Ash1965

Hi All,

I've owned a 2004 W211 E220 CDI Estate (classic Model) since 2018. Used purchase with 196000 miles on the clock now. I bought it to transport myself, partner & our two greyhounds around.

It's been pretty much reliable in that time and has always returned an excellent mpg on long runs.

About 4 weeks the car developed an oil leak which looked like it was coming from the oil filler seal. I cleaned it up, left the covers off and it happened again. So I googled what the issue could be and it turns out that the leak was coming from the oil separator. I ordered a new plus the hose, new oil filler cap and the O ring that goes around the oil filler cap. In the meantime I removed the oil seperator, stripped it, cleaned it replaced it. No more oil leak.

I had lost about a litre of oil which I topped up and then about a week later, whilst on holiday in Hastings, I booked a oil change - where they flushed the engine, replaced the oil filter and replaced the oil. Sorted. When I got home after a week away - I replaced the oil seperator with the new one and all was fine.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a trip out to sainsburys for shopping. When I came out I went to start the car and the display said "reduced braking power" start the engine. When I went to start the engine - nothing. After a few more attempts is started saying to depress the pedal fully and start the engine - nothing.

Then everything started going haywire. The key wouldn't go in and turn, then it would. errors came up on the display saying the esp and abs had failed. the clock was winding itself backwards and forwards back to the right time. The side lights came on, the interior lights came on. eventually it seemed that everything had gone dead. Eventually I called the AA.

The AA couldn't get the car started at all, even when trying to jump the auxiliary battery and the main battery at the same time, he put on a new battery and still the car was dead. at one point it did half a turn to start but then nothing.

As I couldn't get it moved from the car park of sainsburys, it is stuck there until monday until my recovery company can recover it to my local garage.

Any idea whats wrong guys and gals?

cetialpha5

A few possibilities. The aux battery might be bad or the main battery. You could remove them and put them on a charger to see if they will fully charge up, otherwise one of them is bad. Reduced braking power could either be from the dead batteries or an SBC problem which are the brakes. Car not starting could also be the electronic ignition system or a bad key. Bring the other key and try that also. You really need to get a scanner and scan the car for codes, otherwise we're basically just guessing here without more data. Of course the alternator/regulator or battery control module could be bad leading to all these strange electrical problems.

Ash1965

Hi,
Monday, Thompsons in Folkestone, a recovery company used by my local garage turned up to recover my from Sainsburys car park. Told Adam, from Thompsons the problem and he hooked up a battery booster to my car and it fired up straight away - so god knows what the AA guy did?

So it is the main battery that is on the way out.

The outgoing battery is 340mm long but the question I'm now asking is what cranking amps should the new battery be?

There seems to be some confusion over the type of battery that should go on the car with some autoparts companies saying that it should be an AGM battery but then this is not a stop/start car. Any advice guys?

ALFAitalia

I fit stop stop/start AGM batteries in all my cars....they are just much better batteries that can take more punishment......more cash though.

Heguli

I have this on my E280, and even though it does not say AGM, part number search suggests that it is.



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cetialpha5

A VRLA battery is basically either an AGM battery or gel. As you see very few gel batteries, it's basically an AGM battery. AGM was factory so I'd replace the battery with an AGM one. The regular batteries are a little cheaper but AGM is supposed to last longer and it doesn't really vent like a regular battery which is why the terminals are usually pristine. Not really venting means less likely to blow up in your face when jump starting like a regular battery but not really a concern if done properly. Most people don't know how to do it properly though. As for the cranking amps, I wouldn't worry too much about that, in the US it was normally an H8 battery that went in there and all the ones I see here are all in the 850-900 cranking amps which should be plenty. Any AGM battery should be fine as long as it's the right size, I'd worry about cranking amps if you were going to try and put in a smaller battery. I think the big battery is basically for all the electronics in the car, if you sit too long with the seat heater and radio going, you can easily drain a smaller battery.

Heguli

Word of caution about boosters. If the battery is dead dead, battery booster should not be used because there is a high risk of burning the electronic control units. If there is just a couple of volts left on the battery, booster can easily drive overvoltage to the system. Been there, done that. Luckily we fried only one unit. Our instructor told that they measured how much overvoltage booster can make on totally dead batteries (24 volt system), and volt meter spiked up to a 50 volts.