e55phil

For my 2021 All Terrain I am sad to report that my battery failed again. Same error, same problems. Again I have to have the car towed.

5 weeks ago and 1000 miles ago I had the same problem. Longroof I was mistaken to be optimistic.

I am disapointed. At least this time I know how to get the car into neutral.

Roadside help me. The dispatched Urgently (Urgently is the company that ranges the tow.) I had to call and text but they got the car towed.

IA_GLE63

How?!

Longroof45

So sorry, Phil. As you know, I was also a two-time loser on batteries with my All Terrain. But, as I recall, they gave you the same battery part number that I had, which also failed twice. I've been hoping you'd have more luck than I did. For what it's worth, I'm at 3,000 miles on my third battery but if they have to replace it again I hope it will be with the new part number.

Longroof45

In my case, the Roadside guy spent a little time behind the wheel moving the lever back and forth until he somehow managed to get Neutral. But then he couldn't get out of the car because opening the door would put the car back in Park. Each time, one person had to stay in the car while it was in Neutral, while another operated the winch to get it on the flatbed. I believe Phil previously indicated that they had the battery on a charger at the time, but I can't recall if that was the case in my two instances.

e55phil

Connect jumper cables, Foot on the brake, Push down on the shifter. At least this is what I recall. They are coming at 10 AM. I will confirm then.

IA_GLE63

Okay thank you, please do.

Longroof45

Please do, Phil. I was so frazzled on both occasions, I didn't pay enough attention. Let's hope neither of us has to go through this again. One would think that buying an $80k+ vehicle designed by the world's greatest automotive minds would not have to go through this, yes?

wien0305

When I had mine towed I pressed foot on brake, pressed starter button, when the warning light came on I then toggled the shifter up and down. Eventually it went into neutral.

I had my battery replaced last week. My car only has 152 miles on it. I sincerely hope that the new battery does not fail. I've also got some creaks on the door panels. My faith in MB is way down. The fact that MB Denver has done 60 of these replacements already tells me MB has a known issue on their hands and is doing nothing. That's a real shame in my book. These cars ain't cheap.

I had a VW iD4 while the wagon was in the shop. That car was fun to drive. That instant torque in electrics is awesome. If the All Terrain gets lemoned I'd probably just go that route. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Longroof45

60?! That's the first time I've heard an actual number. I'm surprised your dealership actually shared that number with you, as most of the reports here seem to indicate that the dealers have downplayed the prevalence of 48 volt battery failures. That was certainly the case when my batteries failed back in April and May. Admittedly, it was fairly early in the game, but I was left with the impression that this was a relatively rare occurrence back then. I wish we knew what the percentage of failure really is and whether the new battery part number has solved the problem for good.

Jayst

New member here. You can add me to the list. New 2021 E450 All Terrain wagon that I took delivery on in March would not start while parked in the garage yesterday. Called Roadside Assistance who had to drag it out of the garage and then flatbed it back to dealer. Diagnosed as a 48v battery malfunction and needs to be replaced. They are not giving me a date for repair because they don't know when the replacement battery will arrive from Mercedes Benz.

e55phil

Getting the car into neutral is part science and part voodoo.

The service advisor told me to connect the battery charger, press the start button twice in order to turn on the radio but not start the car, foot on the brake and then pushed down on the shifter but not all the way.

That did not work.

The fellow who put my car on a trailer (for the second time) remembered that at the dealership they did not open the hood. So, we closed the hood, I pressed the brake, then the start button twice quickly and then I pushed gently on the gearshift and the car went into neutral. The battery charger was not connected although it had been connected for about 10 minutes before we made this attempt.

It's not an exact science because if you don't push far enough on the shifter nothing happens and if you push too far it will not work.

Jayst! Next time do not let them drag your car. That's not recommended in the manual or by my service advisor.

Another thing is that sometimes they tell you to use skates because the car won't go into neutral but the fellow who towed my car told me that he had to put down blocks of wood where the car drives onto the flatbed because if you don't put down blocks of wood the front of the car will be scraped as it's being dragged onto the flatbed. Blocks of wood get in the way of the skates.

I noticed that there is some company on the Internet that's trying to put together a class action lawsuit against Mercedes.

wien0305

I will gladly sign on to a class action suit for this issue--after I got my own counsel to see if I would also inadvertantly be opting out of the lemon law. I am not a lawyer so I'd need to check on this first. Nonetheless, this is absurd to me at this point. MB knows they have a problem and seems to be hoping they can avoid a recall by replacing these batteries ad-hoc and hoping they work.

