W204 Cruise Retrofit

[brochersrock]

Hello everyone!

Newbie here. Just ordered a c220cdi SE in Obsidian Black with the black cloth interior. Really chuffed about it, as I have always wanted a Mercedes . Only problem is it is a company car and we are not allowed any options. I have tried everything - Paying for ir myself, Safety angle, residuals, throwing a tantrum - but no change. So, I am left with a car with no cruise control, which I would really like.

I have searched the forum to see if there is any information, but can't see anything. Does anyone have any idea if it is possible and how you would go around doing it?

Thanks.

 

[st13phil]

I take it you can't get the car as an automatic? As an aside, I got so fed up with the restrictions of my company car scheme I took the cash alternative instead so that I could have what I want, not what someone else decides I can have.

 

[brochersrock]

Can't get it in automatic. The fleet managers attitude is that there is other cars in the group that offers Cruise. It is really annoying, as it is only a £145 option! I would quite happily pay it myself!! Never mind - if I can fit it myself, then I will!!

 

[mr. shr]

I thought cruise control is standard on all Mercs now?

 

[st13phil]

On the W204 it's standard only on the auto's

 

[st13phil]

Can't get it in automatic. The fleet managers attitude is that there is other cars in the group that offers Cruise. It is really annoying, as it is only a £145 option! I would quite happily pay it myself!! Never mind - if I can fit it myself, then I will!!

Somehow I think that the same mindset is present in the people who manage company car schemes and IT Network Support: I'll decide what you're going to have, because that way you know I have power over you

As for fitting it yourself, I don't know how easy/difficult it would be. The PITA bit on modern cars is dealing with the airbag if you need to take the wheel off. Oh, that and getting someone to re-code the car's system to tell it that it has cruise fitted. As one reference point, I currently drive a Golf which isn't fitted with cruise and looked into retrofitting it at my own expense. It's about a £185 option on most VW group cars at build time and there are quite a few firms that will do the retrofit for about £325 to £350. I suspect it would cost all of that on a W204, but somone else here may know better.

 

[crockers]

Dont see the point in cruise with a manual.......

 

[st13phil]

Dont see the point in cruise with a manual.......

I thought that until I actually had cruise on a manual transmission car. It works fine especially if you have a flexible torquey motor, like the 1.9 PD TDI VW units or my wife's MINI Cooper S. However, a friend of mine has it on a current 1.8V-TEC Civic and he reckons it's a pain in the rear on French autoroutes because the car just won't pull 6th up anything more than a very slight incline at 130kph.

 

[DansSlk]

How does you company's scheme work?

Do you intend on purchasing the car at the end of its lease to you if thats possible or would you return the car?

Perhaps if you plan on keeping the car it would be something to retrofit but if your going to return it is it worth the effort? The cruise is mostly software now but you still have a few hardware parts to add.

Are you even allowed to modify the car?

 

[richard]

Hi,

Looking at EPCnet, for some reason they have combined the combi-indicator switch and the cruise switch into one part, which means its going to be rather expensive.

On the auto's I think the rest is in now software, but I don't know on the manuals. This is likely to be a retrofit only do-able by someone with a real (not clone) Star Diagnosis machine because to enable it in the engine management the controller needs SCN coding after the database has been updated to show it has cruise. And SCN coding is only available to genuine Star machines, since it dynamically accesses the internal Mercedes databases.

(round where i am, this means its Dealer or www.comand.co.uk)

Cheers

Richard

 

[Rory]

Somehow I think that the same mindset is present in the people who manage company car schemes and IT Network Support: I'll decide what you're going to have, because that way you know I have power over you

We had one new colleague who spent ages deciding which bling wheels to have on his new 3 Series. How we laughed when he sent off his order to our "fleet manager" (MD's pain in the bum PA).

We couldn't even have estate version of A4 or 3 Series as we already had Peugeot 406 estates on the list. The fact that the Audi and BMW were cheaper was completely lost on the stupid woman.

 

[brochersrock]

Thanks for all the posts!

Where do I start!!

We get the choice of 6 cars in the group. BMW 320d ES, Saab 9-3 Vector Sport, Volvo 2.4 D5 S, Jaguar X-Type 2.2s and the new A4 2.0 TDI SE (April delivery). No options by order of the board! We too are not allowed estate's unless there is a "business case" for it!

