2003 MERCEDES-BENZ CLK55AMG 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 front airbag when it
is properly installed. Otherwise they will
be struck by the airbag when it inflates
in a crash. If this happens, serious or fa-
tal 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 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 where the
side airbag inflates. This could

104 Controls in detailMemory functionYou can store a parking position for the
passenger exterior rear view mirror for
each SmartKey or SmartKey with
KEYLESS-GO* using the memory switch.
1Memory button
2Adjustment button
3Passenger side exterior rear view mir-
ror

Stop the vehicle.

Switch ignition on (if not already on).

Press button3 on the dashboard to the
left of the steering wheel.
The passenger side exterior rear view
mirror is selected.

Adjust the exterior rear view mirror
with button2 so that you see the rear
wheel and the curb.

Press memory button “M”1 on the
door.

Within three seconds, press bottom of
adjustment button2 above the exterior
lamp switch.
The parking position is stored if the
mirror does not move.For information about activating the park-
ing position, see “Parking position”
(
page 150)iIf the mirror does move, repeat the
above steps. You can move the mirror
again after the setting is stored.

105 Controls in detail
Lighting
Lighting
For notes on how to switch on the head-
lamps and use the turn signals, see the
“Getting started” section (
page 46).
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.

120 Controls in detailControl systemSelect radio station
Turn on the radio (
page 168). Vehi-
cle s wit h COMA ND* : Ref er to s epa ra te
operating instructions.

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

Press button
k
or
j
repeatedly
until the desired station is found.
The type of search depends on the setting
for the station tuning (
page 132):


The next stored station is selected (
SP)


Station searchOperate the CD player*

Turn on the radio and select the CD
player (
page 178). 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.1Current CD (for CD changer*)
2Current track

Press button
k
or
j
repeatedly
until the desired track is selected.
iYou can only store new stations using
the designated feature on the radio
(page 173). 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.

121 Controls in detail
Control system
Operate the Cassette player*
Turn on the radio and select the cas-
sette player (
page 174). 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.
1Current 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*.
Distronic* menu
Use the Distronic menu to display the cur-
rent settings for your Distronic system.
What information is shown in the display
depends on whether the Distronic system
is active or inactive.
Please refer to the “Driving systems” sec-
tion of this manual (
page 196) for in-
structions on how to activate Distronic.

Press button
è
or
ÿ
repeatedly
until you see one of the following two
pictures in the display.
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.

150 Controls in detailGood visibilityParking position
The button is located on the left side of the
dashboard.
1Passenger-side exterior mirror
2Driver’s side exterior mirror
You can store a parking position for an ex-
terior rear view mirror in the memory
(page 103).

Make sure that the
Mirror adjustment
parking aid function
, found under
the
Convenience
submenu in the con-
troll system, is switched on
(
page 135).

Switch on ignition.

Press button1 for the passenger-side
exterior rear view mirror.

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


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


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


immediately when you press the button
for driver’s side mirror

151 Controls in detail
Good visibility
Windshield wipers
Information on the windshield wipers is
found in the “Getting started” section
(page 47).
A rain sensor automatically controls the
windshield wipers depending on how wet
the windshield is.

Switch ignition on.

Set the wiper switch to position I
(page 48).
After the initial wipe, pauses between
wipes are automatically controlled by the
rain sensor which monitors the wetness of
the windshield.
Headlamp cleaning system*
The switch is located on the left side of the
dashboard.
1Headlamp washer switch
Switch on ignition.

Press switch1.
iIntermittent wiping is interrupted when
the vehicle is at a standstill and a front
door is opened.
!To prevent the windshield wipers from
being damaged, do not leave the wiper
switch in intermittent setting when the
vehicle is taken to an automatic car
wash or when cleaning the windshield.
The switch should not be left in inter-
mittent setting as the wipers will wipe
the windshield once every time the en-
gine is started. Dust that accumulates
on the windshield might scratch the
glass when wiping occurs on a dry
windshield.iIf intermittent wiping is on and you turn
the key in the steering lock from posi-
tion 1 to position 2 (
page 31) and
keep the key in that position longer
than 2 seconds, the wipe interval will
be set to approx. 5 seconds.

157 Controls in detail
Automatic climate control
Setting the temperature
Use temperature controls (
page 155)1
and2 for the left side or7 and8 for the
right side to separately adjust the air tem-
perature on each side of the passenger
compartment. You should raise or lower
the temperature setting in small incre-
ments, preferably starting at 72°F (22°C).Increasing

Push temperature control2 and/or7.
The automatic climate control system
will correspondingly adjust the interior
air temperature.
Decreasing

Push temperature control1 and/or8.
The automatic climate control system
will correspondingly adjust the interior
air temperature.Adding outside air

Turn thumbwheel8 in dashboard
(page 154) to increase flow of out-
side air through air vents for center, left
and right sides, as well as dashboard
top center and rear passenger com-
partment.
iWhen operating the climate control
system in automatic mode, you will
only rarely need to adjust the tempera-
ture, air volume and air distribution.