woodland2020

2006 MB E350. In the morning it display "Convenience Functions Temporarily unavailable". After several minutes of driving the message goes away.

Tested for alternator: It was OK.
Tested Auxiliary battery: It was fully charged. (its new)
Tested Main battery: 12.06 V, 580 Cold Cranking Amp @ 68 deg F.

1) Does the main battery need replacement or is it something else?

2) Will the Bosch battery made by Johnson & Johnson Control be okay?


Thanks of any insight.

Critter

Main battery is toast. Original I guess!
Interstate battery the more cranking amps the better
700+ cca saves a lot of grief

cetialpha5

When was the last time you drove it? If it has been sitting for a while and you do mostly short trips, then you might not have driven it enough to keep the battery charged. I believe that message comes on when the voltage is below 11 volts. Two other possibilities are the voltage regulator or the battery control module. If it's just because the car has been siting for a while, then it's probably nothing and you can just drive it a bit more or have the battery taken out and put on a charger or hook up a trickle charger to it.

bbirdwell

Replace the main battery.


FWIW, my new battery was rated 900 CCA and tested at 1014 CCA. The old battery tested at 447 CCA when I replaced it.


Solar BA-5 battery tester. Cheap. Use it to monitor your battery condition. It works and beats being stuck in some parking lot on a road trip....

boardboy330

Pull the regulator at the alternator. It's a use part and if the contacts are worn enough it will show working but not charge the battery enough. There are sporadic threads about it and I had the issue. Same as you. I kept the batteries on charge and still got the issues occasionally. The $75 part fixed my issues so far. I wouldn't start replacing parts until you can narrow your issues.

bbirdwell

@ OP...just bring up the battery bus voltage on the display before you start the car. Then you can monitor the bus voltage while driving.








1. Insert key into ignition, switch to position “1“ Edit: This may actually be position "2".


2. Press menu select buttons repeatedly until the mileage is displayed within the Multifunction display.


3. Press cluster illumination button (left side of display) 3 times in short succession. The battery bus voltage will be displayed.

Critter

Is this the original battery- main@12.06V is beat and needs replacement.
12.6-12.8V is a normal fully charged battery
12.5V is 80%charged to rated value
12.4V-60% charged

cetialpha5

Pepboys has the Bosch battery for $200, there's a 30% discount code that brings it down to $140, you just missed the 35% off code. Autozone also has it for about $137 with a 20% off discount code and Advance Auto has it with a $50 off code at $139.

It sounds like you had the battery tested after you got the warning message so you might just need to have the battery fully charged. Would have been interesting to know the voltage when you got that message on the dash. Mine has been as low as 11.5 volts in the winter and it still starts up fine, never any warning messages.

wjcandee

These are all good battery recommendations. Amazon also has a ACDelco Group 49 AGM for $145 with free Prime shipping. And Rural King has its private label Exide L5/H8/Group 49 AGM battery back in stock and available every day for $139. Through August 2015, comes with a $20 rebate from its manufacturer, Exide. And a 36-month free-replacement warranty PLUS a 7-year prorated warranty. Probably the best consistent buy out there. http://www.ruralking.com/automotive/...-agml5-49.html

However, don't just jump in and replace the battery. Take the car to advance auto parts. Have them use their midTronics tester on it, which is the same one the Mercedes dealer uses because it's the only one that gives you the proper information regarding an AGM battery. They will do it for free, and they will do it honestly.Then you'll know whether you need to replace the battery. Their group 49 AGM h8 battery is excellent. I keep telling people go and buy yourself a decent, simple automatic battery charger, like a schumacher at Walmart and occasionally charge the battery so that its full. Most of the time, your battery is running around not full, and if it sits for a while, you might get a message like the one you got. most people don't realize that your car isn't really throwing a lot of amperage on that battery to charge it. If your battery checks out with the Midtronics tester, then I would throw it on the charger at like a 6 amp charging rate until you get the green light. if it doesn't check out, then many advance locations will replace the battery in the trunk for no charge beyond the price of the battery. They are generally very nice people.

