2021 View Active Brake assist fail and cruise fail

BigTexEd · 09-04-2020, 09:53 AM

Hello,

We have a 3 week old 2021 View. After driving it for a couple hours, I get a message that says “Active Brake Assist Functions Limited.” At the same time, the adaptive cruise control goes inoperative. This happens all the time. After driving it for 15 hours on one trip, it was more than a nuisance. It happened to me the day I bought it, but it restored after I shut it off and then back on. On this last trip, it never reset. This is a new vehicle. The sensor locations are spotless.

I see that in 2019 there was a recall over this. A software issue. How can that be the case in 2021?

Has anyone else had this? How to fix it? Is there a number I can call to Mercedes to get an answer?

Thank you,
Ed

Morich · 09-04-2020, 10:19 AM

I would assume there is info in the packet from Winnebago and part of that should be for the vehicle. Seems logical that this would be a Mercedes issue.

crah · 09-04-2020, 10:29 AM

You need to bring it in to Mercedes for a software update and the radar replaced that is in your front middle bumper. This is a common problem. Your 2021 is going to be on a 2020 or 2019 sprinter chassis. Don't waste your time testing and trying again. It will fail on you during a long drive.

Winterbagoal · 09-04-2020, 11:02 AM

Plug your VIN into this decoder and it will tell you when your cab chassis was "born". crah is probably right about your date of birth.
https://www.mbdecoder.com

BigTexEd · 09-04-2020, 11:47 AM

Thank you guys so much!!!! The chassis is Sept 2020. I ordered it and waited. I see it on the sticker 9/20. I’ll take it in. Not having cruise is not good. Thank you!!!

mricet1005 · 09-05-2020, 08:09 AM

On my 20VJ, there radar sensor was incorrectly installed. After MB reinstalled in proper location and recalibrated it, the drive assist functions perfectly. Several others have reported the same issue with varying symptoms.

jimservice · 09-05-2020, 09:47 AM

We received our '21 View in May. Early on I had some difficulties. I found it was due to the location of the Tollway iPass I mounted close to the center of the windshield. I relocated to the passenger side, lower corner, and haven't had an issue since.

Goodspike · 09-05-2020, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimservice

We received our '21 View in May. Early on I had some difficulties. I found it was due to the location of the Tollway iPass I mounted close to the center of the windshield. I relocated to the passenger side, lower corner, and haven't had an issue since.

Putting things on the windshield or dash can be a problem with many different modern vehicles. On Subaru vehicles with their Eyesight system about 75% of the windshield is off limits (mainly the middle part). For that reason I switched to a smaller dash cam that easily fits in the lower left-hand corner of the windshield without being obstructing.

I'm not sure if this picture is accurate, but it's consistent with what I remember from Subaru. The entire area between the yellow lines is out of bounds, right down to the wipers.

https://dashcameras.net/wp-content/u...windshield.jpg

crah · 09-05-2020, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTexEd

Thank you guys so much!!!! The chassis is Sept 2020. I ordered it and waited. I see it on the sticker 9/20. I’ll take it in. Not having cruise is not good. Thank you!!!

The yellow sticker should have two numbers.

On the left should say manufactured by winnebago with month and year only e.g. 9/20 (September of 2020) on the right side it should say incomplete chassis with the month, day, and year. That is the date the chassis was complete from mercedes.

Rv manufactures buy many chassis in advance and need time to build the rv on top. So it is more typical to see rv models with a year older chassis. Late in the year builds have a chance of having the same year build chassis as the rv.

I dont believe the 2021 Mercedes sprinter chassis have been released yet.

**creativepart** · 09-05-2020, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTexEd

Thank you guys so much!!!! The chassis is Sept 2020. I ordered it and waited. I see it on the sticker 9/20. I’ll take it in. Not having cruise is not good. Thank you!!!

Ed... how would it be possible on the 5th of September for you to have in your possession a completed RV that the chassis was built by MB, delivered to Winnebago in Iowa, then delivered to your dealer within 5-days time?

Time travel, perhaps?

rprochnow · 09-06-2020, 08:50 PM

After driving in rain for part of a 3 hour drive on Friday morning, we had this warning at the end of the trip as we got close to the RV park.

When we left the park the next morning, the warning was still there.

After driving for a few minutes, the warning went away and the system began normal operation.

I cleaned the windshield - and didn't see any obstructions on the front.

We assumed the issue was related to driving in rain, and that the system needed good driving conditions for a while before the system recovered.

It is annoying that there doesn't appear to be a "normal cruise control" mode - that can work without traffic assist and maintain a set speed, relying on the driver to slow down when the gap gets too small with the vehicle in front...

