amg1957

I bought my 2010 E350 new in Dec of 2009. The main battery has been replaced on May of 2012, Sept 2014, Jan 2016 and now Sept 2017. The dealer says it is fine and the problem is I don't drive it enough (about 4500 miles a year). My husband drives his BMW even less, 1500 miles a year and has. no issues. My previous car, a Lexus, had no issues. Is this just a mercedes issue? The dealer suggested a trickle charger. Ridiculous on such an expensive car.

KEY08

If you have Keyless Go make sure your key fob is placed far enough away that it does not accidentally wake up the car. I always lock my car even in the garage just to make sure it is sleeping. These cars have a tendency to want to be working all of the time for whatever reason. Not driving it much will also kill your battery with short trips and then sitting idle. Actually, a trickle charger is not a bad idea if it sits for a week or two at a time.

thenew3

Go to a different dealer.

I only drive about 5k a year (some years 3k) and my wife only drive 4k-5k a year and we don't have any problems.

My battery in my February 2013 built E350 died in February of 2017, 4 years after the car was built and almost 4 years after I bought it, MB replaced it free of charge.
Previous MB's also had batteries that died roughly every 4 years, not every 1 to 2 years, even when driven less than 5k miles a year.

ItalianJoe1

Car has a ton of electronics. They do drain down when not driven regularly, especially if the keyless go system stays active, if the key is near enough to the car to trigger it, it keeps waking up just in case you come to unlock it.

kajtek1

It is not the annual mileage, but driving intervals that matter in battery charging.
Making 2 miles drive every other day will keep battery healthy.
Doing 100 miles and keep the car in garage for 2 weeks will kill the battery.
You can buy battery tender that mounts permanently on the car and all you have to do is plug it before long-term parking.

El Cid

I got my 2010 in Nov. 2009. First year drove about 5,000 miles and each year about a 1,000 less until now it is about 2,000 per year for past 3 years.
A lot of my driving is for 3 miles or less and often go 3-4 days without driving at all.

2009 OEM battery lasted 48 months and one week. Since it was one week out of new car warranty, cost me $300 for a new MB battery. That one is still working, although dealership did charge it up while in for last service.
Most disconcerting thing for me is that the MB battery installed by an MB dealer is only warranted for 24 months. It currently costs $390. After considerable searching (batteries and my soul), I decided to bite the bullet and get a replacement when I get the car serviced by the dealer next month or two. Of course I could wait until it dies, then have "free" MB Roadside Assistance bring me a new one and install it for the same price. Actually that is what happened with the last one.

I have a 2011 Toyota pick-up that gets driven about 750 miles per year and almost all of it for trips of 5 miles or less. Abut once every three months I drive it on a 30 mile round-trip to the car wash or big box hardware store.
Replaced the battery two months ago simply because of how long I had had it. Never had any problems.

LALALAND

One of my prior car has similar battery eating appetite too. It ate several batteries until a independent mechanic test the alternator. It wasn't working properly and has to be replaced. After the fix, the battery issue went away. Maybe you want to have it check.

kajtek1

Mercedes USA in last years become AGM-frenzy what makes no logical sense.
AGM batteries were developed with certain military application and road cruiser is not one of them.
My 2014 W212 come with flooded battery and I can only assume that original AGM with 170k miles failed.
On W211 I do keep Bosch battery that I bought about 4 years ago for $96 at PepBoys. It has 96 months warranty.
It is your money.

thefisch

IIRC there was an issue with battery drain related to the climate fan running after car was shutoff. Dealer should look into that for you.

Here are some other threads with info on short-life battery issues:
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...0-bluetec.html
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...two-years.html

El Cid

I have been told by those who know that short trips are worse for the battery than anything. They drain the battery, but do not allow sufficient time for it to recharge.
Driving long distances fully recharges the battery, as much as it can be charged.

As for where to get battery, I have contacted local chain auto parts stores and most don't want to touch an M-B due to potential "memory loss" they cannot restore during battery change out. Even the ones that have memory minders are reluctant to do it. Even contacted a company that does nothing but batteries for autos, heavy trucks, heavy equipment, etc. Won't touch an M-B.

KEY08

There Is no memory loss on a 2010 battery swap. Several of us have already proved that to be false when we swapped out our batteries with no issues whatsoever. That is an Urban Legend.

El Cid

I contacted two of the largest national chain stores and was told they no longer do M-B's for exactly that reason. One person even stated they tried it on a 2009 or 2010 MB and the memory was lost. The owner had to take the car to dealership to have memory rebooted (or whatever) at his own cost.
The other two said they no longer did M-B's because of the past problems with electronics.
The company that specialized in batteries said the same thing.

KEY08

I don't believe them. You are welcome to, however. Urban legend. Once again, I and others have completed the swap with no issues on 2010 E class cars.

El Cid

Let's see I contact three businesses that make their living selling auto parts and one specializes in batteries. All three say they don't do it because of problems in the past. Therefore they lose money on products costing in excess of $175.
It is not an urban legend. But, glad to know you didn't have problems.
Incidentally, I spent considerable time over past few months investigating this.

cetialpha5

Which chains did you contact? I believe Autozone and Advance Auto still does it. Pepboys used to do it for free but now charge for it. For 2010, there's an auxiliary battery so depending on how it's set up, it might not lose anything. Also I have a 2008 and I've taken the battery out to charge it and didn't have any issues with reinstalling it. Don't remember if I lost settings or not, if I did, it was easy to set the radio settings back. No trip to the dealer needed. On my 2011, the previous owner took it to an indy and the battery had already been replaced. When I got the VMI from the MB dealer, it had never been there during the previous owner's ownership.

belarus27

No settings are lost , (possible a loss of a garage door opener tho , but it is random)

Had a non AGM battery drom walmart , worked for a lil but over a year , not so long ago replaced it with AGM battery from oreileys. We will see how it works out. (I have a feeling since i also replaced my auxilary battery around the same time it should last longer and without any bugs or glitches) so far so good.

But batteries is the weak spot on these

kajtek1

xhundred on no memory lost.
I had my 2014E250 sitting with both batteries disconnected for 2 months and even garage/gate openers are still active.
BTW my ECO mode was coming very rare and could not figure it out.
During battery disconnection noticed some dirt on trunk battery clamp, so cleaned it in the process.
Now ECO comes on 90% of stops.

thefisch

Autozone, Advance Auto and Pep Boys near me would not touch the MB but they would make the change on my Honda. Changed the MB battery myself in the Pep Boys parking lot with their tools. Hardest part was lifting up the battery - that sucker is heavy.

KEY08

Then you went to the dealer to have all of your memory reinstalled, right?

thefisch

My memory, yes. The car's memory was fine. Only lost the time on the clock.

SEC1939

my 2005 E320 CDI had the OE battery when I sold it with 225,000 miles. New E so far so good but just 1 year old. I'd be happy with 5 years

kajtek1

I won't be happy if I don't get 10 years out of my BOSCH battery