ASSYST on A160.

[FreckBlue]

Bought a new A160 for my wife in October 2001. My wife drives very low mileage - around 3000 miles a year.

After two years the ASSYST did not ask for service, but Mobilo requires a service every two years, so we had the first service at 6100 miles and 2 years. £300 The dealer claimed they had set the computer to count time rather than miles.

Exactly 12 months later the ASSYST demanded another service - at 9000 miles. I was told by the garage that it was because it was not being driven enough - frankly I did not believe this at the time, but felt that I had little choice.
Bill - £500.

This weekend (exactly 12 months since last warning) the ASSYST say I have 22 days to get the car serviced. Mileage is now 12000.

Advice from the garage - you do not use the car enough.

I was most interested to read on here (from IDMerc) that there is a known fault on the A Class Service indicator which counts down 2 days every calendar day. Has anybody else got this experience.

The car is now out of warranty, but I believe that the faullt was evident last year. However I may need to pay for diagnosis to prove the fault - minimum charge 1 hour @ £116 +vat. Not happy.

It would certainly explain why my car wishes to be serviced every year. I have complained to MB in Milton Keynes and await their response. I will post again to update you. If I get no joy here I will be taking this to the motoring press including Top Gear.

I will be changing my car (2003 E270CDi) in March - and at the moment it might be replaced with a BMW 525 M Sport.

 

[jberks]

I have to say, your dealer sounds incredibly expensive and a liar to boot. £300 - £500 for a service on an A160 is more than I pay my dealer for a service on an E240 and 12 months is blatantly a timed issue, not a mileage one. My E, doing pretty much entirely stop start and 6k per year, used to run 18 months between services on the assyst. The assyst does have an oil quality sensor (it does on the E anyway) so it can judge more accurately when it's needed but if 3k and 12months can kill the oil, you'd have to ask what crap they are putting in there for £500! I would also point out that as you have been overcharged for a service that you didn't need, they should do the diagnostic for nothing.

It's true that there is a very common fault with A's counting down in 2 day chunks. I guess the easiest way to check is let it get to x days and see how quickly it drops. In any case, as you say, Mobilio states every 2 years so this is how often it genuinly needs doing.

The quick and cheap solution is to reset the assyst yourself - Its very easy, see http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=10453&highlight=assyst+reset and if you want belt and braces, just get a local mechanic to change the oil and filter at the same time - should cost £25 or so (not £300!) though its not really necessary. As you say, so long as the book is stamped every 24 months by the dealer, you're Mobilio is safe and that's all you really need to protect.

Unfortunatley the dealers are still daft in what they choose to charge for. Most of us don't mind paying a little more for the normal things like services if they are more flexible on the little niggles we pop in with. Ours quoted my father £70 to replace a bulb behind his clock. I had mine done at a local MB specialist - 2 min job so no charge.(suffice to say - he turned them down and ended up at the specialist!).

 

[pascal]

This post I put for the benifit of those who want to service their own cars

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=10453&highlight=assyst+reset

If you want to extend the service, you can remove some oil and replenish with some new. But I would advise against just resetting the assyst, and doing nothing.

Having said that:
Problems with the Assyst not recording days correctly and giving wrong readings is well known.

Pascal

 

[LAMAR]

Your Car is telling you correct it requires a service evey X miles, worked out by the assyst or if the mileage is not reached within 1 year it will be called for on time.

 

[FreckBlue]

Assyst A160

Lamar,

the car IS counting two days for every day. All Mercedes dealers reckon it should go about two years between services if doing low mileage, then they say argh you aren't doing enough mileage. MobiloLife want the car serviced biannually.

This is a FAULT with assyst - not the car rightly wanting a service.

 

[FreckBlue]

So I finally got this sorted. The dealer told me that they have a procedure to check whether the car needs a service, or whether there is a fault in the binacle. I took my car to the dealers, and they reset the ASSYSY, rather than get the information. I was unhappy with this and finally persuaded them to come to home.

They struggled to get the relevant information, and agreed that the car shoud not need a service. I said I was unhappy that the ASSYST was now out of sync, and believed that the binacle had a fault. As a final check they looked at the ASSYST value on the car - instead of reading 10,000 (after reset) it now read 6600 miles - strange really because they claimed not to have reprogrammed it, but the value now works out correct with the mileage counting down - and acknowledging that I had done 3400 miles since last service - and the indicator is set for a two spanner service - as it should be.