Issues with center display (Nav Screen) on W209 CLK 350 (2008). Screen on bad display
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2008 CLK 350
Issues with center display (Nav Screen) on W209 CLK 350 (2008). Screen on bad display
Hi,
Summary: The main LCD screen on my W209 CLK350 started having intermittent problems, where it would come on, but either freeze up, or lack any resolution (backlight and buttons came on, but display would only show vertical lines of background color/be unreadable), and eventually this problem became constant. I think it may have to do with the fact that the battery is a standard battery, which is only putting out 11.5-11.9V, versus the 13.5V of the MB deep cycle it replaced, since the voltage of the battery seems to be correlated with the issue, and as the battery aged the problem became worse. But before I go and spend a few hundred on a new MB Deep Cycle battery, I would like to know if anyone else has had a similar issue, or if anyone can second my theory that it is due to a voltage/battery problem. Everything else in the car works fine, and there are no ECU fault codes.
While the screen was turning on (backlight was coming on), and I could see it change from the "boot up" black background/white MB logo, to the blue background of the main screen, the screen was unreadable. All the buttons on the screen panel worked fine (as did the radio, and the Nav, as if I pressed the buttons I had memorized to get it to navigate to the saved "home" location, voice navigation worked fine, and I could see the navigation on the small, black and white cluster display). It was clearly receiving a signal, as changing the screen to the map view or radio would result in the overall color of the display changing, however, the LCD simply displayed vertical lines of one color each (more or less), with no horizontal "resolution." Sometimes, it would develop a "hotspot" (blank/white area) that would grow out from the middle. That is the best way I can describe it.
Anyway, I took the car into a shop, which replaced the bad relays and a bad fuse, and replaced the battery. When I first started the car after this happened, I noticed that the screen problem was still persistent. However, after driving for about 30 minutes and then turning the display off and on again, it came back on without issue, working fine.
One thing that I noticed, however, was that the shop had replaced the massive, original, deep cycle/zero maintenance battery with a generic, AGM sealed "low maintenance" battery that was slightly smaller than the original. I put a multimeter to the battery and noticed that this battery put out around 12.8V when fully charged, compared to about 13.5V that the original battery put out.
Anyway, I had no issues with the screen for the next month, then the problem started up again, intermittently. At first, all I would have to do is turn the screen off and back on, and it would be fine. But over time, the problem got progressively worse. I noticed that if I drove for a little bit, after the car had sat, and then cycled the screen power, it would start to work. But this became less and less reliable, and the screen started working, and then cutting out after a few minutes. When it would cut out, the screen would generally freeze up, and then slowly "blur" until only the background color was visible. At this point, the screen is always displaying this behavior, and I can no longer get it to work, even for a short time. I have also noticed that the battery (a little over a year old now) has a peak voltage of just around 11.9v.
Because of the correlation between the battery voltage and the performance of the screen (i.e. at first it started working again after I drove the car and charged the new battery up to 100%, then it would work fine unless the car had sat for several days, and would start working after driving a little and charging it up, then it would occasionally work if I turned off accessory electronics like the lights or climate control, etc.), I have a suspicion that the issue is due to low voltage, and putting in a deep cycle battery might fix the problem.
However, even though 11.5v-11.9v at full charge is certainly low, everything else in the car works fine, and I have scanned it and there are no fault codes. The car starts right up and runs fine. The only issue is the center LCD screen. I have also considered that maybe there is electrical noise from the standard battery that was not present with the deep cycle.
Replacing the battery with a new Deep Cycle will cost me a few hundred, and since everything else is working, I wanted to see if anyone here had some suggestions, or possibly had experienced a similar issue and had routed out the problem, before I go and do that.
I searched around and found some similar issues with other MB models, but I couldn't find anyone who had this exact issue, or even an LCD screen issue with another model that manifested itself the way this is.
So, do you guys think that this problem is likely due to lower than normal battery voltage, or the use of a atandard battery instead of a deep cycle? Has anyone had a similar issue and solved the problem? Any input would be great, thanks!
