Some questions on W204

[Guest yonghwee]

Hi bros,

I have some questions on the W204, a bit embarrassing to ask. But it's being on the back of my mind for so long, thought I should just ask here.

- My SE says to turn off the air con before switching off the engine. Is this really necessary?

- The air intake mode for air con is default to external (ie. not circulate). Every time there's a motor bike in front of me, I can smell their exhaust. Is this normal? Anyway to default it to circulate? It actually switches back to external after 30mins.

- The ignition key requires some force to pull out after switching off the engine. Is this normal or do I have to press something?

- I see that there's this feature called "Run Flat Indicator" on the screen computer. Is this for the tire and does that mean the tire is run flat? I didn't know that the car runs on run flat tire.

- Is it normal that the gap between the body parts are so far apart? ie. the engine bonnet, boot and door gaps. I thought merc should be much more closer. I saw even honda closer that mine.

- On reverse gear and with the steering wheel fully turned to one side, the car seems to shake. Is this normal? The engine actually died once while I was reversing with wheel fully hard right.

Hope you guys don't mind, I can be really clueless when it comes to cars. Got questions on computers/web can ask me... that one I good at ;D

[Guest Cklasse]

Here's my thought;

- My SE says to turn off the air con before switching off the engine. Is this really necessary?

I have heard of such advice to turn off air con so that when the engine is started, it won't load more on the engine during the initial start. To me is..what the heck! don't bother turning it off. Why so troublesome driving a car?

- The air intake mode for air con is default to external (ie. not circulate). Every time there's a motor bike in front of me, I can smell their exhaust. Is this normal? Anyway to default it to circulate? It actually switches back to external after 30mins.

My previous W168 has the same feature and my current W203 has it too. So I would like to think all Merc has this common feature. Just have to live with this and turn vent shut every 30 mins. Look at it this way, in a long drive, the car ensures you get your air refresh so that you don't breath stale air. This is a good feature to have.

- The ignition key requires some force to pull out after switching off the engine. Is this normal or do I have to press something?

It not silky smooth when pulling out my W203 key

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