02 e430
 

hello shop forum community--- i have a 2 part question. just bought an 02 e430 sport with 89k on ebay-love the car so far.(1)the digital read out for the temp guage and time is half readable-can this be repaired or is a new cluster needed?? (2) car only came with one smart key-- bought one on ebay for $30-is it possible to program the key i bought to work on my car?? or do i have to go to dealer and spend couple hundred for new key from mb. any info will be greatly appreciated. sam heard

I had a friend who bought a 2001 E320 with the same problem with the temp lcd, and he had it fixed, so I know it can be done.

Regarding the key....they are VIN specific, and need to be programmed by the dealer.

The advice on the forum is to never buy a key on ebay. Try the search function to see what you can find out.

Does the key start the car? If so the door locks can probably be initialized. There are two separate functions to a key with remote. The remote function can be learned/initialized without special equipment. The ability to start the car is programmed into the key by MB and is not repairable or programmable in the field OR DEALER. It works or it is junk!

The cluster can be had rebuilt here: http://www.beckmanntechnologies.com/ They don't show the 210 on their site but I'm pretty sure they do them.

BTW, the cluster will have to be coded if replaced.

I think your key is useless. The dealer doesn't program them - he orders VIN-specific keys from Huelsbeck und Furst (HuF).