Key Does Not Open Car Or Start Car!!
 

What Is Going On? I Drove The Car Yesterday And All Was Fine But Today We Can Not Open The Car With The Button On The Key Or Use The Key To Start The Car , And An Alarm Is Sounding When We Open Door. What Is Going On And How Do We Fix It ? I Must Use It For Work!!!!!!!!! It Is Sunday And All Service Departments Are Closed. Please Someone Help!!!!!!!! 2004 E32O

Your 2004 car is still under warranty, call Mobilo service number and they should send a technician to you,for number check your vehicle handbook. Geo.

How good is the battery in the remote-key ?

Welcome aboard Janet.

I would call MB roadside assistance immediately, they will look at it, maybe fix it and arrange to have it towed to the dealer where they should provide a loaner. Have you looked at the battery? THE REMOTE IS INFRARED the electronic key is inductive energy, but they both need battery power. "Manny" must be having a bad day... or is that his normal signature
1800FOR MERCEDES

Normal day for me. ;)
Signature is meant for the " Wanna' be " Lexus owners. :D
P.S. I get sick & tired of people badmouthing & *****ing about their M-B's.

I happen to like Manny's signature...and I concur 100% with the sentiment expressed therein.

Don't like your Benz, then move on....:D

And Janet, did you get your key problem fixed? If you did, tell us what it was.

Also, you need to post pics in your gallery, preferably of your car. :eek:

What do you mean you concur 10 % ?
Someday I may meet you face-to-face and will have to *****-slap you. :D

just to let you all know that a dead remote battery will not prevent the car from starting, even on the newer style smart keys. you can try this by pulling the battery and see that it will still start the car. the dead battery will only prevent the remote unlock / lock function

Bring it on big boy.........:D

I am getting careless with proof-reading. It must be yet another sign of advancing old age.

Janet's Beef
 

Personally I hope Janet does not reply Because Her Upper and Lower Case text is more annoying than all caps. What's up with...oops, I mean What's Up with That?
Also how could you not know your '04 is covered by MB road service?

everything was closed, she was likely hoping for a quick fix to get her where she neded to go.

My POS 02 Accord Coupe had a similar issue.... For some reason the car "forgot" the RFID chip in my key and the remote that I used mostly...... My second remote however was able unlock and start the car..... The dealer was eventually able to figure it out.....

It could be worse luckilly you have a Mercedes.... I had to drop the car off for 3 days without a loaner while the dealer "got around to" working on it.... Since I was not having any service work done $$$$$ it was a very low priorty for them to fix it..... If you called in and scheduled a service they could get you in next day but if you had a warranty repair to do suddenly they were booked for 2 weeks.....

You'd be surprised how many people (including MB owners) do notknow that Benzes are covered by MB road service for the life of the car, no matter how many owners the car has had.

Also, she may not have bought the car from a Benz dealer so she would have no idea what is covered or not.

As for the type she uses...oh well. :eek:

Tough room!
 

Whew! You guys are rough. Cut the lady a little slack Boxwood. No need to be mean.

One day, I might just call MB Roadside Service for my '79. Hmmm... :D

Metal Key
 

DUH!

I forgot about the metal key inside the optical key. You could pull the metal part out and use it manually to get it to the dealership. :)

The alarm is set when you lock the car with the remote. If you unlock the car with the key the alarm will usually sound and the car won't start because the alarm system thinks you are trying to steal the car. It sounds like the remote has a dead battery. Look in the owners manual for insrtuctions on how to replace battery and re-synchronize the remote. Let us know what happens and good luck.

Hmmmm,

Kinda Ironic really. The older alarms disarmed when a "key" was put into the ignition or door. Its interesting that the system is not smart enough to realize that the optical key is legitimate. The optical key is supposed to work without batteries through inductive power.

Im glad my 99 has the "old" switchblade key. At least when something funky happens electronically Im not stranded.

Not sure why MB switched from the Laser cut keys to the optical system anyway. The Laser cut keys made it nearly impossible to steal the cars anyway. Ask anybody who has had an ignition cylender failure how hard it would be to steal one of these cars. :)

Interesting...my 1998 E320 uses the "SmartKey."

Yes so do some of the 99 C class cars. I was really surprised when they handed me a flip key at the dealership for the test drive. One would think that the S class would have been the first car equipped with SmartKey. But since the w-140 was on the way out when it was introduced they probably wanted to wait for the new 220 body.

Honestly I prefer the flip key over the optical key anyway. The optical key seems kind of strange in my opinion.

Then I take it that you'd not like the new "push-button" start system where you keep the key in your pocket? :eek:

The SmartKey is not so smart when you need to get a new one.

BTW, you can only use the metal insert to open/lock the doors, trunk and glove compartment. It does not turn on the ignition.

Keyless Go
 

I dunno I like the concept of the keyless go system.... It actually adds some convenience for the added complication...... I don't think its worth the extra money though and it does add a bit of a security risk to your car..... I have read about people being able to unlock and steal keyless go equpped cars by camping out near the car overnight with a laptop and using brute force code cracking to fool the car into thinking that its correctly coded RFID chip is near......

With the optical key you still have to carrry around a key and its prone to more problems than the mechanical key without a lot of security added..... If a theif has access to make laser cut Mercedes Keys he probably has access to a roll back wrecker as well...... Most people don't pay much attention to a car with honking horns when its being towed away...... Especially if the tow truck has some bogus ABC parking enforcment magnetic sign on it......