Originally Posted by Gilly

Prior comment about CAN is way off from what CAN is. CAN is Controller Area Network, it was when many wires were eliminated by having multiple control units communicating over a common line. True MB was early in using this technology, but you would think of this more as having different control units "talking" to each other. For example if the engine temp is read in to the engine control module, and the climate control unit needs to know the engine temp, instead of a seperate sensor for the climate control, the climate control would get this information from the engine control unit. Climate control might also get the engine RPM from the engine control unit to determine if it's safe to engage the AC compressor, for example.