We are not allowed to modify the car, but that has never stopped me before I too have a VW at the moment, and it is a piece of Cake to install Cruise. I agree with st13phil - a torquey engine really suit's cruise. Besides - I like the limiter in Merc's. The C220 has more power than my 06 passat and my old 53 Golf put together - so need to show the loud pedal some respect!!

I will need to read up on the information from Richard. Thanks for the help guys and gals!

 

[crockers]

One thought ---

If your Company's car policy is so rigid are you not jeopodising your job messing with the car - also ANY MODS need to be reported to the Company for insurance purposes. You could find yourself driving a car NOT covered by the company policy because of the MOD.

Is it all really worth this hassle?

 

[Rory]

....ANY MODS need to be reported to the Company for insurance purposes.

A few yrs ago we had Cavalier SRi's as standard isssue - chipping was done by changing an eprom memory chip in those days so being involved in the electronics industry meant that almost every car on the fleet was chipped!

 

[brochersrock]

There is lot's in life that is not worth the hassle !! You are right in that I don't need it, and it is hassle - but set my mind on it, so going to do my best to get it! Besides - I'm the Safety Manager, so it is me or my team who is going to investigate the accident:bannana: !!!!

 

[crockers]

There is lot's in life that is not worth the hassle !! You are right in that I don't need it, and it is hassle - but set my mind on it, so going to do my best to get it! Besides - I'm the Safety Manager, so it is me or my team who is going to investigate the accident:bannana: !!!!

Do you also do the insurance assessing? Are you self insured? An insurance assessor could if he wanted to be petty pick you up on this.. but its unlikely. At the end of the day - it's your call - to me I just don't see the need to put ones future at risk on the basis of cruise control - lol

 

[crockers]

A few yrs ago we had Cavalier SRi's as standard isssue - chipping was done by changing an eprom memory chip in those days so being involved in the electronics industry meant that almost every car on the fleet was chipped!

And of course reported to your insurers.....lol

 

[Toki88]

Hi!

I managed to finally retrofit Cruise Control to my W204 2007 220CDI 6-speed manual :bannana:

I had a trip to Hilden in Germany where there's a workshop called No Speed Limit. It turned out to be a MB Dealer which also retrofits basicaly every single thing you may want on your Benz. He was extremely helpfull, the job took him about 2 hours and he couldn't understand why nobody knows what to do about the Cruise retrofit. He does.

It cost me a lot, 1589 euro, but it was only because I needed the ECU replacement. Depending on the car, you either need to replace it or not. Mine had to which he told me seconds after I gave him my VIN number. If you don't need to do it he will charge you 399 euro. I don't know how he can tell wheter you need the change or not, but he did a lot of MBs CC retrofit and never had a problem.

Comand in Surrey knew nothing about the ECU problem and told me to come and they charge 300 pounds, but the Hilden guy was 100% positive it wouldn't work so I'm happy I gave up the trip to England.

So that's it! I have my cruise control on new MB original parts, works flawlessly and I LOVE IT! And the best part is that when i asked my dealer to check once again for cruise control retrofit and gave him the VIN he was just shocked and answered: "I don't know how you did it, i don't know who did it, but my factory Star tells me your car has Cruise from the factory" I simply love the way Hilden guys handled it and the factory cruise in my Benz!

If you still want it just visit: service-am-stern.de/ and talk with Axel

Cheers,
Toki

 

[mr. shr]

Well done on getting your mod done.

The bit about your VIN showing the car as having cruise control from factory is the SCN coding that Richard was talking about.

 

[richard]

Thats excellent - yes, we did not know about the ECU replacement- but at least we weren't the only ones. It is quite interesting that the ECU needs replacing, since they are all software updatable, and there is no hardware connection between the cruise control lever and the ECU (i.e its all over the car's network)

We had tried one manual W204 before, and we know we configured everything right with the datacard (the thing that shows what options are on the car within Mercedes, needed to code the car for most options now) and updated firmware in all the required units etc etc, but it just didn't work. (Came up with an error when operated). We've done a bunch of automatics and other manuals (such as A class) without issue - it was just this one that was difficult..

- do you know which ECU he actually replaced - I assume the engine management system (any part numbers on the invoice?)

It is really nice and refreshing to hear that there is an Mercedes dealer somewhere in the world that will do the retrofits that Mercedes headquarters say are not possible. After all, they are the ones with the access to all the Mercedes headquarters technical support...

Cheers

Richard