Reduced Battery Start Engine Message
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Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 80
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From: SF Bay Area, CA
2006 E320 CDI
Reduced Battery Start Engine Message
I apparently have a battery problem on my E320 CDI 2006. I had to leave it in a parking lot (thankfully not far from my home) for a couple of weeks and the car will not crank up. I get a message "Reduced Battery Start Engine" message in Red. When I turn the key to start it nothing happens. I know that my car has barely been running and I was able to trickle charge the main trunk battery when it was in the garage. But now that it is in a parking lot, the trickle charging has not happened and probably the aux battery or both batteries are too low.
My question for you is how do I get this car to jump start and get it out of here? Should I jump the auxiliary battery under the hood (the one that powers the SBC or should I connect the jumper cables to the trunk battery and that will also power the aux battery and it should jump start?
Thanks for any help and direction.
My question for you is how do I get this car to jump start and get it out of here? Should I jump the auxiliary battery under the hood (the one that powers the SBC or should I connect the jumper cables to the trunk battery and that will also power the aux battery and it should jump start?
Thanks for any help and direction.
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From: MA
2008 E350 4Matic, 2011 E350 4matic
You should be able to just jump start the battery in the trunk. The aux battery is for the SBC in case the main battery dies so you still have braking even with a dead main battery. You could also take the batteries out and put them on a charger at home. It's not good to have the car charge up a dead battery. Normally you don't want to charge a battery at more than 10 amps so a basic cheaper charger like this 8 amp one should be fine, just takes longer.
Thread Starter
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 80
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From: SF Bay Area, CA
2006 E320 CDI
Thanks for a quick and succinct reply. Is there anything I should be aware of in disconnecting both the main and aux batteries, taking them to charge and then re-installing? Will this require resetting of anything?
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From: MA
2008 E350 4Matic, 2011 E350 4matic
Well you'll have to normalize it afterwards, but that's just opening/closing all the windows and sunroof and holding down/up the bottoms for about 5 seconds after they're fully open/closed. You might also have to turn the steering wheel lock to lock, not needed for post face lift but your car is sort of in the middle of pre/post facelift. It remembers the radio presets and you might have to set the clock but if you have it tied to gps time, shouldn't take much to set it. Taking them out and charging it is best, fully charged batteries last longer than partially charged batteries. The main one is just heavy though, about 60 pounds. Remember to disconnect the negative cable first and connect it last.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 80
Likes: 1
From: SF Bay Area, CA
2006 E320 CDI
sorry to hear. That was a bad situation. Did you replace the harness yourself? If not, May I know what it costed you? At any rate, glad to know that you found the source of the issue and fixed it.
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From: MA
2008 E350 4Matic, 2011 E350 4matic
I've heard of rodents chewing up a car. Someone told me they didn't drive their car for a while and the rats really ate up all the wiring to such an extent that the car was considered totaled by the insurance company and written off. The rodents eating the wiring would be covered under comprehensive.
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From: The Netherlands
2005 CLS55 AMG W219 C219
Piece of advice, as part of preventative maintenance; make sure that your earth leads/points are corrosion free. We are driving cars which are 18 years old etc, so these things are bound to happen. I also replaced the Battery Control Module (BCM) and the front AUX battery relay as I had some power related issues (I have a CLS55 with dual battery setup)
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