W205: Allow car to "drive" with door open.

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woter324

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2015
Messages
32
Location
East Anglia
Car
C63 Saloon (W205)
Hi,

Not as crazy as it sounds.

Basically, if in 'D' or 'R' the action of opening the door puts the car in 'P' and applies the parking break.

If the door is not fully closed, attempting to put the car in 'D' or 'R' results in the cryptic message on the console and a pinging sound:

"Risk of vehicle rolling Transmission not in P"
JYTNwWMLHTqLH8dnZSxeeu6sXM76y5ZWt_PyQ9qI2Zg=w682-h909-no


This seems to be an "Americanisum" aka OTT safety feature that I would really like to disable as I would like to be able to "drive" the car with the door open, if I so choose!

I don't have VCDS (Audi-isum - can't remember the Merc equivalent).

Does anyone know how to disable this feature?

Thanks

W.
 
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What happens if you open the door while traveling at,say, 10mph?
 
Hi Renault12ts,

Not sure what happens if I am actually in motion. I can't imagine it would put the car in 'P' that would cause all sorts of damage.

It's more of a case of when maneuvering from stationary - looking for that illusive white line :).

Thanks

W.
 
The problem is you risk damage to your transmission when the car is rolling in N, it clearly says so in the manual. MB is hence trying to protect you from ruining the car.

If you really want to drive with the door open then you should just open the door after the car starts driving, it will let you do that albeit with a lot of noise.
 
The problem is you risk damage to your transmission when the car is rolling in N, it clearly says so in the manual. MB is hence trying to protect you from ruining the car.

If you really want to drive with the door open then you should just open the door after the car starts driving, it will let you do that albeit with a lot of noise.

I didn't see where the OP said anything about N.

Anyway rolling in N is bad...if you do it at 70mph...but not at walking pace.
 
Rolling at 70 mph is not bad if the engine is running, keeping the transmission oil pressure up (only old auto transmissions had two pumps, one building oil pressure from turning wheels).

OP, do you want to get rid of that warning message? Why does it bother you if you can still drive forward and backwards, just put the D or R gear and press the gas pedal. Did you try it?
 
OP, do you want to get rid of that warning message? Why does it bother you if you can still drive forward and backwards, just put the D or R gear and press the gas pedal. Did you try it?
If it's like my W212, if the door opens it engages Park. Period. Game over.
 
The problem is you risk damage to your transmission when the car is rolling in N, it clearly says so in the manual. MB is hence trying to protect you from ruining the car.

If you really want to drive with the door open then you should just open the door after the car starts driving, it will let you do that albeit with a lot of noise.

Hi FaeLLe,

As renault12ts says, I don't want to move the car in N, but that's interesting as I thought the car did that when the Sail icon comes up. Revs drop. I want to drive in D or R with the door open. Basically, so I can stick my head out the door to see if I am parallel to the white line designating the parking space. The birds-eye cam wasn't an option.

Thanks
W.
 
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OP, do you want to get rid of that warning message? Why does it bother you if you can still drive forward and backwards, just put the D or R gear and press the gas pedal. Did you try it?

Hi Diesel Benz,

It's not the warning message that I want to get rid of, although it could be improved to tell the driver what the actual problem is, but the actual "safety" feature that stops me moving from a standstill whilst the door is open.

One cannot engage D or R if the door is open. Only N. Yes, I have tried it. It's how I came across the problem and what the actual message was referring to.

Thanks

W.
 
Hi FaeLLe,

As renault12ts says, I don't want to move the car in N, but that's interesting as I thought the car did that when the Sail icon comes up. Revs drop. I want to drive in D or R with the door open. Basically, so I can stick my head out the door to see if I am parallel to the white line designating the parking space. The birds-eye cam wasn't an option.

Thanks
W.

You could use your mirrors?
If thats too much then perhaps it can be disabled in Star..?
 
If it's like my W212, if the door opens it engages Park. Period. Game over.

My 212 does this but then, despite the red 'YOU'RE NOT IN P' warning you can re-engage whatever gear and drive with the door open. Which is handy for me cos I need to position the car very accurately for the hoist feet.
What is annoying -and dangerous- is the ability to select neutral when on the move. Why? Because my 107 has the indicator lever on the right side and sometimes jumping from one car to the next it's easy to indicate left using the 212 gear selector by mistake which results in no drive. Whoever designed this bit of nonsense had never heard of the rule of unintended consequences. Downright dangerous imho.
 
The car automatically going into P aside, is it not the case that if you went into N at 70mph, the engine would then fall to idle speed, and the trans then possibly shift into 1st, then you'll presumably putting it back into D, which would then put huge stresses on the trans and redline the engine? Equivalent of putting a manual into first on the motorway?
 
I'd imagine the TCU monitors road speed as well as engine rpm and load, so would know not to select 1st?
 
Not sure.

I've gone into N at about 30 just out of curiosity and it didn't downshift, just engine fell to idle. Then putting it back into D just gave a bit of engine braking as the engine's rpm shot back up.

I'd imagine at 70 that'd be pretty severe.

Not like with a manual where you can use the clutch to gently raise the engine's rpm is it. :S
 
I thought it was to stop you getting yourself crushed between car and wall in the event that things got out of control. A fairly regular occurrence with truck drivers when leaning out of their cabs to reverse.
 
The car automatically going into P aside, is it not the case that if you went into N at 70mph, the engine would then fall to idle speed, and the trans then possibly shift into 1st, then you'll presumably putting it back into D, which would then put huge stresses on the trans and redline the engine? Equivalent of putting a manual into first on the motorway?

No, I had a problem a couple of years ago which meant knocking it into N was desirable when it could be done...when re engaging all I did was match the revs to the speed I was doing...no problem.

I stopped doing it however because my mechanic said it would cause other problems, though I wasn't sure what.
 
I did a little test this morning. Reversing at somewhere below 3 mph, I opener the door. Guess what. It engaged P, with the expected, mechanically painful jolt as a rotating gear instantly meshes with a static object.

Now, that's how to do damage. I wonder if there is a speed that it doesn't do it. Not that I'm about to try.

Anyway, anyone with any ideas on how to disable this 'feature'. An MY2011 E class, MY2015 A6, MY2010 S3 and MK6 GTI doesn't do it.

Thanks.

W.
 
Makes you dread to think what would happen if a passenger opens their door at speed, sounds like a stupid system.
 
Driver have had to disable the auto lock first.

Pretty sure MB would have this covered, its a fairly obvious scenario......
 

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