purplegrog

I'm in a similar situation where I was intermittently getting that message all day yesterday. Suspecting the auxiliary battery (it is 5 years old and I replaced the primary battery two months ago), I pulled it this morning and took it to the local O'Reilly's for testing. Apparently the battery tested good so now I am thinking an alternator issue. Hopefully it is just the regulator, but I have not had time to pull the belly pan to check. Is there a simple way to tell whether I have a Bosch or Valeo alternator without pulling off the belly pan and physically checking?

wjcandee

Whoa!!! Look, you have to understand how the electrical system works. You get the convenience functions unavailable message when there isn't a lot of juice in the system. That would never be the aux battery because the aux battery doesn't even get connected to the system until after two levels of convenience function disconnections occur. You get a replace battery message when the AUX is bad, but it appears that your AUX is good, so that isn't it.

Let's not go replacing parts that you don't have to. It isn't necessarily the alternator or the voltage regulator. IF it's a mechanical issue, it could be any number of things, and just *****-nilly replacing parts is stupid.

Let's try first things first.

How about this: CHARGE that main battery with an automatic battery charger. Either pull the battery from the car and do it at like 10 amps or, if you dare, do it in the car at like 6. One significant possibility is that your new battery wasn't fully-charged when installed (or even well-charged; they always say it is but it isn't), and because the electrical system is designed more to MAINTAIN the battery than to rapidly-charge it, it has never built up enough of a charge. Let's hope it hasn't sulfated in the interim. I'm guessing that you'll put the charger on there and it will charge for 5-8 hours or more before you get the green "charged" light on your charger. If you want a good, reasonable one, the Schumacher 10/6/2 is available at WalMart for like $29. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...arger/15140195 It's the one I use, and it's just what I need to charge the Group 49 AGM batteries on our W164 and W211.

IF it's the alternator, I had mine replaced with a ProStart from Pep Boys, which is a Bosch-remanufactured Bosch alternator with a lifetime warranty, which they sell for $159. It has run like a champ for months now, with rock-steady output. Pep Boys also has an online special of 30 percent off orders over $100, code SPRING30 I believe, so that would get you down to $112. Pretty good price! (Pep Boys is a big national distributor of Bosch products, so they're selling under their private label at a lower price many things that would otherwise be sold at independents under the Bosch label. Just like my favorite Group 49/H8/L5 AGM battery, an Exide Edge AGM, is sold by Rural King under their own private label for $139 plus a $20 Exide rebate. So that's a net of $119. With a 3 year free replacement warranty and a 7 year prorated warranty. And if you're near a Rural King, they'll put it in for free. Can't beat that with a stick. http://www.ruralking.com/battery-aut...-agml5-49.html)

purplegrog

Agreed. The (unstated) reason I suspected the alternator is because this is after another event that was a little embarrassing so I didn't mention it. I recently replaced the radiator due to a hairline crack in the neck. When replacing the radiator, apparently my transmission return line did not get secured quite properly. Well, on the test drive, the line came out and I lost about 3.5L of fluid through the line, much of it in the area of the alternator. I have since remedied that and the car is running like a champ, but I suspect some transmission fluid may have hit the alternator, causing the brushes in the voltage regulator to prematurely wear.

That being said, I drove the car for approximately seven hours yesterday and haven't seen the message come back. When I get a chance I'm still going to pull the regulator to take a look at its state (nearly 217k miles on the clock at this point), but hopefully I won't be seeing that message again for a while.

dtrentr

I have the red battery message, went to Auto Zone and their tester said it's not the battery (and that was new last August). Pulled the pan, and I have a Valeo as stated on a sticker on the alternator that doesn't look like it's going to be very easy to get out of there, and it doesn't look like the voltage regulator is looking right at you like it implies here on the forum for the Bosch alternators. Anyone know anything about the Valeo alternators?

Also, the PepBoys alternator states that it's a Valeo, and is 30% off $262 plus a $64 core charge. Are the Valeo and the Bosch the same? And mine may be different cause it's an oil burner

samaritrey

217k wow my Valeo Alternator lasted till 199,9** miles lol and failed the morning after a 2,000 mile road trip I miss my c320 never let me down.

I don't know much about the Valeo on the newer W211's but on my w203 that had a Valeo the regulator was completely different than the one on the Bosch unit and very expensive. I found that it was much more cost effective to just get a brand new alternator from Valeo on Amazon (shipped directly from VALEO's Warehouse) but depending on your current mileage it may be different mine as you can see above had almost 200k on it . And I bet it is different as you have a diesel. Have you checked voltages and such to verify it is the alternator/VR?

