Digital Clock

xpc316e · 10-07-2008, 04:43 PM

My year 2000 E320's digital clock loses a couple of minutes every day. Every other car I've had with a digital clock has kept perfect time. In the great scheme of things it is very minor, but I find it irritating. Does anybody know of an easy, inexpensive cure?

greekCL · 10-07-2008, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xpc316e

My year 2000 E320's digital clock loses a couple of minutes every day. Every other car I've had with a digital clock has kept perfect time. In the great scheme of things it is very minor, but I find it irritating. Does anybody know of an easy, inexpensive cure?

Should I guess that maybe your battery is not healthy? ... but maybe it is something else. I am only guessing.

Diesel Benz · 10-07-2008, 05:44 PM

The clock should be running with so low voltage that I would not assume the battery being an issue. I have not seen a similar issue but considering how digital clocks generally work, it sounds like your crystal circuitry has a fault, or the crystal itself has failed (that usually asks for a mechanical shock, not likely on a car), perhaps one of the capacitors has soldering issues or something similar.

The clock is clearly faulty, I'm afraid the dealer option would be to change the cluster (isn't the clock part of the cluster on a W210). An electronics expert might find a low cost solution, perhaps some of those who repair instrument clusters for lost LCD segments etc.

xpc316e · 10-07-2008, 09:57 PM

The battery is very healthy, so it's most likely a new cluster that's needed. As I said it's annoying, but it's not that annoying - I understand that it's big money for a new instrument cluster.

Diesel Benz · 11-07-2008, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xpc316e

The battery is very healthy, so it's most likely a new cluster that's needed. As I said it's annoying, but it's not that annoying - I understand that it's big money for a new instrument cluster.

The clock behaving like that would be pretty annoying for me, sounds like you are much more tolerable with issues like this, good for your blood pressure.

Anyway I find changing the whole cluster too expensive, it also asks for SDS programming etc. The very least would be another old, broken cluster with a working clock. Something that could be a DIY fix or at least not that expensive at an IC repair shop?

10-07-2008, 04:43 PM	#1
xpc316e Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Bury St Edmunds Car: Mercedes E320 Estate 2000 Posts: 84	Digital Clock My year 2000 E320's digital clock loses a couple of minutes every day. Every other car I've had with a digital clock has kept perfect time. In the great scheme of things it is very minor, but I find it irritating. Does anybody know of an easy, inexpensive cure?

10-07-2008, 05:44 PM	#3
Diesel Benz Hardcore MB Enthusiast Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Europe Car: 221.122 & 212.025 & 204.089 Posts: 2,593	The clock should be running with so low voltage that I would not assume the battery being an issue. I have not seen a similar issue but considering how digital clocks generally work, it sounds like your crystal circuitry has a fault, or the crystal itself has failed (that usually asks for a mechanical shock, not likely on a car), perhaps one of the capacitors has soldering issues or something similar. The clock is clearly faulty, I'm afraid the dealer option would be to change the cluster (isn't the clock part of the cluster on a W210). An electronics expert might find a low cost solution, perhaps some of those who repair instrument clusters for lost LCD segments etc.

10-07-2008, 09:57 PM	#4
xpc316e Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Bury St Edmunds Car: Mercedes E320 Estate 2000 Posts: 84	The battery is very healthy, so it's most likely a new cluster that's needed. As I said it's annoying, but it's not that annoying - I understand that it's big money for a new instrument cluster.

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