Hello everyone. Got an issue with my sons 98 E430. He went to start his car today and it was dead. It's been on a battery tender while he away at school, I drive it once a week or every other week. So I jump it and it's running and charging fine. When you shut it off though the mileage display is staying illuminated which is what killed the battery. I disconnected the battery and when you reconnect it the dash is off. However once you start it and then turn it off it stays on again. I know there are issues with the pixels burning out (he has a line down the middle) but it's never stayed illuminated before. This is keeping the bus awake and killing the battery even with a tender on it. Has anyone run into this kind of issue before? I'm guessing the cluster is not turning off?
Would like some input please.
Thanks

 

Sounds like you have a parasitic draw in your system (possibly tied to the cluster).
You will need to test each fuse in each fusebox one-by-one to see where the draw is.

I would also recommend you do a scan and post any saved codes.

 

Ok. Well I kind of figured it out. When you turn the car off the display would go to "washwater low" and would stay on indefinitely. If you turned he key on and then off it would go to the mileage and temp and would turn off after 20 seconds or so. My son also found that if you press the R button to get rid of the low washer fluid warning the display would timeout. So whatever it is I belive is in the cluster. I may just send it out to get the pixels fixed and see if they can find the issue with the display staying on.