W211 COMAND seems to have gone haywire

[Londonscottish]

Hi all,

I replaced my Blackberry 9800 with a 9810 the other day and spent a good while trying to pair it up with the COMAND blue tooth system.

Tried over and over again with no joy. It would sometimes appear to be connected for a few seconds before disconnecting.

The the "Bluetooth" option disappeared from COMAND "server" menu. How odd.

Then asked a mate to try to connect his phone - it would "connect to audio" but nothing else. Mine was doing the same at this point - turning off the audio on the actual handset without actually switching on the audio on COMAND.

Then I noticed that the handset seemed to be switching to bluetooth audio whether I wanted it to or not. Even when the car was parked up with the engine off and key out of the ignition.

And two days later my battery is flat as a pancake.

My crude diagnosis is that the MB Bluetooth system has thrown a wobbly and is constantly on and is draining the battery (is this actually possible?).

Also, strangely, the RH and central audio channels started occasionally disappearing at the same time - sometimes when I had the tuner on sometimes when I had the CD changer on and sometimes when I had the CD player on. This happened at the same time as when the Bluetooth option disappeared from the COMAND menu.

All very odd. I'll get the AA over tomorrow to get the car fired up an I guess they'll be able to test for a current drain if not isolate it.

If I lived anywhere near Comand Online I'd drop in there but I'm in London.

Any idea how I can get a diagnosis? Will STAR show anything?

Has anyone else seen any symptoms like this?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

[richard]

What age is your car, and when you pair on the phone, what are you pairing with (what is the name of the device)

Richard

 

[Londonscottish]

What age is your car, and when you pair on the phone, what are you pairing with (what is the name of the device)

Richard

Hi Richard, thanks for the response.

The car is a March 2005 W211.

The Bluetooth module has the following on the back (it's a removeable one that attaches in the top section of the central arm rest);

B6 787 5877
08W 19
109006
PIEKER Acoustic

Physically it's the same shape as this one although the light and logos are a bit different

http://www.comandonline.co.uk/Mercedes-Bluetooth-HFP-Cradle.html

When the handset finds the bluetooth signal it sees the "MB Phone System". I'm then prompted to enter the code 62872

The old hand set was a Blackberry Torch 9800 (always worked fine). The new one is a Blackberry Torch 9810. The other handset that failed to connect properly was a recent Android of some description. Prior to the Blackberries I had a selection of Nokias and they all worked fine.

Thanks

 

[richard]

It is possible that something on the Audio system is keeping everything awake and running the battery down. It does stay on for a few minutes after ignition off, but if you come back to the car a few minutes later and it pairs before you unlock the car, then the system is still on (which it shouldnt be)

It could be that something in the new phone info has tripped a software bug somewhere. There are software updates for
AGW (the amplifier/tuner) done with Star Diagnosis (early 2006)
COMAND (MY07 firmware update, mid 2006 (done with update disk in head unit)
The navigation processor firmware is on the nav disk
HFP module, probably is a s/w update but needs Star diagnosis & special tool (Comand Online can do this one for you if you send them it)
Phone controller, again special tool needed with Star diagnosis

But, what Id do first is to pull the AGW fuse (40Amp fuse in fusebox on lhs in boot), and see if that resolves the issue.

The cutting out sound whilst listening to radio, would point me toward an issue with the AGW (which of course could be a hardware issue aswell as a software issue, but the fact it happened at the same time as the phone change does suggest a s/w problem to me. The phone controller "rebooting" could cause exactly the same issues.
(as the radio and amp are both in the AGW a lot of other stuff can go completely wrong, but sound radio will keep going).

Richard

 

[Londonscottish]

It is possible that something on the Audio system is keeping everything awake and running the battery down. It does stay on for a few minutes after ignition off, but if you come back to the car a few minutes later and it pairs before you unlock the car, then the system is still on (which it shouldnt be)

It could be that something in the new phone info has tripped a software bug somewhere. There are software updates for
AGW (the amplifier/tuner) done with Star Diagnosis (early 2006)
COMAND (MY07 firmware update, mid 2006 (done with update disk in head unit)
The navigation processor firmware is on the nav disk
HFP module, probably is a s/w update but needs Star diagnosis & special tool (Comand Online can do this one for you if you send them it)
Phone controller, again special tool needed with Star diagnosis

But, what Id do first is to pull the AGW fuse (40Amp fuse in fusebox on lhs in boot), and see if that resolves the issue.

The cutting out sound whilst listening to radio, would point me toward an issue with the AGW (which of course could be a hardware issue aswell as a software issue, but the fact it happened at the same time as the phone change does suggest a s/w problem to me. The phone controller "rebooting" could cause exactly the same issues.
(as the radio and amp are both in the AGW a lot of other stuff can go completely wrong, but sound radio will keep going).

Richard

Thanks Richard!

Plenty to be going on. And yes it was still pairing on Thu afternoon several hours after I'd locked the car up.

If I needed to bring the car to you where are you based?

 

[Londonscottish]

Many thanks Richard.

AA came round and got it fired up. Everything had re-set itself whilst powered down. The Bluetooth option had re-appeared on the Server menu the phone connected first time, no current drain on the batter.

Thanks again for your help.

You guys are great and I send everyone I come across on Pistonheads or anywhere else to you when they have a COMAND question or requirement.

PS my eight year old has chosen these smilies;

:bannana:

 

[richard]

Lightwater (M3 J3)

he flat battery sounds like it did the same as removing the fuse for the AGW I suspect !!

Thanks for the complement !!

Richard