BigTexEd · 09-09-2020, 11:25 AM

I took it to the MB dealer today. There was no software update required or radar replacement. It was out of calibration radar sensor. My VIN didn’t have any software updates required.

Chassis was made in March of 2020 by MB
Sent to up fitter in June 2020 to W
Delivered August 2020 to me.

Coach is marketed as 2021. The chassis is 2020.

crah · 09-09-2020, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTexEd

I took it to the MB dealer today. There was no software update required or radar replacement. It was out of calibration radar sensor. My VIN didn’t have any software updates required.

Chassis was made in March of 2020 by MB
Sent to up fitter in June 2020 to W
Delivered August 2020 to me.

Coach is marketed as 2021. The chassis is 2020.

Just FYI this issue with MB has been going on since the beginning of last year. Hopefully the radar adjustment does it. They adjusted mine a couple of times and it worked only shortly. They eventually had to replace the radar. Few of the trips where they adjusted mine but I had the same problem after a couple of tripsn didnt give me the warm and fuzzy about MB.

BigTexEd · 09-09-2020, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crah

Just FYI this issue with MB has been going on since the beginning of last year. Hopefully the radar adjustment does it. They adjusted mine a couple of times and it worked only shortly. They eventually had to replace the radar. Few of the trips where they adjusted mine but I had the same problem after a couple of tripsn didnt give me the warm and fuzzy about MB.

Thanks Crah,

I attached the repair order. I’m worried about this. My next trip is over a month long. Losing cruise is not fun. It’s about an hour each way to the MB dealer.

Colo · 06-05-2022, 10:30 PM

Hi BigTexEd,we have a 2021 that is sitting at MB in the Denver area with the same problem you had. They don’t seem very interested in resolving the issue even after I gave them this discussion thread.
Can you tell me what MB dealership fixed yours? I don’t see a name on the paperwork that is attached.
Thanks I’d appreciate any help.

rprochnow · 06-05-2022, 10:46 PM

We had our system "calibrated" and "adjusted" several times by our local Sprinter service - and the system appeared to work fine - until we again hit a lightly travelled road without any vehicles in front - and the system went offline again.

One comment we heard during these visits was that the system was designed to work in a Sprinter van - and that by adding the coach in the back, Winnebago had shifted the vehicle weight enough that the system kept going out of alignment.

The next time we brought it in, the Sprinter service, they were persistent and went up the chain - and eventually got to Mercedes engineering in Germany - and that's when they received confirmation the system is working exactly as designed.

When the system is running, if it doesn't see any vehicles in front for an extended period, the software decides the system is malfunctioning and then goes offline until the system can recalibrate itself after driving behind another vehicle.

I pressed to find out the exact timeouts and what drivers could do to avoid this - or when it did happen, exactly what the driver could do to more rapidly get the system to come back online.

Our Sprinter service was unable to get any specific answers from Mercedes engineering.

I tried to report this to the US Mercedes customer support group - but that group turns out to be a 3rd party that can only answer basic questions - they can't provide any feedback into Mercedes on potential problems like this.

I also reported this to Winnebago's customer support group. They contacted their Mercedes representative - and the response was that nothing could be done about this.

If enough Sprinter/Winnebago customers complain about this - perhaps that will increase the pressure to get something fixed.

But because Sprinter-based RVs are such a small market compared to the other Sprinter markets, it could be difficult to get Mercedes to do anything about this.

If your Sprinter dealer offers to recalibrate or adjust the sensors - based on what we know now, it seems unlikely this is a permanent fix - and as soon as you drive on a lightly traveled road (state/national parks), the system is likely to go offline again...

Our Sprinter dealer has basically given up on trying to fix this for us - since the problem is in the software - and nothing they can fix.

Maybe someone could make a case to the NTSB how this is making Sprinter-based RVs less safe to drive when this happens - like what Tesla is now facing with their "phantom braking" investigation...

Colo · 06-05-2022, 11:19 PM

We’ll see what MB come back with this week. Thanks for the info.

Splaktar · 06-14-2022, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winterbagoal

Plug your VIN into this decoder and it will tell you when your cab chassis was "born". crah is probably right about your date of birth.
https://www.mbdecoder.com

Thanks for this, but Doh! my 2022 View 24D comes back as "Not Found".

This site seems to be more updated for new vehicles and I was able to find info on my chassis here: https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Mercedes-Benz

rprochnow · 06-16-2022, 09:33 PM

On our current trip, I was pretty careful (almost all of the time) to disable cruise control every 10-15 minutes when no traffic ahead. And forgot one time - and then the cruise control (and other assist features) was disabled until the next day when I was able to drive behind another vehicle for a few minutes.

We have our 40K mile maintenance coming up - and I'll ask our Sprinter service to (again) check if there's any fix for this...