I have a 2005 Mercedes C230 4 door sedan, about 80K miles on it. Earlier this year in Feb 2014 the original alternator started to fail (battery alternator red dash warning came up). Also prior to the red light coming up my sunroof kept getting stuck in up/open position. Didn't know this was a symptom til later on.

Went to Autozone and they looked up my car's yr and model and only a Duralast 13954 shows up for this vehicle. I bought it, comes with lifetime warranty. Got it replaced and replaced battery as well.

A couple few months later trunk, radio, CD player and changer started to act up. The trunk lock got stuck when hitting the unlock button on key. Had to struggle with the manual key to unlock/get it unstuck. Radio would turn on but no sound. CD player would not read CDs, would get and error msg or in other instances 'No CD.' In hindsight these were symptoms I suppose.

Eventually, the red Battery Alternator visit workshop msg came up on the dash. Got them tested and the alternator is failing. What seem to have been symptoms started few months ago but dash light just came up in end of Aug/beginning of September.

Alternator has lifetime warranty but had to pay again to have it replaced months after replacing it. Shop installed the duralast from autozone and charged my battery. Same day work was done, sunroof got stuck. My gut said get it tested. I did and new alternator is failing, on the same day it was installed. Could it be it's defective again? First time lasted few months, this time practically failed out of the box.

HELP! Now, have to pay a third time to have it replaced again. Is it possible that it's something else causing it to go bad or just bad luck or these duralast alternators are bad????

Autozone not being so helpful when talking to them about now paying a third time to have it replaced again. One manager doesn't even want to give me another alternator when it has lifetime warranty. He doesn't believe it's defective twice, thinks it's something else. I asked mechanic if it could be something else. He said no, that these alternators are rebuilt and well there's electrical parts inside that can be bad parts. What do you guys think? Please help. Not sure I want to put in the Duralast in there again if 2 of them seem to have been bad.

 

Autozone taught me not to trust their reman parts quality with similar problems with master cylinders and Duralast electrical parts.

The first thing you need to do is get a real Mercedes battery for your car. The Duralast unit does not have the muscle to run your car.

How did the alternator fail? Bad internal regulator? Shorted stator? Bad bearing? Poor connection? Bad diode? Wrong core used for reman? Wrong alternator for your VIN?

How does the manager of the Autozone know what made the alternator fail? Ask him for documentation proving your car caused the failure, and the specific language in the Autozone warranty that allows him to change the terms of the warranty.

You might want to check Pelican for your next alternator.

 

Sorry that I don't have any input about your alternator failing but wanted to add my input that you do not have to use a Genuine Mercedes battery. I have been using a battery from O'Reilly without any problems at all. The specs on my replacement battery (CA/CCA) exceed the OEM battery. Granted different parts stores carry different brands and quality of batteries so this would have to be taken into account.

 

Check the Cables to the alternator. The cables could be loose (connection), or shorted, corroded. I would recommend taking it to a MB tech to be certain.

 

...alternator must be original valeo or bosch ...look at the engine who you have and put only original...

 

I would recommend installing oem parts. You can get the cheap stuff. But you don't often hear of multiple failures with mb parts. Any main mechanical part like an alternator, get oem. Battery should not be an issue, though. Just make sure you get the biggest one they have!

 

it is not for all parts but specially for alternator we are need original valeo or bosch

 

chokah22, I had issue with Duralast reman'd alternators on an old Ford Tempo. Replaced the alt and it lasted a short time, maybe a week. Ended up replacing it with 7 units before I got one that would last more than a week or so. I got so good at changing that thing, that I think I could beat the best NASCAR team on a pitstop. I was very disappointed at the quality of these things. Now you can pretty much buy a "new" one for just a bit more than a reman'd part on some. But I also have a place local that can rebuild mine for me and it be better than the OEM replacements. They use higher grade parts it seems. Cost is cheaper than a replacement too.


So I do think you could be getting a bad batch alt's for your car.