The black gunk on your Mercedes wheels is brake dust: iron flakes, carbon residue and friction material that the brake pads and rotors shed every time you brake. Mercedes pads are tuned for performance and low noise, so they dust more than most. To remove it from the inside of the wheel and between the wheel nuts, let …

In Mercedes-Benz cars, BlueTech coolant is the liquid that controls the engine's temperature. It is usually a 50/50 mix of water and ethylene glycol: the ethylene glycol lowers the freezing point and the water carries the heat away. Never add plain water or plain antifreeze to the cooling system on its own; the coolant …

The "auxiliary battery malfunction" warning on a Mercedes-Benz means the small backup battery (or, on newer models, the voltage converter that replaces it) can no longer hold a charge. The usual fix is to replace that part. Most Mercedes models use a dual-battery system: the main vehicle battery plus this …

Yes. On many Mercedes-Benz models from 2014/2015 onwards that have the COMAND or Audio 20 multimedia system (version NTG5.1) but no smartphone integration, you can add Apple CarPlay and Android Auto without replacing any hardware. You plug an Auto Activation Tool into the car's OBD II port, the head unit downloads the …

You cannot simply restart the SOS on an older Mercedes. If your car shows "SOS TeleAID service is not Activated" or "SOS defective Please Visit Workshop", it has the old analog TeleAid system, which stopped working when the analog cellular network shut down around February 2008. You have two fixes: …

To reset a Mercedes-Benz key fob, put the key in the ignition switch with the car switched off, press and hold the "lock" button, pull the key out while still holding "lock" for 10 seconds, press the "unlock" button (open padlock) 5 times in a row without letting go of "lock", …

To reset the Mercedes Actros gearbox, turn the ignition to position "2" so all dash lights come on, press the accelerator to the floor past the kickdown switch and hold it for 8 to 10 seconds, turn the ignition off while keeping the pedal down, then release the pedal slowly and wait 2 minutes before starting …

P13DF on a Mercedes diesel means a faulty sensor in the AdBlue (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) system: the sensor that monitors the AdBlue pressure, which controls how the fluid is injected into the exhaust. Start by checking the AdBlue level and topping it up. If the code stays, check the temperature and NOx sensors around the …

"ECU 128" on the dash of a Freightliner truck (Daimler) means the engine's electronic control unit has detected a fault somewhere in the engine's electronic control system. The message alone does not tell you which part failed. For that you need the full fault code, for example 128 001 06, where the middle …