The worst of it is the unpredictability. I want to use the E450 All Terrain as a road trip car. But there is no way I am loading small children and my wife into a car that I don't trust to start, or worse, decides to crap its pants somewhere remote.

Here's hoping we can all get this resolved and move past it to enjoy the cars we bought in the way we intended.

Jayst

"Drag" was a poor choice of words. I did manage to get and keep the car in neutral, and the tow driver used the car's tow hook to pull (not drag) the car onto the flatbed. I watched and was impressed by the professionalism, if not the timeliness of his arrival.....I waited nearly 12 hours for his arrival. I can only say if I was by the side of the road somewhere in the cold, I would not be happy at-all.

To put it in neutral I followed the directions in the manual, and left the key in the car so I could open the door without everything locking back up. It did take some trail and error, but the process of putting it in neutral did work as detailed in the manual. The driver was clueless, and I can't fault him there because the process is not even close to intuitive.

Based on this thread my guess is MB is well aware of the problem but they have some really long lead-times to both determine root cause and engineer a proper fix for the battery, and then more time to get a battery manufactured, and then out into the field to fix the fleet of cars that will eventually have the same failure. The shipping of lithium batteries only complicates the process because they are shipped as dangerous goods regardless of how they are transported. It appears based on this thread, the issue has been around for at least a year. I'm hoping that all of the engineering and manufacturing legwork has been done and I get a battery with a long term fix and not one that will only repeat the failure.

In the meanwhile, I am pressing the dealer for a loaner, which with scant current inventories is going to be yet another challenge. Ugh.

e55phil

It seems to me it would be great to build a data base of all owners who are impacted by this 48 v battery issue. I notice there is a forum called "General Mercedes Discussion" I made a post there. a link is below. Let's see if we can get our hands ad around how pervasive this issue is. If you had a batter problem go there and post.

https://mbworld.org/forums/general-m...ml#post8456092

Longroof45

Condolences! You have a fair amount of company on this board, some of whom also drive '21 All Terrains (including Phil and me); however, it is far from limited to All Terrains. Interesting that your build was in March. I think both Phil and I are in the March/April build widow as well. How many miles did you have on the battery before it failed, if I can ask?

marchgroupinc

Everyone must report this to the NHTSA to get a proper recall going.

Longroof45

I was actually trying to keep track for awhile but I gave up at some point when I realized there were at least two, maybe more, parallel threads going on regarding the 48 volt batteries. Any way you cut it though, one has to believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, as I'm guessing most new MB owners aren't even on this board.

marchgroupinc

What section of the manual did you find directions to put it in neutral in this situation? I have a different model with the 48V battery and cannot find any directions.

Longroof45

If M-B would just acknowledge the problem and inform everyone of the best way of handling these failures, it would be a step in the right direction. Instead, it's "See no evil, speak no evil . . . ."

chassis

Head over to the V167 section of this site, where owners a cutting MB slack left and right, minimizing the magnitude of the fail by MB. Maybe the higher prices paid for the GLE/GLS means there is more buyer's remorse, and desire to ignore the problem connected with the large sum of money paid for the vehicle?

greeni

Calvin, what did the dealership say?

greeni

Gl450 2020 owner with the same issue. 48 v battery failure followed by loss of acceleration. Had to glide into my driveway. Has anyone had a solution to this problem?

skytop

Link to 48V battery issues and chargers:

https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...battery-2.html

Rossted

I know this is a Mercedes forum but wife driving 2020 Audi S8 when a multitude of Warning Messages came up eventually shutting down the car in the middle of traffic. And I do mean "dead in the water" with Traffic Police behind her to protect her from upcoming traffic until the automobile could be taken to dealership. Biggest concern, as if failure of a $150,000 automobile unable to proceed wasn't enough, was that all wheel steering failed causing the automobile to veer towards the median. Local dealer found more than 59 faults mostly due to inadequate charge on 48 volt battery. All faults reset, 48 volt battery checked ok and so now "good to go". I don't think so!! If it happens once it will happen again and this is a major safety issue. I would be interested if anyone else on this forum has had a similar experience.

9157

That is the exact same response from MBUSA!
Reset the computer and send u on ur way; come back if it happens again. It’s happened twice to me and MBUSA has a “no there there”
attitude. They are in total denial and act as if they have never heard of this issue…regardless of the dealer telling me they have many cases the same as mine!