gotallthetoys

I noticed on my 04 E500 that the lighter and power port do not have DC power when the ignition is turned off. Does anybody know of a "fix" to this so I can charge my mobile phone, computer or iPOD when the engine is off? I searched the site and could not find anything on this. Yea I know this is a duplicate of my post in the W211 forum, many reads, no replys.

Thanks Steve

saturnstyl

Benz doesn't have it set that way so you don't kill your battery when the car is not running. You could always straight wire it, and carry jumper cables.

dtkw

I like that better because my wife left the video thing pluged in her car and the next day, the battery charge was dropped so low the car wouldn't star. It's a Bimmer BTW. That would never happen in the Benzs.

Josh K

It would never happen in any car with an attentive owner.

You can always change this by taking the power off of a direct wire and adding a relay (the correct way), or a hot wire, such as the hazard light (the lazy man's way).

scorchie

If you do this properly, the BCM will still have control and shut down the accessory if the battery gets low. Then you wouldn't have to worry about a car that won't start, because when one battery goes low, the other is still available to start the car.

(Note that the BCM can't shut down the power going to the OBD port which the Star Diagnosis will suck dry to keep itself running.)

-s-

gotallthetoys

Thanks for the comments everyone. Seems kind of silly that MB can't get in step with the rest of the world! I've had Fords where the power port is hot all the time and it has low battery protection to keep the accy from draining it to low. Chrysler has a two position fuse. One positon is hot all the time, the other position is switched.

Oh well I'll just have to live with it!