Went to go run errand yesterday after car sat for a week or less.

Click, click, - then a DAYUM from my mouth.

Get volt meter - yup 11Vdc sitting there.

Get one of my chargers and hook it up - That is easy with the little remote Pos & NEg terminals.

GO get wifes car and run errand. come back she still charging after 40 mins.
After another hour or so charger went into FLOAT mode...Tempted to use the recondition but...

My car is a 2015 model year:
Production date from VMI thingy says 2/6/2015
Delivery to Dealer = 6/2/2015
Warranty started 10/11/2016.

So car basically sat on lot for 20 months or so

I buy used w/370 miles on odometer and receive car around 14 dec 2015.

I would say that was a good battery to sit for almost 2 years - They probably jumped stated it whatever.
Then go for 6 years in my ownership....

I will take that every time.

Now off to buy new one seems the AGM @ wall mart is best deal in my area Think I will go up size from the H6 BCI 48 up to H8 BCI 49.
49 is wider but tray has space.
More capacity too...
same price

Anyone got advice before I change it out?

 

When I let my Ducati sit too long it kills the battery. Need to replace Ducati battery tender that also failed after 5-years too!

Do you work in Oil/Gas industry? 14 days on 14 days off? Your OE battery actually lasted quite long...usually replace mine after 5-years regardless.

When you replace battery with a new one make sure it's first fully charged to its max voltage.

Go Dawgs!

 

Seems you have it figured out and yes, the battery lasted you a good while. You could see if the float/reconditioning will restore it but probably not. In any event, do some deep knee bends and arm curls for practice, as hoisting these batteries in and out will be the greatest challenge!

 

Standard advice is to get it load tested before you get rid of it. You could have been running it down all this time and now that it's fully charged, it could be fine.

 

I think it's a fair situation I wouldn't blame the battery at all . I bet if it was a Range Rover your battery would have died much before than your Mercedes Benz did

 

2015 to today = super awesome battery life
If there is no parasitic load sucking down your battery of 2 weeks non use, 11.xx volts usually means 1 dying cell and at that 6 years of age it is so acceptable.

When you get a new battery, train your ear on how the cranking sound and speed of engine start is from a super healthy battery.
Often we can hear when the CCA is rather weak but battery still is very useable as in decent reserve minutes.
I am speaking of 30C all year round average temperature, I don't have winter freezing temperature in my tropical country to weaken cranking power.

Your/our 3.0TT engine if based on a Fluke 337 peak inrush current capable clamp meter will take approx 570 amps at cranking at 30C ambient temp and
engine been shut down for more than 24 hours but less than 7 days. This will be approx 210-220 RPM starter spinning speed.
If I am out of town for a month and car unused that long, meaning the oil film on components are less, first cranking RPM can be as low as 190 RPM.
If I do not use my car more than 2 weeks, I do not start my engine the normal way, I use Xentry relative compression test capability to produce crank no start of 10 seconds.
I do this compression test at least twice to spread oil around the engine first using +-200 RPM instead of the typical cold start 1,000 RPM the ECM will do as fast idle.
Less oil starvation occurrence at high RPM is what I want to achieve.

NOTE : My staff will charge my battery every week when I am away because I have accessories which need a little more power than the typical <20milliamps of the W212 deep sleep typical drain. The super slow & polite 5 amps Ctrek is what I use. So battery is always peaked charged.
I also have disconnected the LIN connector to alternator, meaning my charging system is not the "smart-but-dumb" one MB uses. My Valeo alternator's own charging controller is doing the
proper smooth and yoyo free charging and I can get 95%-100% charge level compared to 80% typical MB smart-but-DUMB charging algo is designed to do.

The appointed battery MB supplied for my market and model is equal to this Varta https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-...gm/580-901-080
800 CCA DIN version rated but when brand new a Midtronic battery tester MDX-P300 will show 1,048 CCA SAE J537 version . Values at 30 Celsius.

Above is my new battery in July 2021. I retired the same Varta battery of 3 years old, still very good CCA above my engine requirement but reserve minutes has gone down a little.
So the 3 years old battery I allocated for my emergency small diesel generator/s jump start unit and for multi purpose use.


