Comand suddenly dying then restarting, has anyone else had this?

[gramey]

I was driving home from a friends this afternoon when suddenly my Comand unit decided to die, completely the navigation and stereo just shut down and no amount of pressing the on off knob would bring it back to life. I resigned myself to a visit to my local indy for a diagnosis when a few miles down the road it suddenly sprung back into life!
Has anyone else had this problem and if so any reason for why it should do this?

 

[LostKiwi]

The only thing I can think of is the head unit has a built in fan. If this failed and the unit overheated it may have triggered a shutdown. After it cooled a bit it may have restarted.

 

[Al Smith]

I was driving home from a friends this afternoon when suddenly my Comand unit decided to die, completely the navigation and stereo just shut down and no amount of pressing the on off knob would bring it back to life. I resigned myself to a visit to my local indy for a diagnosis when a few miles down the road it suddenly sprung back into life!
Has anyone else had this problem and if so any reason for why it should do this?

Don't know if this helps but I had a similar failure recently and by accident resolved the problem....as yet...by removal of a copied CD which was in the single play unit( not the 6 stack). A soon as this was removed ,the COMAND worked as normal....coincidence?....I'm no expert!

 

[gramey]

Don't know if this helps but I had a similar failure recently and by accident resolved the problem....as yet...by removal of a copied CD which was in the single play unit( not the 6 stack). A soon as this was removed ,the COMAND worked as normal....coincidence?....I'm no expert!

There was a navigation cd in there at the time and it randomly went off and came back on with the same cd in there and no further problems on the remainder of the journey, spooky!

 

[John Laidlaw]

As LK says or maybe your seats are the wrong colour?

 

[Naraic]

Is your systems Bose?

 

[Botus]

if its a 2003 car then the whole vehicle is at or around design life

over the last 40 years, cars were expensive and lasted 5 years if used hard, well maintained ones limped to 12 then rust finished them off, 30 years ago rust ceased killing them off and toys added to component parts list two fold whilst the purchase price stayed flat, and did for 20 years, so the accountants were asked to look at the business model

thus 20 years back someone suggested making all parts die to time. This started to be implemented circa 1995 and the seed was set, and they did a good job of getting them to die in 15 years... as this designed in obsolescence was perfected they have been driving this age younger and younger, down to the point legislation got in the way. So we have been running around with "some" differing elements dead around the 7 year mark sine 2007.... its been nicely judged to get you off the scent and not quite finish the car off completely. But enough to get 70% off the road, so new cars get sold and a nice profit earner for the manufacturer for those trying to keep theirs going

By 2010 all except Japanese and upcoming Korean brands (Toyota, Honda, Hyundai) have adopted this manufacturing technique. However the Germans throwing more and more toys and needing to pay their engineers silly money have both speeded up time to death and the purchase price to help them cream off much of the money sloshing around. Some of which was paid to corrupt politicians to help look the other way regarding legislation. All of which means the last 10 years pay rises that you missed out on have instead gone to your manager in his car allowance... so he nor politicians cause trouble as they move towards 5 years to death

 

[LostKiwi]

My 1993 r129, 2001 S210, 2002 r230 and 2004 Smart Roadster are all clearly on borrowed time! I'm glad the 230 made it through the 300 mile drive today without disintegrating into a pile of flying parts on the M6...
I wonder if I'm tempting fate with a 1000 mile drive in the 210 next week... Maybe I should check my life insurance is up to date....

 

[John Laidlaw]

Not sure how in hell all the modern Mercedes classic buyers survive?

 

[Merc 131]

The only thing I can think of is the head unit has a built in fan. If this failed and the unit overheated it may have triggered a shutdown. After it cooled a bit it may have restarted.