Just did 2 minutes of research so take this with a grain of salt but it looks like a brand new Valeo alternator is $300 and a regulator is $80

wjcandee

Wow. 30% off of $250 is like $75 off, so that ends up being $175. That's a deal. The remanufactured alternator is a Valeo because the OE equipment on that car was a Valeo. (Like on mine, it was a Bosch, so it's a Bosch.) And if you buy the "Prostart", it comes with a lifetime warranty. That would be my move.

And the core charge is irrelevant because you just bring or ship it back to them and you get the money back.

dtrentr

Thanks for your replies. I think I'm taking my Bluetec to an independent shop to replace the alternator and/or voltage regulator. It looks like a difficult job to do on jack stands as it's packed in there so tightly. I looked at parts.com and the new MB alternator is $1589 and scared if I take it to the dealer, that's what they'll want to install, won't do a reman. NAPA has the Valeo reman for $254, which doesn't sound too bad.

bbirdwell

Replacement is not difficult (for a Mercedes!). Unbolt passenger-side (LHD) motor mount, place wood block under oil pan, jack engine up, remove and replace alternator. Assembly is reverse of disassembly.

wjcandee

$175 for the reman Valeo Pro Start alternator with lifetime warranty at Pep Boys sounds better. That's the price after the 30 percent discount currently in place for online orders, which you can pick up at the store. You can avoid the core charge by giving them the core right there if you have already pulled it from the car when you pick up the new one.

Some Pep Boys are better than others at doing mechanical work, but mine put the alternator in no problem once I came in on the day shift, when the better mechanics were there. Zip zip done. They also have good prices on the serpentine belt, if it's time to replace it. Their labor rates are generally quite fair.

wjcandee

Just an update on our discussion on battery prices.

Amazon has raised the AC/Delco AGM battery price by about $30, and at the same time lowered the Exide Edge AGM price, so now they are both about $172 delivered. Some folks will be very happy to have that excellent Exide battery for that price.

However, Rural King still has it for $139 plus shipping, with a Rural King label on it. http://www.ruralking.com/battery-aut...-agml5-49.html

For a while, at least, Rural King has a coupon for $20 from the manufacturer, so that makes it an even better deal.

cetialpha5

I think it's cheaper to get it locally. Pepboys has the AGM battery at 30% off, expires today, about $140, they charge extra to install it. Normally it's 25% off. Advance auto has it for $189, after discount code WD518 which expires today, it's $139, but they always have new codes, just search retailmenot for the latest codes. They also install for free. Autozone also has one for $172 with a 20% off code (supersave), it's $137.60. Just depends what stores are near you. Those are also all AGM batteries. Also when you pick one up at the store, you can check the date code. I always grab the one in the back which is usually the freshest one. Sometimes when you get them mail order, the batteries can be sitting around for a couple months. I think there was one review that said the mail order battery they got was about a year old.

wjcandee

Those are good recommendations, if people pull the coupon codes and order online and then visit the store, which most don't. Pep Boys charges for installing in the W211, unfortunately. I like the rest of the recommendations.

Amazon sells out of the Exide and the AC/Delco batteries on a regular basis, as does Rural King on their Group 49 AGM, so I don't think age will be an issue.

woodland2020

I replaced the main battery (Bosch) and the messages went away.

Thanks to all for the help!!

woodland2020

Thanks. You were right the battery is done. It was 9 years old battery.

jbeech

Hmmm, tried this and it didn't work - at both key positions. Insert key, turn to the right one click, and try. Repeat, but this time to the second click (the first-click brought on the MFD and the radio played, the second-click brought all the panel lights on). Anyway, both times I paged through until I had mileage after start page. Then I tried the three button presses of the stalk for dimming the panel lights (or resetting mileage). No joy. What am I doing wrong?

Anyway, in my case I suspect it was from not driving enough because following a 5 hour trip, I have not seen the message since. And both batteries replaced (main and Aux) in December. Not driven much since.

cetialpha5

On mine, it's at the temperature display. Engine has to be off.