pww

OK so my car (05 C55 just short of 90k miles) has recently started having some very strange electrical problems. One day all of a sudden I got these three errors:

- Alternator problem (can't remember wording) , essentially told me to go to a shop immediately. Red text/background

- Low washer fluid

- Low coolant


Now, I was immediately suspicious since they all came at once, so I went to a shop and they ran tests on the car and found everything was working at 100%. (And charged me $300 to find this out)


Other strange electrical issues that may or may not be related:
- temperature is completely wrong all the time by a large amount
- Stereo will simply not play sound sometimes. Normally fixes itself by simply turning the car off and on again


If anyone has any ideas, the shop was stumped and I took the car back rather than pay them more to poke around aimlessly.

Richardmozis

Is the stereo completely silent when this happens or is there a slight buzzing sound?

amgen

This winter I had to remove the + cable on the battery at one occasion.

Everything was fine after that but suddenly I was warned that the parctronic
didn´t work properly. And a fault with ASR as well.

Took the + cable off again and cleaned it rigorously and put it back on.
Since then I hadn´t had a singel warning!

link146

I had whacky electronic issues recently too. Washer + coolant, radio buzz, ESC out/off, clicking from something in heater every time I turned it on, head lamp out, etc.

I changed to fresh battery Haven't looked back. The smallest drop in voltage will cause things to go whacky.

Check/swap batteries and see where that gets you. Stay away from car dealer unless you want a $600 battery. I got mine at Walmart for less than $100.

pww

Awesome thanks for the responses guys! I will try giving it a good clean, and if not will pick up a new battery. This one actually may still be under warranty with AAA..

C230 Mulac

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, if the new battery doesn't work, the voltage regulator would be the next place I would look.

Duncan64

this is a very good idea, the Voltage regulator is a very common issue that normally clears up a lot of electrical problems. I changed mine myself when my lights started flickering when idle and a lot of issues went away. Try that first, can't hurt and you can pick them up for $40 or so.

C230 Mulac

If you do end up needing the voltage regulator, try these out. Make sure you are getting the Bosch and not some POS off brand.

http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/...Fe07OgodGE4Avw

http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/de...FYt9OgodnHIA_g

I bought one anyway even though I didn't need it since it's a common issue. It sits in my spare tire well along with my spare socket set so if I ever need to replace it (which I will eventually), then I am prepared.

ghiaguy

This is great info, but if you still get the red alternator light on the info panel after changing the VR you need a new alternator. This was me about three months ago. Had the red light- changed battery (needed to since it was original), then VR, then the alternator was what finally solved it.
Hope you get away with just the VR (can be done from under the car rather easily w/o alt removal)

C230 Mulac

Ughhhhh, hopefully not the alternator...alternator = $$$$