Benzgeist

So I left my 2012 E350 Cabrio's seat in the full forward tilt position to reduce the amount of sun on the seat while it is sitting outside. After only two days the battery is dead. The whole car is dead. Not a hint of electrical response. Would leaving the seat in that position drain the battery flat, or do I need to be looking at something else? It's been flawless and left at the airport for days at a time with no problem and it is driven regularly. This is the first time I've done the seat thing for any length of time.

laramr

Ever replaced the battery? If not it's almost 4 years old and probably just gave up the ghost.

beejAMG

lol, unless somebody was playing with the seat the whole time, it wouldnt have any effect on your battery. have the battery tested and start from there.

J666

My car did the exact same thing but the seat was in the normal position. I jumped it and had no issues after.

NCBob

My battery died and left the entire car without power.
To start, I removed the battery connections, cleaned both terminals, reconnected and all is good. Full power.
Try that first.

Benzgeist

I put a trickle charger on it last night to charge overnight. Zilch. My local independent Mercedes-Benz repair shop (Auto Haus Williamsburg/Yorktown) came straight out when I called them this morning and put a proper charger on it and it fired right up. The driver hauled it off on the flatbed anyway so they can check it out and replace the battery. It's about 1500 miles away from the 60K service, so I just asked them to do that as well. One less trip to the shop in a month's time.
This is one of the things I hate about the new technology and by no means is Mercedes the only marque affected. I've had exactly the same thing happen with two late model BMWs and a late model Jaguar. Everything works fine with no indication of a weakening battery and the next thing you know the car is as dead a a door nail. Well, as least it happened at home this time on a nice Spring day and not in the airport parking lot, late at night on a freezing January evening after an extremely long travel/work day, like it did with my ex-Jag.
OK, rant over.
I'll let you know if it turns out to be anything other than a dead battery.
BTW, Auto Haus, my local MB independent sales and service shop, is the best place I've ever had to work with to service and/or repair any of my cars; BMW, Jag and Mercedes Benz. They've pointed out things and fixed problems the dealerships missed or mis-diagnosed, or could not repair after multiple visits. In my 60+ years I don't think I've come across a better run automotive sales and service business. They also have a "classics" section, which restores any and all Mercedes to whatever level your pocketbook will allow. I've seen some stunning cars come out of their restoration facility.

beejAMG

good to know things are being taken cared of. hope its an easy and inexpensive fix. keep us posted mate. cheers!

Benzgeist

As suspected, it was a dead battery. Inconclusive whether leaving the seat forward would have had anything to do with draining the last remaining life out of the 4+ year old storage cell.

C230Brit

Thanks for posting the result.

Sorry I only just saw your post - I recently had the same issue with my 2010 Coupe.

Oddly, mine happened while I was changing the rims on the car from winter to summer.
I had moved the car fractionally back into the garage and cleaned up. Later, I went to move the car all the way into the garage so I could close the garage door and the car just wouldn't start. This seemed very odd considering I'd just moved it about 10 minutes prior.

I called Mercedes Benz Roadside Assistance out to have a look the next morning and the tech said the battery was likely dead. He was able to start the car fine with the battery pack/booster he had with him.

The Mercedes engineer replaced my battery whilst it was in the garage and everything was fine thereafter. He said that I 'had done well' to get 6 years use out one battery.

I agree though, that it would be nice to have some other 'warning' that the battery is about to fail especially on all these technology intensive cars.

Harold1898

My wife's Honda Accord Euro just clicked over 3 years old and 2 weeks ago she visited my place of work and when she went to leave zip. Flat as a maggot. We had no warning whatsoever. New battery and all is well.