Hi, My command died completely a few months back. I eventually called Simon at mercedes navigation at knutsford. He will do any repair at your home for £200. The command system is fibreoptic. Turned out my cd multichanger had failed. He just removed it. Problem solved in 20 minutes. He said when I buy another, call him with the model number and he will send me the correct adapter. Really nice guy. Another strange thing recently, after switching off the engine and removing the key,my radio stayed on and lit up. 1 had to remove the radio fuse, number 4 I think, which is located in the end of the dashboard.just pulled out the fuse and replaced it and this reset the system.. hope this helps..

 

[Botus]

My 1993 r129, 2001 S210, 2002 r230 and 2004 Smart Roadster are all clearly on borrowed time! I'm glad the 230 made it through the 300 mile drive today without disintegrating into a pile of flying parts on the M6...
I wonder if I'm tempting fate with a 1000 mile drive in the 210 next week... Maybe I should check my life insurance is up to date....

well as most of the ones you list are of the age where I say they last, that's not much of a surprise is it?

let me give you some more thoughts on this great brand - when my first omega was getting on and I wanted a change, I looked at 3 W126's. The best one, which after an initial hour inspection looked brand new with only 40k miles (and I considered buying) had trim coming unglued on the door panels and headlining and was (just like the other 2 500s I'd tried) as gutless as hell. Nothing happened at all till after half an hour of encouraging a stiff lazy throttle to go further towards the carpet it hit 4k. Then its flew up the road with the back wheels trying to lose traction at any speed below 70 in the dry. It all went wrong when the wife spotted severe rust all round the rear number plate…. that together with a toy count less than a quarter of the Omega made me walk away and I kept the Omeba another 3 years

the only reason I got this w221 is because the 335d with its ACC was built for half size dwarfs with a throttle response measured in eons. The only other rear drive car I could sensibly afford with distronic and lots of toys was the w221... plus I stupidly believed merc still made them last like the 126's I should have searched harder and wasted another 10k on a 5 series

 

[John Laidlaw]

Hi, My command died completely a few months back. I eventually called Simon at mercedes navigation at knutsford. He will do any repair at your home for £200. The command system is fibreoptic. Turned out my cd multichanger had failed. He just removed it. Problem solved in 20 minutes. He said when I buy another, call him with the model number and he will send me the correct adapter. Really nice guy. Another strange thing recently, after switching off the engine and removing the key,my radio stayed on and lit up. 1 had to remove the radio fuse, number 4 I think, which is located in the end of the dashboard.just pulled out the fuse and replaced it and this reset the system.. hope this helps..

Sounds like a useful chap and local ish to me, need to google that...

 

[LostKiwi]

well as most of the ones you list are of the age where I say they last, that's not much of a surprise is it?

let me give you some more thoughts on this great brand - when my first omega was getting on and I wanted a change, I looked at 3 W126's. The best one, which after an initial hour inspection looked brand new with only 40k miles (and I considered buying) had trim coming unglued on the door panels and headlining and was (just like the other 2 500s I'd tried) as gutless as hell. Nothing happened at all till after half an hour of encouraging a stiff lazy throttle to go further towards the carpet it hit 4k. Then its flew up the road with the back wheels trying to lose traction at any speed below 70 in the dry. It all went wrong when the wife spotted severe rust all round the rear number plate…. that together with a toy count less than a quarter of the Omega made me walk away and I kept the Omeba another 3 years

the only reason I got this w221 is because the 335d with its ACC was built for half size dwarfs with a throttle response measured in eons. The only other rear drive car I could sensibly afford with distronic and lots of toys was the w221... plus I stupidly believed merc still made them last like the 126's I should have searched harder and wasted another 10k on a 5 series

Three cars are in the post 1995 "designed to fail" era and are all still running (and running well). By your opening sentence they are "At or around design life" yet show no signs of imminent demise. Admittedly the Smart could do with a new timing chain but given its done over 145k hard miles I'll forgive it that...

