2003 MERCEDES-BENZ C CLASS COUPE dashboard

58 Safety and SecurityOccupant safety

Adjust the driver seat as far as possible
rearward, still permitting proper opera-
tion of vehicle controls. The distance
from the center of the driver’s breast-
bone to the center of the airbag cover on
the steering wheel must be at least ten
inches (25 cm) or more. You should be
able to accomplish this by a combina-
tion of adjustments to the seat and
steering wheel. If you have any prob-
lems, please see your authorized
Mercedes-Benz Center.


Do not lean with your head or chest
close to the steering wheel or dash-
board.


Keep hands on the outside of steering
wheel rim. Placing hands and arms in-
side the rim can increase the risk and
potential severity of hand/arm injury
when driver front airbag inflates.


Adjust the front passenger seat as far as
possible rearward from the dashboard
when the seat is occupied.


Occupants, especially children, should
never lean their heads in the area of the
door where the side airbag inflates. This
could result in serious injuries or death
should the airbag be triggered. Always
sit upright, properly use the seat belts
and appropriate size infant or child re-
straint system.


Children 12 years old and under must
never ride in the front seat, except in a
Mercedes-Benz authorized
BabySmart
TM compatible child seat,
which operates with the BabySmart
TM
system installed in the vehicle to deacti-
vate the passenger side front airbag
when it is properly installed. Otherwise
they will be struck by the airbag when it
inflates in a crash. If this happens, seri-
ous or fatal injury will result.
Failure to follow these instructions can re-
sult in severe injuries to you or other occu-
pants.
If you sell your vehicle you are responsible
to make the buyer aware of these points. Be
sure to give the buyer this Operator’s Manu-
al.
Warning!
G
Accident research shows that the safest
place for children in an automobile is in the
rear seat. Should you choose to place a child
12 years old or under in the front passenger
seat of your vehicle, you must properly use
a BabySmart
TM child restraint which will
turn off the passenger side front airbag.
BabySmart
TM will not, however, turn off any
side impact airbag.
It should be noted that with respect to both
front and rear side impact airbags there is a
possibility for a side airbag related injury if
occupants, especially children, are not prop-
erly seated or restrained when next to a side
airbag which needs to deploy rapidly in a
side impact in order to do its job.
To help avoid the possibility of injury, please
follow these guidelines:
(1) Occupants, especially children, should never place their bodies or lean their
heads in the area of the door or rear

96 Controls in detailLighting
LightingFor notes on how to switch on the head-
lamps and use the turn signals, see the
“Getting started” section (
page 47).
Exterior lamp switch
The exterior lamp switch is located on the
dashboard to the left of the steering wheel
M
Off
U
Automatic headlamp mode
C
Parking lamps (also side marker
lamps, tail lamps, license plate
lamps, instrument panel lamps)
Canada only: When engine is run-
ning, the low beam is also switched
on.
B
Low beam plus parking lamps or
high beam headlamps (combination
switch pushed forward).
ˆ
Standing lamps, right (turn left one
stop)
‚
Standing lamps, left (turn left two
stops)
iIf you remove the key and open the
driver’s door while the parking lamps or
low beam headlamps are switched on,
then

a warning sounds


$
appears in the multifunction
display


the message
TURN OFF LAMPS
ap-
pears in the multifunction display
iWith the daytime running lamp mode
activated and the engine running, the
low beam headlamps cannot be
switched off manually.

111
Controls in detail
Control system
Select radio station
Turn on the radio (
page 160). Vehi-
cles with COMAND*: Refer to separate
operating instructions.

Press button
è
or
ÿ
repeatedly
until you see the currently tuned sta-
tion in the display.
1 Station frequency
2 Waveband setting
3 Setting for station selection using
memory

Press button
k
or
j
repeatedly
until the desired station is found.
The type of search depends on the set-
ting for the station tuning
(
page 122):


The next stored station is selected
(SP)


Station search Operate the CD player*

Turn on the radio and select the CD
player (
page 160). Vehicles with CO-
MAND*: Refer to separate operating in-
structions.

Press button
è
or
ÿ
repeatedly
until the settings for the CD currently
being played are shown in the display.
1 Current track
2 Current CD (for CD changer*)

Press button
k
or
j
repeatedly
until the desired track is selected.
iYou can only store new stations using
the corresponding feature on the radio
(page 165). Vehicles with CO-
MAND*: Refer to separate operating in-
structions.
You can also operate the radio in the
usual manner.
iTo select a CD from the magazine,
press a number on the audio system or
the COMAND* system key pad located
in the center dashboard.

112 Controls in detailControl systemOperate the cassette player*
Turn on the radio and select the cas-
sette player (
page 160). Vehicles
with COMAND*: Refer to separate op-
erating instructions.

Press button
è
or
ÿ
repeatedly
until the settings for the cassette cur-
rently being played are shown in the
display.
1 Current side

Press button
j
to fast forward to
the next track.

Press button
k
to rewind the cas-
sette to the beginning of the current
track.
NAV menu
The
NAV
menu contains the functions need-
ed to operate your navigation system.

Press button
è
or
ÿ
repeatedly
until you see the message NAV
in the
display.


If the navigation system is switched off,
the message
NAV OFF
is shown in the
display.


