So I go to start my car this morning and the battery was drained...I have no idea why, everything was turned off the night before. Anyway, as I tried to start it it clicked...clicked again and then this popped up:



Knowing my battery was low I proceeded to connect a smart trickle charger at the jump posts under the hood and turned it on...it stayed at 13.2 V the entire time until I got it started. However, the error message didnt go away.

I drove the car to the local MB dealer and they said that I blew the charging block/component by having the key in the ignition when I started charging it. They also said that warranty will not cover it and I have to pay $300 for the part plus labor.

My issues is that the power steering message came up before I connected the trickle charger and why would a low (not dead) battery cause the power steering to go out?

Has anyone dealt with this before?

 

ive had that code come up before, i was terrified to drive the car. ended up having it towed over 40 miles from where i was to the dealer, to learn that it was a false alarm..


i hope that it gets better for you!

 

Messing up the components when trickle charging with the key in the ignition?...I'm not good with electronics but that sounds kind of fishy to me since the trickle charging power and rate are usually so low and slow. I wonder what they would have said if you didn't mention the trickle charging to them. I think they just want to blame it on something and in this case, the trickle charging is the guinea pig.