 

[John Laidlaw]

well as most of the ones you list are of the age where I say they last, that's not much of a surprise is it?

let me give you some more thoughts on this great brand - when my first omega was getting on and I wanted a change, I looked at 3 W126's. The best one, which after an initial hour inspection looked brand new with only 40k miles (and I considered buying) had trim coming unglued on the door panels and headlining and was (just like the other 2 500s I'd tried) as gutless as hell. Nothing happened at all till after half an hour of encouraging a stiff lazy throttle to go further towards the carpet it hit 4k. Then its flew up the road with the back wheels trying to lose traction at any speed below 70 in the dry. It all went wrong when the wife spotted severe rust all round the rear number plate…. that together with a toy count less than a quarter of the Omega made me walk away and I kept the Omeba another 3 years

the only reason I got this w221 is because the 335d with its ACC was built for half size dwarfs with a throttle response measured in eons. The only other rear drive car I could sensibly afford with distronic and lots of toys was the w221... plus I stupidly believed merc still made them last like the 126's I should have searched harder and wasted another 10k on a 5 series

Nice insight and of course it is good to have a balanced argument but you do realise this is a Mercedes forum don’t you? Mercedes like most brands are imperfect but most of us on here love them despite this- certainly don’t feel I would contribute only to say how rubbish they are- maybe it’s me

 

[Botus]

the majority of my posts are offering advice and support on faults / queries owners have. On balance I think I do more harm than good.

If any help make buyers of secondhand vehicles more aware I'm glad I did my bit. However I agree there are far too many posts from me where I mention problems and am quite critical... but that's not me, its the way they designed and built them

as for Lostkiwi, I didn't go through every eara of the last 40 years by brand...
but on average if designed before 2003 they tend to last 15 years
if designed 2005 to 2009 expect 10
after 2010 expect 5
the latest never buy lease it

cam chains..... with modern engineering and oils if serviced why do they wear at all ?

 

[jp williams]

Hi, My command died completely a few months back. I eventually called Simon at mercedes navigation at knutsford. He will do any repair at your home for £200. The command system is fibreoptic. Turned out my cd multichanger had failed. He just removed it. Problem solved in 20 minutes. He said when I buy another, call him with the model number and he will send me the correct adapter. Really nice guy. Another strange thing recently, after switching off the engine and removing the key,my radio stayed on and lit up. 1 had to remove the radio fuse, number 4 I think, which is located in the end of the dashboard.just pulled out the fuse and replaced it and this reset the system.. hope this helps..

What is the name of SIMON`S COMPANY PLEASE? IS IT AUTOLOGIC?

 

[Merc 131]

Me cedes navigation. Com i think, Knutsford .His name is Simon Tel 07967559445. He came to Coventry to repair mine £200 flat rate for repair or can replace entire system using your facia....Remember today is Sunday ???

 

[Merc 131]

Me cedes navigation. Com i think, Knutsford .His name is Simon Tel 07967559445. He came to Coventry to repair mine £200 flat rate for repair or can replace entire system using your facia....Remember today is Sunday ???

 

[John Laidlaw]

Me cedes navigation. Com i think, Knutsford .His name is Simon Tel 07967559445. He came to Coventry to repair mine £200 flat rate for repair or can replace entire system using your facia....Remember today is Sunday ???

Thanks for that - couldn’t find it on google!

 

[harrye500]

The chap in Knutsford is worth keeping in mind, not seen that name before. You know, I'm sure there must be some built in obsolescence in all brands nowadays, tech is such that, if they wanted to, they could make a resistor for example, last 50 years plus. But they don't, it's all down to cost I guess. My A207, I love it. Aside from rusty front brake lines needing to be done last service (I knew they needed doing), its great and I can't blame that on the car, just good old rusty pipes. It needs the subframe bushes doing next year, they're a bit squishy and brittle, I might get the engine mounts done at the same time, experiance tells me about 10 years old it will only be a good thing esp. with the weight of that 273 lump! I was wondering whether poly subframe bushes are available (maybe one for another forum section), I fitted them to my old Stag a few years back and the car was transformed! Sorry, I've strayed a bit on the subject!