Project CLK55 AMG

[AMGeed]

Has your CLK got a black plastic box under the passenger seat?
That is where my first aid kit is on my W211 E class.

 

[Sasha94]

Don't know tbh, I'm about to go outside and have a peek as I want to have a look at the seat mat bypass kit to see if I can see anything obviously wrong with it. I would have done so earlier but sadly one of my neighbours was shot last night so we were ordered inside by the police until they caught the guy a few hours ago so I've been busy going through the CCTV and dash cams with them all day in case they caught anything of note. I heard the massive bang last night but didn't see anything. Turns out the guy didn't leave the house until 9 this morning! Bit creepy really

 

[Lord_Lucan]

Good lord! Is your village twinned with Basra? Keep the kiddiewinkles under close observation too at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious

 

[Sasha94]

No, it's unusual to have something this bad happen. The guy is in custody now so red alert is over, front door is still locked though and I've not been out yet as the media are back and I don't fancy having the Benz firing up in the background all over BBC Wales Today even though it would be a nice noise!!

 

[Sasha94]

So I've been to the car and had a look, found the seat mat emulator and checked the connections. I had to unwrap many layers of black tape to get somewhere but I eventually did and I found one of the soldered joints wasn't very good and if the joint was moved the connection to the emulator was interrupted, causing the SRS light to come on. After a quick tickle with the soldering iron and some new tape it was all better. I have put the emulator in a better place (taped to the big bar under the seat) so it can't move rather than leave it stuffed under the seat. It annoys me to know that although this emulator is what is triggering the seatbelt warning so a future mod is to somehow code this silly system out so the passenger belt light doesn't come on constantly!!

 

[LostKiwi]

Well done braving bullets and the intricacies of the SRS system!

 

[Sasha94]

Thanks, it's a needlessly complicated system IMO. A simple switch like the Volvo has to tell the car what to expect is a much better idea in my mind however I can see why they have tried to do better with this system, to eliminate people forgetting to trigger the switch. Although it may save a life, it costs those of use who aren't that dense a fortune as these parts fail!!

 

[Craiglxviii]

Thanks, it's a needlessly complicated system IMO. A simple switch like the Volvo has to tell the car what to expect is a much better idea in my mind however I can see why they have tried to do better with this system, to eliminate people forgetting to trigger the switch. Although it may save a life, it costs those of use who aren't that dense a fortune as these parts fail!!

Never, ever discount the German propensity for using twenty tons of small parts where one ton of large parts will do the job instead...

 

[peterws1957]

^^^ Funny

 

[John Laidlaw]

Never, ever discount the German propensity for using twenty tons of small parts where one ton of large parts will do the job instead...

Yip, why would you? Zis ees Ze safe Vay after all....(that might get me the sack!)
You should see what they do with our IT!!

 

[LostKiwi]

You only have to look at some of the systems they've come up with. SBC is a classic example.... lets put in a system where when the driver presses the brake pedal they operate a motor which compresses the fluid to activate the brakes.... Then throw in some fancy electronics to give it some 'features' and count how many times the pedal was pressed and when it gets to a point where we think it might fail we'll put up a great big warning on the dashboard and make everyone go to the dealer....

Everyone else just let the driver press the pedal to compress the fluid....

 

[JBell]

Everyone else just let the driver press the pedal to compress the fluid....

But in an Engineers mind that is far too simple

 

[LostKiwi]

But in an Engineers mind that is far too simple

Simple is elegant. Engineers like elegant solutions

 

[JBell]

Simple is elegant. Engineers like elegant solutions

But with SBC they got to put a big shiny silver box under the bonnet with shiny pipes coming out of it, who wouldn't want that!!

 

[LostKiwi]

But with SBC they got to put a big shiny silver box under the bonnet with shiny pipes coming out of it, who wouldn't want that!!

Good point! Now if only they'd put sharks on it as well.....

 

[keefysher]

Simple is elegant. Engineers like elegant solutions

Simple is efficient.

Proper Engineers like efficiency.

Commercial Engineers over complicate things in pursuit of the lowest price, often the highest cost. viz emissionsgate at VAG et al.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is well phrased for a sound reason

 

[turbopete]

But with SBC they got to put a big shiny silver box under the bonnet with shiny pipes coming out of it, who wouldn't want that!!

everybody wouldn't want that, assuming they had ANYTHING between their ears except cotton wool! apart from anything else, who on earth thought having an electronic braking system was a good idea anyhow?

 

[turbopete]

Simple is efficient.

Proper Engineers like efficiency.

Commercial Engineers over complicate things in pursuit of the lowest price, often the highest cost. viz emissionsgate at VAG et al.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is well phrased for a sound reason

totally agree BUT the problem is, they aren't keeping ANYTHING simple anymore. for example, what was wrong with the days where you fitted, for example, a cd player to a radio, connected it up, it powered up and worked. the same could be said in the more modern world of reversing cameras, for example. all you need is power and earth feeds to the camera, a reverse gear feed to activate the camera and the wiring to send the picture to the head unit. simple enough, or it should be. but no, now you have to plug the car into a laptop to actually tell the head unit theres a camera now connected etc. how is that keeping it simple?? yes some of the complex technology is a necessary evil (like for emissions) but some is just plain pointless (like the example ive used and I'm sure if I could be bothered I could think of plenty more!)

 

[Craiglxviii]

Simple is efficient.

Proper Engineers like efficiency.

Commercial Engineers over complicate things in pursuit of the lowest price, often the highest cost. viz emissionsgate at VAG et al.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is well phrased for a sound reason

Elegance and efficiency do rather go hand in hand when one gets down to brass tacks...

 

[Sasha94]

I'm very glad I didn't go for a CL or E55 now as the complexity is far too much!! The CLK being simpler is much easier to work with