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Can't reset service indicator, help!

26K views 21 replies 4 participants last post by  keyhole 
#1 ·
Ok, this used to be easy, but for some reason it's not working.
I have a message "Service A exceeded by 2 days" or something like that.

So, doors closed, trunk closed, hood closed, roof closed, key into position 1.
Scroll to temp readout.
Press reset button three times.
beep.
Voltage displayed.
using the right arrow button at the top left of steering wheel I can scroll to the VIN, a dyno test menu, the software versions, and back to the voltage, but I never get the service confirmation menu.

I thought I was good at following directions, but maybe not! :)
 
#3 ·
Thank you for your quick response, you are such a help here.

I tried that, both holding it down and pressing it briefly.
I wonder if somehow, when the dealership replaced my battery a month ago they changed the software somehow so that only the dealer can reset the service interval indicator? Or is that too much of a conspiracy theory???

I can post up a video to show what I'm doing if that would help?
 
#4 ·
So, doors closed, trunk closed, hood closed, roof closed, key into position 1.
Scroll to temp readout.
Press reset button three times.
beep.
Voltage displayed.
using the right arrow button at the top left of steering wheel I can scroll to the VIN, a dyno test menu, the software versions, and back to the voltage, but I never get the service confirmation menu.
I think that you are not doing the right procedure. You have to switch to key posn 2.

See the following document from the C209 forum sticky section.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/att...de-march-mb-reset-service-indicator-guide.pdf
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the follow up...

Ok, so I followed the procedure on page 3 (CLK) to the letter, and when I get to the "Service Exceeded by 5 days" message, I press the reset button and it changes to "OIL GRADE 1.0QF" and then nothing works, not holding the reset button down for three seconds, not pushing + or -, nothing. If I press the arrows it starts to scroll through Software versions, VIN, voltage, and then back to the "Service Exceeded" message.
This is in key position 2.

Something is weird!
I'm telling you, they changed it so now I have to go to the dealer to reset it! It used to be so easy to reset!
 
#6 ·
Do you have any error messages appearing on the MFD? I seem to recall a while back, a forum member had similar issues and we think it was the error messages preventing access to the reset function. Of course it can be done via SDS if you simply can't figure out the MFD menus to do it.
 
#11 ·
When you get the "Oil Grade QF 1.0" displayed, press and hold the reset button (3-5 seconds) until it clears. The +/- buttons would be used here to select a different oil quality, but your car is programmed for only one, so that's which it does not change the display. Also, since there is no other quality to select, the up/down arrows don't do anything. Just press the reset button there.
 
#12 ·
I just did this reset, from what I could tell the procedure for 2003-4 is different from 2005 and later.

At least following the pdf in the stickies totally didn't work. I don't think I ever saw the "oil type" message.

It ended up being important to see temp on display, key in Position 2, get to the "exceeded byX days" and then holding the reset button down until I had to confirm.

Ended up being EASIER than the pdf
 
#21 ·
I just did this reset, from what I could tell the procedure for 2003-4 is different from 2005 and later.

At least following the pdf in the stickies totally didn't work. I don't think I ever saw the "oil type" message.
I have dug out this old thread because after doing an oil change recently I was also unable to perform a Service Reset using the procedure that I have used successfully many times before!

Also, I can also no longer find the 'oil type' message that I once could. So I was in the same position as 93SoCal400E here.

It ended up being important to see temp on display, key in Position 2, get to the "exceeded by X days" and then holding the reset button down until I had to confirm.
This is how I eventually managed to do my own Service Reset. I did have to hold the reset button for some time for the display to change.

I cannot blame MB workshops here as the car has not been inside one for over 4 years.


Ended up being EASIER than the pdf
I agree. This an alternative route that works OK. There must be a reason for my procedure in the stickies to fail - but I cannot fathom it out yet....
 
#13 ·
Hello everyone,

Thanks for sticking with me on this. Rudeney, I tried exactly that, I tried getting to the oil grade and holding the reset button down (the mileage reset, but nothing else happened), I tried getting to the "Service exceeded by x days" and doing the 3 second reset thing, nothing. Here's a short video of me trying your advice, let me know if I did something wrong?



This is just crazy perplexing. Anyone know if the software version I'm running (shown in the previous video) is a brand new one or something?
 
#16 ·
Since you live in a very populous area, I'll bet you have a few good indy shops around that likely have SDS and can do this for much less - the dealer will probably charge an hour's labor (over $100). A good indy will be a lower hourly rate, plus not charge a full hour since it only takes may 15 minutes (and they don't have to pay for car washer, lattes, and loaner cars). In fact, they might not charge at all in hopes of getting your future business.
 
#17 ·
HAHAHA!
You must know all about Fletcher Jones Motorcars, the single largest Mercedes dealer by volume in the world.
Yep, washes, lattes, babysitting, shopping services, it goes on and on. Was just there and there were 4 new SLS with Suadi plates. Crazy.
I will take your advice and report back here on what happened.
 
#18 ·
Yes, I have heard of FJ - and very little of it is good! But honestly, this is the case with all dealers. Service is the prime profit center for all dealers, and the SA's are commissioned sales people. They make their money on the typical MBZ owner who wouldn't know an oil filter from a brake pad and believe the dealership is the only place to service their cars.
 
#20 ·
I doubt it. I can find nothing in SDS that would do this. They can download new firmware to the cluster, but I doubt they would take the time to do that unless you had a specific problem they were trying to solve as that costs more of a tech's time. Even so, I don't think any firmware ever took away the ability to reset the oil change interval.
 
#22 ·
I wanted to delete & re-write my post above, but my time to do that has now elapsed.

However, I found the Service Reset procedure as used by 93SoCal400E in a US version of the CLK Owners Manual. It is attached below.

This is different to that in my European CLK Owners Manual which I had been using before and was giving me problems.

This works every time for me, and I hope that it works for others. :smile
 
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