I think 4 seasons country with plenty of heater options get the 95 amps one with 850 CCA DIN version https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-...gm/595-901-085
European DIN CCA standard is higher than USA SAE J537 CCA TEST :
https://batteryuniversity.com/articl...to-measure-cca


MB is quite generous for its chosen battery CCA rating, most of my other Japanese cars are stingy bastarzd when it comes to battery CCA spec,
very borderline spec chosen and barely hitting 500CCA SAE J537, granted engine is 4 cylinders. Battery tray size also locked to a small one...DAMN !!!
Maybe they know the car market is a tropical country, so easier to start and no special heater/s option and they want to save $$.
I recently replaced my Toyota Corolla Cross battery which is like only close to 2 years old, because I can hear the CCA is weakening already and
give it another 6 months, one or more of its cell would be weakening or dead for sure. 12 volts car battery has 6 single cells in series, 1 cell down = bye bye battery.
Having higher surplus CCA than required does help battery life longevity as the high sudden current drain during engine start is not too severe if surplus CCA is available and abundant.


CCA will be reduced as battery aged, and it is the easiest to hear compared to verify a battery reserve minutes which is so time consuming.
I don't trust battery tester unless proven one like Midtronics ( too expensive though ) which Mercedes themselves uses as OE tool.
I have this cheapo one and it is sometime misleading :
So by ear is still what I use since donkey years ago to "hear" my battery weakening.
If our car electrical connections and starting components are healthy and engine combustion management & components are also healthy, by ear is very do-able.
The ease of cranking from zero speed to 200 ish RPM from a good high CCA battery with surplus CCA is so pleasant to hear.
One need to hear the split seconds a Locked Rotor Current tried to start the spin while at the same time the starter motor solenoid pulling the small gear to align to the flywheel gear.
The very slight delay or the slightest hesitation here is the sign the CCA is weakening, this is about 0.2 seconds of first cranking.
Below is typical current surge of an AC induction motor , which our starter is an induction motor albeit DC. Some industrial motors can go as high as 700%, not a mere 500%.


Slip is the opposite of designed operating RPM. 100% slip means rotor does not spin. 0% slip means the rotor spin up to its designed RPM.
So look out for the sound of a slight slow or very mild hesitation or not very solid engagement of the starter gear to flywheel, aside from actual ease or speed of the cranking RPM when
during highest inrush current moment.


Under performing charging system or the SMART* charging ( *dumb azz actually ) a typical W212 ECM uses, can create condition similar to reduced reserve minutes.


Train your ear to hear CCA performance as early warning, it can save you lots of trouble, trust me.


If you want to test your battery reserve minutes a simple way but kinda time consuming, read this post :
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ml#post8522221


Have fun with your new battery.

 

Thanks all...

I work at home and try to take one drive a week to post office which really not that long of seat time maybe 25-30mins figure 10 miles each way...
She almost started when I first tried slow crank speed and caught on maybe 2-3 cylinders then starter gave out due to no more battery so then I turned everything off inside to save some juice and tried again
Same thing.

I am happy with battery life I got. She was OEM as it has an older outdated MB pn on top.

Interesting how some HVAC ductwork snaps in over battery without much for sealing I feel as it is only thin rubber about 1/16" and easy to install in not located properly.

Sidebar ON:
Suck thing is Daughter in-law's Jeep SUV has a cracked radiator, so have to get her up and running as she works 50 mins dive away and will be borrowing my first love (my Avalanche truck).
What is it with Jeeps and crappy radaitors? My son had grand cherokee in HS and I had to replace its radiator then after college he got a wrangler and yup after few years we replace that radiator.
Did MB have bad radiators when they owned Chrysler?
Sidebar OFF:

We do not get much Cold where I live except for these Freak cold weather storms about once a year otherwise winter temps here are are low 40s high 50s and most of the time warmer where we without jacket and occasionally shorts for XMAS.

I have an old battery sitting in garage which is dead I tried to bring her back, but no luck so will head to Wal mart using that as my core even though different size.
$180 for this new battery which has a 4 yr replacement warranty.
Auto parts stores only had 2-3 yr replacement and charged $230 +tax +core for store brand battery.

Did find out O'Reilly's will take your old battery and give you $10 gift card which is not a bad deal and better then going to scrap yard where you risk getting 4 flat tires.

PS no battery light thingy on my dash to let me know it was dead or my issue when it would not start.

 

That thing is a rain water separator for HVAC blower, and is one bad design I hate on MB.
I have removed it in excess of 50 times.
I seen a few MB cars with one of the top side metal C clip broken, usually the no 1 in red if for a RHD car.
The metal clip uses plastic rivet as hinge/anchor point so not really strong. Red 1 and 2 are clips or its receiver, 1 to 4 green are notches or notch receiver.