Summary: The main LCD screen on my W209 CLK350 started having intermittent problems, where it would come on, but either freeze up, or lack any resolution (backlight and buttons came on, but display would only show vertical lines of background color/be unreadable), and eventually this problem became constant. I think it may have to do with the fact that the battery is a standard battery, which is only putting out 11.5-11.9V, versus the 13.5V of the MB deep cycle it replaced, since the voltage of the battery seems to be correlated with the issue, and as the battery aged the problem became worse. But before I go and spend a few hundred on a new MB Deep Cycle battery, I would like to know if anyone else has had a similar issue, or if anyone can second my theory that it is due to a voltage/battery problem. Everything else in the car works fine, and there are no ECU fault codes.
DETAILS
So I have owned a 2008 Mercedes-Benz CLK 350 Coupe for a few years now. About a year ago, water got into the under-hood relay/fuse box (long story, caused by stupidity), and caused the fan relay to short, which ran until it completely depleted the battery. Luckily, there was no real permanent damage. However, the battery was never able to hold a charge after that, and needed replacement. When I was able to get the battery slightly charged up again, I first noticed that the LCD screen was not working.While the screen was turning on (backlight was coming on), and I could see it change from the "boot up" black background/white MB logo, to the blue background of the main screen, the screen was unreadable. All the buttons on the screen panel worked fine (as did the radio, and the Nav, as if I pressed the buttons I had memorized to get it to navigate to the saved "home" location, voice navigation worked fine, and I could see the navigation on the small, black and white cluster display). It was clearly receiving a signal, as changing the screen to the map view or radio would result in the overall color of the display changing, however, the LCD simply displayed vertical lines of one color each (more or less), with no horizontal "resolution." Sometimes, it would develop a "hotspot" (blank/white area) that would grow out from the middle. That is the best way I can describe it.
Anyway, I took the car into a shop, which replaced the bad relays and a bad fuse, and replaced the battery. When I first started the car after this happened, I noticed that the screen problem was still persistent. However, after driving for about 30 minutes and then turning the display off and on again, it came back on without issue, working fine.
One thing that I noticed, however, was that the shop had replaced the massive, original, deep cycle/zero maintenance battery with a generic, AGM sealed "low maintenance" battery that was slightly smaller than the original. I put a multimeter to the battery and noticed that this battery put out around 12.8V when fully charged, compared to about 13.5V that the original battery put out.
Anyway, I had no issues with the screen for the next month, then the problem started up again, intermittently. At first, all I would have to do is turn the screen off and back on, and it would be fine. But over time, the problem got progressively worse. I noticed that if I drove for a little bit, after the car had sat, and then cycled the screen power, it would start to work. But this became less and less reliable, and the screen started working, and then cutting out after a few minutes. When it would cut out, the screen would generally freeze up, and then slowly "blur" until only the background color was visible. At this point, the screen is always displaying this behavior, and I can no longer get it to work, even for a short time. I have also noticed that the battery (a little over a year old now) has a peak voltage of just around 11.9v.
Because of the correlation between the battery voltage and the performance of the screen (i.e. at first it started working again after I drove the car and charged the new battery up to 100%, then it would work fine unless the car had sat for several days, and would start working after driving a little and charging it up, then it would occasionally work if I turned off accessory electronics like the lights or climate control, etc.), I have a suspicion that the issue is due to low voltage, and putting in a deep cycle battery might fix the problem.
However, even though 11.5v-11.9v at full charge is certainly low, everything else in the car works fine, and I have scanned it and there are no fault codes. The car starts right up and runs fine. The only issue is the center LCD screen. I have also considered that maybe there is electrical noise from the standard battery that was not present with the deep cycle.
Replacing the battery with a new Deep Cycle will cost me a few hundred, and since everything else is working, I wanted to see if anyone here had some suggestions, or possibly had experienced a similar issue and had routed out the problem, before I go and do that.
I searched around and found some similar issues with other MB models, but I couldn't find anyone who had this exact issue, or even an LCD screen issue with another model that manifested itself the way this is.
So, do you guys think that this problem is likely due to lower than normal battery voltage, or the use of a atandard battery instead of a deep cycle? Has anyone had a similar issue and solved the problem? Any input would be great, thanks!
