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The annoying "don't forget your key" beep

22K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  guney 
#1 ·
Does anybody know of a way to disable the "don't forget your key" beeps that you hear when the driver door is open while the engine is off? I searched for information in this forum and others, but I found no solution other than seeing some people describe that you can silence it (each time) by pressing any of the buttons on the steering wheel. Well, that just doesn't happen in my case. The car just keeps beeping until I close the door.

If you'll allow me to rant about this for a moment, I must say this is the stupidest warning beep I've ever seen! A warning beep is something that usually doesn't happen, so that when it does happen, it grabs your attention to alert you to the fact that something out of the ordinary is going on. If a "warning beep" is always sounded whether something out of the ordinary is happening or not, it's no longer a warning beep. It's just an annoyance!

What's worse is, when something is happening that I do need to be warned about, I have no idea anymore. Any time I hear a beep when the driver door is open, I simply curse at that darn beep again and go on my way. That's exactly what happened once: I had forgotten my lights on and I didn't notice it until I returned to the car! A warning beep that always sounds is an excellent way of desensitizing the user to the warning and of turning it into not being a warning at all anymore. Also hard to explain is why the beep doesn't at least change the way it sounds for other warnings versus the usual "don't forget your key" thing. Even a Volkswagen that I once had used to do that (despite the fact that it didn't suffer from this "always warn the driver about the key, no matter what" craziness)!

So, if any of you have any suggestions for eliminating or mitigating this stupidity, I'll be forever in your debt...

Between this, the steering wheel radio controls where the +/- keys do frequency tuning instead of navigating the presets, and the navigation system in a 2006 M Roadster I used to own where you needed to follow the actions to "enter new destination" when you needed to "end navigation", I'm now thoroughly convinced that German car designers know jack squat about usability design!
 
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#5 ·
Got an extra key in your wallet? Ignore this "annoying warning" by getting out and closing the door for that 5 minute dash into Starbux, and everyone within 3 parking spots will hear your rant. The first time mine locked itself, it was in my driveway. Even at the gas station, the key goes in my pocket.
 
#6 ·
I don't think you got what I'm trying to say. I never take the key out of my pocket when getting in, getting out, or driving the car. I always utilize the "Keyless Go" feature. The beeping is not because I'm actually leaving a key in the car. The beeping is always on when the driver's door is open and the engine is off, no matter what. Are you telling me that yours doesn't do that?

If I'm the only person here who has noticed and was bummed by this stupid "always" beep, I'll be surprised.

The idiocy of the concept of a warning beep that's designed to go off every time regardless of whether the thing it's warning you about is happening or not (because "it might be happening") is stunning to me. This is akin to a home burglar alarm that always sounds when you open the door to enter or leave your home (because "it might be a burglar who's opening the door").
 
#7 ·
Its one of those things you learn to ignore.
It does make me remember to take the key out of my pocket and give it to the Valet
when we go someplace nice with Valet Parking.

Like others said. I have an SL55. The 500 Horses and the fun of enjoying my car
far outshine the little "Ding Ding" "Remove Key" issue that lasts all of 30 seconds.

You may be able to disable it with a Star System. But never really bothered to try.
I no the dealer wont do it. But an Independent might if he has a Star Diag.

My suggestion is get over it. Your being a whiner. You should have got the AMG.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the feedback.

To clarify a bit, I'm not bothered so much by the beeping itself. Like any noise that's constantly repeated, it eventually becomes "background".

What I'm mainly miffed about is the fact that this eliminates any possibility of being warned about anything else when leaving the car. Part of me is wondering when the first time will be when I leave the car with the headlights left on and come back to a dead battery, because the warning for the headlights sounds identical (or even "is one and the same") with the key reminder beep that I always hear, which is ignored by default.

Like I explained in my original post above, this has already happened to me once, though that time I was lucky enough to return to the car before the battery was run down. However, there are many times when I don't return to the car for days on end. (It's a weekend driver.) So, technically, it's only a matter of time that the same thing happens when I'm away from the car long enough to end up with a dead battery.

I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the "engineering competence" that either didn't notice this down side to the concept of an "always sounded warning beep" (god, the stupidity of the concept still makes me smirk every time I see that phrase!) or thought that it wouldn't be a big deal.

I'm not actually uptight or hung up in any real sense (though my wordy postings may make it seem otherwise). I love the car. And I still thoroughly enjoy it. It's simply sublime. But this is like marrying a supermodel, and then finding out that she's perfect in every way except that she doesn't know how to tie shoe laces: It's no big deal; you could always tie them for her or she can avoid wearing shoes with laces. But the sheer dumbness of that one flaw in someone who's otherwise perfect is simply inexplicable.
 
#11 ·
Make sure you leave your Headlights on "Auto".
That eliminates the lights left on issue.
True. That's what I do myself.

However, there was still one case where I managed to forget the lights on in manual, after driving through a "daytime headlight" road section near my area during the day. Since I otherwise always use the auto setting, I completely forgot about turning them off when leaving the car, of course. And, naturally, the "perpetual beep" didn't mean anything special to me when leaving the car, even if the dashboard may have displayed a "headlights on" message at that moment. (Why would I check the dashboard when the car is doing the same beep that it always does?...)

If this is how the reasoning may have went by the engineers who designed this "feature" (in terms of betting on the use of the auto headlights), then my example clearly points to a gaping hole in it.

It's only a matter of time before I find myself again in a situation where I need to drive with the headlights manually turned on during the day for some reason or another, and I'll forget to turn them off for the same reason as the first time. I can do nothing about it other than keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be at a time when I have left the car long enough for the battery to die (or that there's some auto cut-off feature that might prevent the battery from going completely dead). "German engineering at its best."
 
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