes over. It would probably make more sense if that light was fixed on rather than fixed off.

The climate control fans will settle down once the desired temperature in the car has been achieved… It’s climate control, not ‘air-conditioning’.

Haven’t noticed a problem final gear ‘issue’ you posted but the auto box is pretty clever and uses engine braking (eg going down hill) and it is indeed in gear but it just changes up to a higher gear. Yes, it probably saves a bit of fuel, but all auto boxes I’ve used do something similar.

 

[philnewmerc]

Many thanks for the detailed reply.

Can the update be reversed? I wonder if that is hurting the mpg - only 34 mpg driven normally. Might be normal but is disappointing (that's a brim to brim calculation). Not being in top gear on the motorway seems very odd.

The lights I'm talking about are the backlight Illumination of the centre console buttons. It is off until the car decides (presumably via an ambiant light sensor) to put them on. I'd prefer them on all the time as i struggle to find the tiny buttons sometimes.

Cheers

 

[DSM10000]

The software update cannot be reversed I believe.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

No, it cannot be reversed I’m afraid, even with a remap etc. Use manual mode to select 7th on the motorway.