goober71

Hi,
My battery was starting to feel weak after 3.5 years of buying my 2014 E350 CPO from the dealer. It was the original battery, so it looks like it ran for 6.5 years!
Dealer wanted around $350 to replace it for a 2 year warranty battery, so I went to Pepboys instead. They had a Bosch battery (49-850BAGM) that was a fit. It cost $160 after the 25% online order discount and comes with a 4 year replacement warranty. I put it in myself, it was an easy swap (it's a little longer than the 800A 80Ah battery i replaced, but fit just fine).
Seems to be working well so far. Strong starts, and the eco start/stop is functional again!!
Hope this helps.

G

LILBENZ230

The dealer replaced mine in my 2016 under CPO, but yes in the future this is what I will do. No need to spend double at the dealer.

kajtek1

My first W212 come with flooded battery almost 3 years ago, so when the main battery failed on 2nd one, I went to PepBoys and bought Bosch with 96 months warranty for about $110. That was over a year ago.
Had to enter my 2007 model ordering to it pass website security
PepBoys seem to discontinue 96-month batteries, but $160 above ain't bad considering.
Something strange is happening to batteries lately. We bought new MB back in 1997 and Varta battery served us for 13 years.
Now when "smart charging" kills the batteries in 2-3 years, even in cars with normal charging modern batteries don't go past 4 years.

Max_1

Now days most of the car manufacturers go the "smart charging" route.
I know for fact that two big automotive electronics suppliers: Bosch and Continental do make IBS (Intelligent Battery Sensors). The company I work for makes one of the components that go into IBS.
Not 100% sure about third big one: Denso. But all three typically play in the same field. So, I am pretty sure if Denso is not there, they will be shortly.

The logic used here is that you do not need 100% power from the alternator all the time based on the battery charge status. So, the demand can be throttled down when battery is over certain percentage of charge. That would help squeeze another ??0.0001?? MPG.
But the downside is that this setup will keep battery at the lower charge compare to the old non-IBS setup. As a result led battery will not last as long and we will pay the replacement price. I very much doubt that "smart charging" will save me ~$150 in 3-4 years to compensate battery cost.
In my mind that is another MPG "improvement" technique along with Eco-Start/Stop (at least in my case: I do not spend a lot of time in a stop-and-go traffic but have a lot of 4-way stops) that helps EPA MPG ratings but it is net-negative benefit to the end user.

Max

kajtek1

I think the smart charge is more for smog/environmental issues, but I don't mind increasing mpg.
Don't hold written records, but on days when ECO works, my car makes 32-35 mpg in the city.
On days when not - only 28 mpg.
Than again, my $110 battery has 96 months warranty.

goober71

96 month warranty is awesome! is it prorated? I just got a 4 year "replacement" warranty, which means they will replace it if it dies in 4 years.

thefisch

IIRC my Bosch AGM replacement with 4 year warranty died after 3 years or so. Warranty swap wasn't an issue other than I had to take it out and bring it to them. Showing up with a battery you have been jumpstarting doesn't always fail their battery test.

kajtek1

Yeah. The long warranties are always prorated. I think it was 3 years replacement.