Has anyone else received this warning? Kind of odd since the truck only has 1,300 miles, and was only purchased two months ago, new. This week is the first it has gotten cold here, so maybe it was a weak battery from the factory. I threw a battery tender on it, so if it happens again I'll take it to the dealer for a new battery. Just curious if anyone else has expereinced this.

 

Do you regularly operate the vehicle with the ECO start/stop function in the active mode (which shuts off and restarts the engine at every stop)?

 

pretty much never. My wife puts it in Sport plus immediately upon start up.

 

The AGM technology batteries put in these ECO start/stop equipped vehicles are supposed to be more reliable and have longer service lives than conventional wet cell batteries, but there are always exceptions. I had an Optimal AGM battery develop a shorted cell just before its 3 year warranty expired (received a free replacement). My G550 is always making noises when parked so it's alive even when asleep. Possibly something is draining the battery when it shouldn't be. Be sure to post a follow-up and let us know if this reoccurs.

 

I had an AGM battery go bad on my GLE very early on, MB replaced it under the warranty. A little surprising, but there is always an infant mortality rate. BTW, in my opinion, f**k ecco start/stop. Besides the annoyance, it will end up costing you (or the future owner) more than it ever saves in energy costs.

 

I totally agree about the annoyance of the ECO start/stop. Elsewhere on this forum (https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ine+start+stop), there is a permanent disable technique described. I did this about 2 months ago on my G550, and there have been no consequences except for the very rewarding instrument display indication at startup advising that the "A" is disabled, and the "A" indication when the vehicle is braked to a full stop informing you that the engine is still running (which is normal when you're in Sport mode). (Hint: the G's battery is under the cargo floor board and the negative battery terminal is on the battery's right side.)

 

My '19 is doing the same thing. I get the message every other week or so. Dealer told me to drive the car more often (idiots) and it's my daily driver, when I took it in for the diff recall. At that time the message has appeared only twice.

 

I put it on a 5 amp charge with one of my battery tenders and it took nearly 7 hours to charge to "maintain". That would indicate to me that the battery was indeed very drained. If the message comes up again I'll go back to the dealer to have them swap out the battery. It's possible this one has a dead cell.

 

If you have a voltmeter (or have access to one), check the battery's terminal voltage when your charger gets to the maintain mode (remove the charger first). A good battery with no defective cells should measure at least 12.6 volts at full charge. A dead or leaky cell will prevent the voltage from getting above 12 volts. If you end up at the dealer, his battery analyzer should provide an indication of the battery's health. If the battery checks out normal, but continues to discharge inexplicably, have the dealer measure the idle current being drawn from the battery while the car is parked and off. A normal idle current is less than 100 milliamperes, but I've read that MBs can be somewhat higher. If several amperes are being drawn, there's a problem somewhere in the electrical system -- something is not being shut off. This is when you get to play fuse roulette -- pulling fuses one at a time until you find the offending accessory or system. Good luck and let us all know how it turns out.

 

Thanks. I've played fuse roulette with several vehicles over the years. Such a fun process... I'm hoping it was a fluke, but I'm guessing it's a bad battery.

 

My 2019 E63S wagon has the same problem. It's my daily, but commute is only 10 miles, mostly surface roads. After about a month of driving, typically get the Starter Battery critical. 24 hours on the tender and good to go again. Irritating for sure. And just like streborx my car is never really asleep. I wonder if they had a batch of bad batteries?

 

Do you use the ECO on/off "feature" during your daily commute, or do you disable it? If yes, how many stop/start cycles do you typically experience?

 

I always disable ECO, otherwise I'd be going through more than 10 cycles, and it barely moves the needle on MPG (at least the way I drive). I bought the stupid expensive Brabus module to keep it disabled (https://www.brabus.com/en/tuning/ove...77-660-00.html), but haven't gotten around to installing yet. It will also recharge with a long enough drive. Irritating.

 

Went to another dealership, battery tested weak and they replaced it.

 

My wife is the primary user of our 2020 G550 and she uses ECO and it sits for several days at a time - we have not had any battery messages, it starts fine each time, etc.

 

I’ve had this message three or four times now too.

 

...me too...: TBH my daily commute is very short (2÷3 miles) but each two days or three i drive longer, sometimes needed, sometimes not ;-) but I've got the message too. Now I'm due to book for the first service (10K), we'll see what they'll say.

 

I do about that 2/3 miles each way to work and back and an odd drive in between- plus a good run on a Saturday and Sunday. I do just ignore it to be honest.

 

The Brabus site says "Price upon request" - I guess it changes daily with gold prices, or else it would state "If you have to ask how much $$, you can't afford it". I was thinking about buying an OBD dongle that does ECO on/off disable from Mid-city Engineering and asked them if the vehicle's "A" switch needs to function in order for its OBD dongle to work, but haven't yet heard back from them. This "A" disable switch has never worked on my G and the dealer won't give me an answer (I don't think he even knows what I'm asking about). So I yanked the battery sensor connector to permanently kill it. IMO, ECO on/off is dangerous and it does nothing mpg-wise unless you drive to work on a dynometer or sit in traffic on I-5 for 3 hours every day. I saw a Youtube video where some mechanic was ranting about how this engine start/stop feature kills batteries and starters for the sake of annoying most drivers - I agree.

 

Maybe MB is just getting all of us trained for the G-Hybrid's low battery warning.

 

Went in yesterday morning and, at first, the service manager told me that, being @ 80% in that moment after 50 Km, for him it was normal to get the alarm in case of short distances BUT, after several "Me" battery disconnected messages on my phone during the day, in the evening he said that they've been forced to change the "faulty" battery...

 

The Brabus OBD re-programmer for ECO Start/Stop is Brabus rebranded dongle from Vladimir - and you can find his listing on eBay - re-programs ECO Start/Stop to a more sensible "choice" in function

 

I've gotten the warning again after the truck sat for about a week not being driven. Had to charge overnight again. Kind of ridiculous. I'll take it back to the dealer when I get done tinkering with it.

 

My new G550 has sat for much longer and never had that problem...hope they get it solved, soon.

 

Yes this message appears every now and then on mine too. I’m thinking if you use me connect app, that could drain it even sooner.