neomaxmaya

So this started after I washed my car (touch-less station), I dried it by hand like usual. And on the way back home I got an error saying "headlight is faulty or an open circuit has been detected). so I thought the bulb is out as it wasn't working anyway. The next day the car was DEAD! No electricity at all. Got the car towed to MB dealer, they inspected it and said "battery is done, needs a new battery". Paid $650 to replace it (crazy I know!). and they did a draw test on the car and it was fine...
After driving the car for few day. I parked it over the weekend. and when I went to drive it to work this morning. the car was dead AGAIN!
I jumped the car from my other car, drove to the dealer, and gave it to them as my battery wasn't the cause to start with....
Now they are looking into it.
my question is: if it was a water leak (which I'm anticipating) would it drain the battery like this?
has anyone had a similar issue?
any thoughts would be appreciated.
P.S. I have only 60k km on the car.

equitiesguy

Only time I ever hear of something like this is if you have a short that's draining the battery. Battery is shot either way after it gets drained down to 10 volts. Particularly if its a couple years old. $650 is way out of line though.

Look for a short.

neomaxmaya

Just got a call from the dealer saying the following:
Diagnose came back that the keyless unit in the driver door is faulty and sending continuous communication to the car computer which is draining the battery"
Also they will refund the battery cost as the first diagnose wasn't accurate and the original battery failed due to door handle failure (not battery failure).
All of this is great so far. But my problem is they have done a drain test before giving me the car and came back with no shortage whatsoever!
I hope this fixes the issue. I will update the post should new developments occur.
Thanks for the reply though.

equitiesguy

Just incompetent technicians as usual. Sounds plausible. If you need help tracking it down further, I'm happy to help.

Personally I would make them disconnect the keyless unit in the door that is supposedly "draining" and see if the problem disappears. Particularly if they're talking about replacing the painted handle.

neomaxmaya

You are definitely right.
They are replacing the painted door handle. And I'm picking the car up tomorrow.
Although the car is scheduled on Thursday to stay at the dealer for a week so they can witness the oil lifter tapping that I experience every here and then.
I will tell them to disconnect the handle and let the car sit for over 24 hours. And if it died again then they should do their home work better!
BTW I'm only cool with them as the my MB extended warranty covers all of this crap.
Thanks again dude! really appreciate it!

equitiesguy

The door handle makes sense, only because Keyless Go door handles don't like water. But in 24 hours I would think it would have dried out. Normally they just fail from corrosion on the microswitches internally and don't work anymore (and that's from age).

StarvingArtist

The tapping will turn out to be the oil pump chain slapping the timing cover. Listen from under the drivers side front fender when the engine is warm at idle.


PS I paid less than 160 for a new oem battery from the dealer, put it in myself in under 10 minutes, including resetting the windows n stuff. Good thing you have a warranty, your stealer sounds excessively greedy.

neomaxmaya

They checked the noise few times and said "engin noise within normal operation limits"
Although the service advisor is nice and got me a refund on the battery as the cause wasn't the battery to start with. And will keep the car for a week to try it every day and see if they can witness the tapping noise so they can record it and submit it for a warranty claim to further diagnose the engin.
Sounds not customer friendly somehow but hey, its a 90k engin so let them take responsibility over any failure down the pipe if something happens.
Thanks for the reply buddy!

neomaxmaya

So after a week of testing....cold start, warm start, mid start....and 44 km test driving the car. the dealer said no tapping noise from the engine what so ever. And the battery issue was related to the Keyless unit in the door handle that was continuously communicating with the computer.
The funny thing is, when I started the car the next morning, I got the freaking tapping on a cold start!!!! the tapping vanished after driving for over 40 mins. but was very loud!.
Is there a trick behind that or I should just ignore it?

vvrjrlaw

You need a different dealer. Tapping doesn't disappear and if it does it's a function of oil pressure. Either way unless you've owned the car since new you have no idea as to how it was maintained. That tap will get worse trust me and at some point the repair will be expensive especially if the chain lets go. They were quick to take 650 for a battery you didn't need but they are doing nothing ( no tapping detected or tapping within normal wear limits) to deal with a real problem that could cost you several thousand dollars. Go to a different dealer and go now.

neomaxmaya

They have refunded the battery cost. But charged me 1/2 hour for checking the tapping noise. I've taking a stamped record of this incident with a receipt, and will wait till my service C is due (6k km) then will check it again through a different dealer.
It's really weird as this dealer is MB HQ in Toronto, so it's supposed to be top class in terms of technicians and knowledge!


