The 453 comes with 3 option for the gearbox. The turbo and non turbo petrol model had the option for either manual or auto. The electric drive model only came with a fixed ratio gearbox (not yet covered here). Manual Gearbox Fluid Change Post yourself under the car...
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Kane Harrison
453 Glovebox Removal
Removing the glovebox is one of those annoying jobs that requires a lot of other things to be moved around it. This is for a Right Hand Drive car but for a Left Hand Drive it should just be the mirror of what you see below. Pull the surround away from the glovebox....
453 GPS Important Update
453 Smart GPS Week Rollover Bug PSA: Media-System in smart 453 is affected by the GPS Week Number Rollover bug. You MUST have updated before April 6th, 2019 in order to keep the time working correctly. Hey folks! On April 6th, 2019, GPS will experience a Week Number...
453 Hand Brake Adjustment
If your handbrake lifts up too high, it can run out of travel before it properly applies the rear brakes. Thankfully it's easy to adjust and a better option that the problematic auto-adjusters in the previous models. With the handbrake raised, look underneath the...
453 Headlight Adjusters
The most important part of the removal and refitting of the 453 headlight adjusters is to turn on the ignition and turn the headlight adjustment wheel to position 4. Wait a few seconds and turn the car off. This lowers the reflector in the headlight and extends the...
453 Headlight Adjustment
Remove the bonnet panel and let it hang from the front of the car. Look on the top of the headlight. The white adjustment screw is in the top of the electronic adjuster. You have the option of a cross head screwdriver... ...or what is far better, a 6mm allan key. Turn...
453 Headlight Bulb Change
Remove the bonnet and look behind the headlight with the bulb you want to change. Arrowed below is the bulb cover. Push the top back and lift it out from the car. Put it on the scuttle so you don't lose it. You can now see the back of the bulb and the electrical...
453 Headlight Pinout
Pre Facelift Headlight - Basic Pin Number Wire Colour Function/Connection 1 Grey Standing Light Signal 2 Blue Standing Light + 3 Green Low Beam 4 Black Earth/Ground 5 Pink High Beam 6 N/C Pin Number Wire Colour Function/Connection 1 N/C 2 N/C 3 N/C Pre...
453 Headlight Removal
To gain access to the headlights, you have to remove the front bumper, see here. This is what you'll be left with. Using a 10mm hex or Torx30, remove the inner bolt. Look at the front edge of the arch panel and remove these 2 bolts also. This disconnects it from the...
453 Headlight Upgrade
These are the boring standard headlights with warm white DRLs. Let's change them for the upgrade headlights. On the left is the old, on the right is the new. Same again but lit up. The upgrade headlights have a cool white strip which looks much nicer. Remove the front...
453 Heated Seat Retrofit
Does your 453 not have heated seats? Do you want heated seats? It's probably not as tricky as you think. Warning - you are disconnecting and reconnecting seats with airbags built in. Disconnect the battery before starting. If you are too heroic to disconnect the...
453 Heater Resister Removal
Turn yourself upside down and throw yourself as hard as you can into the nearside footwell. Take a torch with you. Look to the centre of the car and you'll see the cabin fan. Just forward of the fan, you'll see another connector. This is the heater resistor. Squeeze...
453 Horn Fault
453 Horn Doesn't Work This is a new one that's appearing more regularly on the 453. What confused me was that most people also had issues with their headlights in some way. So, I took a long look at the terrible wiring diagrams for the 453 to see if I could find a...
453 Horn Upgrade
Like all previous smart models, the horn is an embarrassment. A single unit that's far too quiet. What we need is a pair of tone matched horns (high and low frequency). Remove the front panel to access the main horn. It's just below the offside headlight... ...hidden...
453 Ignition Key Stuck
My Ignition Key Won't Come Out! Yep, it's a new common problem, only on petrol 453's with an automatic gearbox or the 453 ED/EQ electric drive cars. Why Doesn't It Just Come Out Like A Normal Key? On the manual cars, the car doesn't care what position the gearbox is...
453 Indicator Bulb Change
Small Access Panel Look into the front edge of the front wheel arches on your 453. You'll see a flap. Pull the tab down and pull the flap by the central finger hold. You don't need to jack the car up to gain access but if you need more room, go for it. Just steering...
453 JBL Boot Sub Woofer
Removable JBL Sub Woofer Information This is the sub that can be bought from smart (part numbers coming later with the other parts required). It's a fairly compact bass box that can be fitted and removed from the left hand side of the boot. The speaker is 165mm in...
453 JBL Tweeters
Important People, will you please stop getting ripped off! I have lost count how many times I have heard someone say: "smart/Mercedes will be expensive for parts so I bought parts from somewhere else" Where do you think these 3rd party companies buy these specialist...
453 Key Fob Battery
453 Original Style Before smart transistioned over to the flip key style, we had this crappy Renault key. Flip it over and... ...remove the screw. The blade can be pulled out if you want. You don't have to. Pull the 2 halves apart and you'll see the CR2016 battery in...
453 Lambda Sensors
Non Turbo B90 Position Number Of Wires Bandwidth Part Number Upstream (manifold) 5 Wideband A453 542 05 00 DownStream (catalytic convertor) 4 Narrowband A453 542 06 00 Turbo B91 Position Number Of Wires Bandwidth Part Number Upstream (turbo) 5 Wideband A453 542 05 00...