If the navigation system is on, the mes-
sage
NAV ACTIVE
is shown in the dis-
play.
Please refer to the COMAND* manual for
instructions on how to activate the route
guidance system*.
Malfunction memory menu
Use the malfunction memory menu to scan
malfunction and warning messages that
may be stored in the system. What infor-
mation is shown in the display depends on
whether malfunctions have actually oc-
curred.
iTo select the reverse side of the tape,
press button below track number on
the audio system display, or enter re-
quest on the COMAND* system locat-
ed in the center dashboard.
Warning!
G
Malfunction and warning messages are only
indicated for certain systems and are inten-
tionally not very detailed. The malfunction
and warning messages are simply a remind-
er with respect to the operation of certain
systems and do not replace the owner’s
and/or driver’s responsibility to maintain
the vehicle’s operating safety by having all
required maintenance and safety checks
performed on the vehicle and by bringing
the vehicle to an authorized Mercedes-Benz
Center to address the malfunction and
warning messages (
page 252).

140 Controls in detailGood visibilityActivating exterior rear view mirror
parking position
Follow these steps to activate the mirror
parking position so that the passen-
ger-side exterior rear view mirror will be
turned downward to the stored positions.
Make sure you stored a parking posi-
tion for the passenger-side exterior
rear view mirror (
page 95)

Make sure that the
MIRROR SETTING
WHEN PARKING
function, found under
the
CONVENIENCE
submenu in the con-
trol system, is switched to
ON
(
page 124).

Switch on ignition.

Press button 2 (
page 40) for the pas-
senger-side exterior rear view mirror.

Place the gear selector lever in reverse
gear R .
The passenger-side exterior rear view
mirror will be turned downward in the
stored position. The exterior rear view mirror returns to its
previously stored driving position:


10 seconds after you put the gear se-
lector lever out of position
R


immediately once you exceed a vehicle
speed of approx. 6 mph (10 km/h)


immediately when you press the button
for driver’s side mirror (
page 40)
Headlamp cleaning system*
The switch is located on the left side of the
dashboard.
1 Headlamp washer switch
Switch on ignition.

Press switch 1.
The headlamps are cleaned with a
high-pressure water jet.
Information on filling up the washer reser-
voir can be found in the “Operation” sec-
tion (page 232).

149
Controls in detail
Climate control
Opening the air vent
Raise lever
1.
Closing the air vent

Lower lever 1. Rear passenger compartment adjust-
able air vents
1 Left center air vent
2 Thumbwheel for air volume control for
center air vents
3 Right center air vent
To open center air vents:
Turn thumbwheel 2 upward. Deactivating the climate control sys-
tem
Deactivating
Set the air volume control
(page 143) to position
0.
The indicator lamp on the button
comes on.
Reactivating

Set the air volume control
(page 143) to any speed.
iThe compartment can get very warm
due to its confined space. When storing
heat sensitive objects in the compart-
ment, close the air vent while heating
the passenger compartment.!Do not obstruct the air vent in the stor-
age compartment.
iThe temperature at the air vents for
rear passenger compartment 1 and 3
is the same as at the dashboard center
air vents.

152 Controls in detailAutomatic climate control* (Canada only)The automatic climate control is operation-
al whenever the engine is running. You can
operate the climate control system in ei-
ther the automatic or manual mode. The
system cools or heats the interior depend-
ing on the selected interior temperature
and the current outside temperature.
Nearly all dust particles, pollutants and
odors are filtered out before outside air en-
ters the passenger compartment through
the air distribution system.
The air conditioning will not engage (no
cooling) if the economy mode AC
OFF
mode
is selected (
page 151).
Setting the temperature
Use temperature controls 1 and 14 for the
left side or 6 and 7 for the right side to
separately adjust the air temperature on
each side of the passenger compartment.
You should raise or lower the temperature
setting in small increments, preferably
starting at 72°F (22°C). Increasing

Push temperature control
1 and/or 6.
The automatic climate control system
will correspondingly adjust the interior
air temperature.
Decreasing

Push temperature control 7
and/or 14.
The automatic climate control system
will correspondingly adjust the interior
air temperature.
Adding outside air

Turn thumbwheel 5 in dashboard
(page 150) to increase flow of out-
side air through air vents for center, left
and right sides and rear passenger
compartment.
Warning!
G
Follow the recommended settings for heat-
ing and cooling given on the following pag-
es. Otherwise the windows could fog up,
impairing visibility and endangering you and
others.
iIf the vehicle interior is hot, ventilate
the interior before driving off.
Keep the air intake grille in front of the
windshield free of snow and debris.iWhen operating the climate control
system in automatic mode, you will
only rarely need to adjust the tempera-
ture, air volume and air distribution.

158 Controls in detailAutomatic climate control* (Canada only)Residual heat and ventilation*
With the engine switched off, it is possible
to continue to heat or ventilate the interior
for up to 30 minutes. This feature makes
use of the residual heat produced by the
engine.
Activating
Turn the key in the starter switch to
position1 o r r e m ov e i t f r o m t h e s t a r t e r
switch.

Press button
T
(page 151)
The indicator lamp on button
T

comes on.
Deactivating

Press button
T
(page 151).
The indicator lamp on button
T

goes off.
The residual heat is automatically turned
off:


when the ignition is switched on


after about 30 minutes


if the battery voltage drops
Rear passenger compartment adjust-
able air vents Adjusting the air volume

Turn thumbwheel
2.
iHow long the system will provide heat-
ing depends on the coolant tempera-
ture and the temperature set by the
operator. The blower will run at speed
setting 1 regardless of the air distribu-
tion control setting.
Item
1
Left center air vent
2
Thumbwheel
3
Right center air vent
4
Air vent, closed
5
Air vent, opened
6
BloweriFour blower speeds are available.
The temperature at the air vents for
rear passenger compartment 1 and 3
is the same as at the dashboard center
air vents.