BTW, this is how the engine sounds when the tapping occurs. and it happened every here and then:

StarvingArtist

Oops, I thought it was a 55. CLS63 tapping can be bad. (Weak cams) Check your oil for steel shavings.

demetaktak

True. It gave me a psi. Weird.
What else do u think i should look into?
I m running straight pipe with stock mufflers.

neomaxmaya

Update:
So the car died again! took it back to the dealer, they tested it and said the fuse box needed a software update as it was running the parking lights randomly. And by now everything should be fine.
took the care for a couple of days and after leaving the car for 8-9 hours, I feel the engine doesn't have enough power to crank! like the car battery is being sucked over night!
took it this morning to the dealership and told them not to return it unless its 100% fixed!
I'm really confused what is the cause! I park the car at my drive way. I lock it and the keys are away from it. I don't have anything added to the car, its a complete stock! even when I scan the car with my OBD2 scanner no codes are pulled out other than "low power supply"
Any thoughts guys?

sircl55amg

cam and valve tappets problem 100% sure
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...y-lifters.html

neomaxmaya

Are you referring to the tapping noise on the engine or the dead car issue?

neomaxmaya

Update:
so the car been at the dealer for the last 9 days. The advisor is saying we can't figure out what is the cause of the drain!! it happened with them once only. They opened almost all modules in the car and inspected them individually with no luck to find the drain's cause. They replaced the battery again with another brand new one. and will be assembling the car back to be returned to me on Monday.
The interesting part of the story is the advisor is asking for the technician to come to my house to see where the car is being parked as he is suspecting some kind of frequency activating some modules in the car while its locked! It didn't make sense to me too but I'll let him come as I'm really frustrated!
Has any of you guys experienced random frequency activating some modules in the car?

StarvingArtist

That sounds a little far-fetched, but I have heard of the BCM killing batteries randomly.

neomaxmaya

What is a BCM?

StarvingArtist

Battery control module.


I think it's the thing in the trunk with the battery cable attached. Try a search on the E55 forum to learn more about it. (maybe even here)

neomaxmaya

Update:
After 15 days at the dealer, Tech has noticed no drain anymore, he cant tell me "I found the issue and fixed it" just the car stopped the drain.
they checked every module in the car as they literally took it apart!
they said if it died again, don't jump the battery and just tow it back dead and we will further diagnose.
let's hope it doesn't die again as I'm really frustrated to the limit of selling my dream car!
Thanks all for the input.

Mxkatie747

Did you end up having to sell your dream car? What happened?

neomaxmaya

Wow, this was such an adventure.....
Well, I took the car back, and kept monitoring it, no drains,... The battery is solid... No issue whatsoever.... Until It did it again one morning!
I was going nuts at that time! but I recalled what I did the night before, the one common thing that I was doing every time the car dies is OBD2 SCAN!
Yes, I used Carly for Mercedes app with a Bluetooth scanning tool to scan the car for any issues or any early warning. To my surprise, the app was opening a diagnosis command to the Airmatic system and never closes it after it completes the scan hence the battery drain in the morning!!!
I obviously jumped the car.... and scanned it again, and boom the car dies the next day. so it's confirmed, that this junk app has drained my battery.
I contacted Carly for Mercedes about their app, they admitted that the app does this with "Some" Airmatic modules.
Although this was not the cause, I sold the car in 2018 as I couldn't drive it in the brutal Canadian winter... But I replaced it with a 2016 CLS63S AMG W218. not as sexy, but 4Matic makes a huge difference in everyday driving.
Never use an app to scan a Ben... Lesson learnd!