I suggest you use a white or yellow electrical tape as alignment marker at one side of the top clip. I marked mine at red no 1 equivalent of a RHD car, it helps a lot.
There are 4 small notches at the bottom of this unit. Often people re-install this thing without getting those 4 notches locked into its place/receiver and what will happen
is the top steel clip then carry all the weight of this thing and eventually broke. Also without those 4 bottom notches seating pretty in its place, the super thin foam gasket will
not seal well and sometime get a tiny tear from movement.

Try to play around with this box a few times install and remove, and you will understand potential re-installation mistake one can make.

 

You'd be surprised at how long those OEM batteries will last if you take care of them. I still have the original AGM battery in both my 2008 and 2011. So about 15 years on one AGM and about another 13 on the other. Charge it up and see what the voltage is, there are many state of charge charts out there, if it can't maintain a high enough voltage, then it's toast. My 15 year old battery is at about 80% so I guess I should get rid of it soon but on the 2008 I can keep an eye on the battery voltage and I know not to sit in the car afterwards listening to the radio or talking on the phone with the seat heaters on which will kill it.

 

Took it off charger yesterday and car started fine... did no drive anywhere but maybe today...

but then I have fear factor of if I turn off and she won't start.... argggggggg

Will check voltage today after sitting overnight before doing anything.

I seem to have battery issues in my garages:
We found the ZeroTurn Lawnmower had dead battery yesterday - she will go on proper charger today
During summer this year we found the older lawn tractor battery was dead and she will not come back at all.
I think it was last year I replaced my truck's battery...
Golf Cart seems to have either a battery or smart charger thingy not setup properly....

Bermuda triangle for batteries in my garages.

Thank God I do not own an Electric car with some very expensive battery pack.

 

go with the 49

 

So what’s the opinions on AGM vs FLA? My OEM battery has reached 10 yrs…

 

AGM is supposed to last longer and was OEM. Standard advice now is to get a battery at Costco. Their interstate battery is made by Clarios who also makes the battery for Varta which was the OEM battery in Mercedes. Although Clarios has 20+ battery plants around the world so that Interstate battery isn't the exact same one that came out of the factory that made the Varta battery. Costco basically has the best price on a battery in the $180 range. Many other brands are also Clarios, the two that sound like they're Exide would be Bosch or Walmart. Exide is considered worse than Clarios.

And I got 14-16 years out of my OEM batteries so just being 10 years old doesn't mean it's bad. The key thing to check is to have it load tested and see how well it's holding up. Or throw it on a charger and see what the rest voltage is and use a state of charge chart to see how much of the original capacity the battery still has. If it's below 80% then it's time for a new one.

 

I've been poking around the 'net without success for confirmation that a 49/H8 will fit my face-lift S212. The manual is useless, advises against changing your own battery! Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

It's been mentioned in many threads and most people have said that an H8 fits where the H6 goes. I put in an H8 in my 2011 and it fit fine. Have yet to read a thread where someone said they got the H8 instead of the H6 and it didn't fit. For me, the H8 was the same price as the H6 so I figured why not just get the bigger battery if it fits fine. You can just look at the bay though, I looked at mine first and there was extra space on the side so it didn't have a problem dropping into the same space. Got the Interstate AGM battery at Costco, around $180. I can't believe some people are paying $300-$600 or more for it to get done at a dealership or some other auto parts place.

 

Manual won’t tell you *****. I looked it up in the web, measured my battery for
my 2015 e400 4matic and it said H6 (48) but after I went to pick up the battery at batteries plus it was smaller than the original. So I exchanged it for an H8 (49) and it was a perfect match. I paid around $239.

 

The easy part is putting in a new battery. The more interesting issue is finding someone with a scanner to code in the new battery.

 

oh great. I do not have such a scanner.

 

Duplicate

 

There are several Batteries Plus stores in Louisiana. They provide a car coding service. I imagine other retailers do too, as it is not just mb that needs coding.

 

Thanks I did not know that. But what needs coding? Everything seems to be working ok.

 

When I replaced mine all I did was take out old and install new.

Did not use scanner and all is well since I started this thread about 3 years ago.

 

It sounds like some newer models need coding but for our older models, there's no coding needed.

 

Oldie to facelift W212 does not need battery coding for new battery.
Our W212 is not a BMW

 

make sure to open the hood all the way up to make it easier to get better in and out.