Unauthorised upgrade

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allycat63

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
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3
Car
C220 estate
I rang up Mercedes 2 weeks ago to get my car body work inspected, fire opal red, usual problem, blisters and flaking lacquer. Arrived at the showroom, took the keys off me, 3/4 hour later they come back to me and say " we've done the two jobs, we will let you know on the paintwork." I said it only came down for the paintwork inspection. Turns out they did a software upgrade to do with the emissions I think. Not very happy with this, they even disconnected my dashcam so I couldn't tell they had been under the bonnet. Is this the right thing to do without my permission?
 
You're not alone... many threads on here from members who have a Diesel car and had the software update done without asking them.
 
If you own the car, by that I mean it's not leased from MB or on their PPI or other in house purchase contract, I'd tell them to put it back to how it was, and don't accept excuses or reasons it can't be done, on the other hand if the car really belongs to MB, and you only have it for two years on lease , they can probably do whatever they like with or without your permission. Last March my E350cdi went for service I told them I didn't want the SW update, they said it's your car sir, so you can do whatever you like, so I did and did not have the upgrade. 🚴🛌
 
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The answer may lie in whether the dealer has to log the car on to Mercedes in Germany in order to process any paintwork warranty claim??
 
Thread duplication:

 
Hi Peter 103,
Yes I do own the car, and I said to them is this been done because of the claim going on against MB for emissions, they said it was a recall upgrade, but I have never received a letter. I did say would it make s difference to my power or economy, don't know was the answer. Is it possible to put back an upgrade.
 
Well, as far as I'm aware you should have had a letter explaining all about the upgrade, and that nothing detrimental to performance of fuel economy will be altered, and further that extensive testing has been applied to ensure all remains as is. Of course we all know this is bo11oc£s, if you read up on here there are lots of peed off mb owners. Re fuel consumption, not changing up through gears, lack of oomph etc.
If as you say they have carried out the work without your knowledge and against your wishes, then it is incumbent upon them to put things back to the way they were, no ifs no buts just do it. No excuses. Court action, Small claims court is simple straightforward and gets good results. Get to it. 👍🏋️🚴
 
I would perhaps let the paint claim go through first before kicking up a stink about the software downgrade .
Ha ha, yes. Good point.
 
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.
. Is it possible to put back an upgrade.

There are two potential issues here.

The first is the practical issue is that firmware uploads are done via STAR, while connected online to the MB central computer, and the software files need to be approved by MB's computer before the upload goes ahead. Usually this is done to ensure that techs can't upload a firmware file that is not suitable for (or compatible with) the car, but it is also possible that MB will use this feature to block the downgrade of this particular software update. I.e., if the MB central computer does not validate the files, they won't upload, or possibly the old files may no longer be available at all.

The second is that if the old software was 'not to current standards', then the dealer may be legally prevented from actively re-applying the old software, even if it is technically possible to do so.

The only way to find-out is to ask the dealer....
 
I had a rather similar problem with my wife's iPad. After she died, I carried on using it occasionally, until Apple automatically downloaded an update after which I needed her password to get back in. I didn't know it.

Apple's answer was basically "Tough Sh1t. We can only reset it to factory settings, so you'll lose everything on it now".
 
I had a rather similar problem with my wife's iPad. After she died, I carried on using it occasionally, until Apple automatically downloaded an update after which I needed her password to get back in. I didn't know it.

Apple's answer was basically "Tough Sh1t. We can only reset it to factory settings, so you'll lose everything on it now".
Another issue I had with Apple , back when I hadn't considered the problem , was that when software updates became available (iOS) I used to just automatically apply them .

At some point , after updating iOS , I found that some piece of software I used ( can't now remember what ) stopped working ) and Apple would not allow you to step backwards to the previous version .

I did eventually find a workaround and resolved the issue , but MB may be the same and may not allow reversion to an earlier version .

With my computers it was relatively simple , because I keep all my original installation discs and if ever I found an update had negative consequences , I would wipe the machine and put in a clean install , then go through all the incremental updates until I got where I wanted to be ( I also kept the downloads stored on an external drive in case they ever became unavailable ) .
 

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