JDT1

Well, my first problem and I have yet to reach 1,000 miles on my vehicle. The truck is dead as a door nail. First thought is the battery has been drained. I haven't driven it for a few days. I can't see where I left a light on or a door was left ajar. Very frustrating and disheartening . Anyone else had this happen? My local roadside assistance tech did not have a new battery on his truck and he said if he jumps it, I would need to leave the vehicle running for a good 45 minutes (easier said than done). Anyway, I decided to wait until Monday morning (I'll be busy with football tomorrow) when he'll bring a new battery out. He even started talking about towing it, depending on the problem, which I hate to do. Aside from the obvious thought that it's the battery, and other ideas out there? Thanks.

StevethePilot

Mine sat at the airport for nearly a week, locked and started right up when I got back in it. If it's the battery, then the battery is not just dead it's bad. The lights go off after a certain amount of time (I've had it happen when I'm unloading a lot of little stuff), so that wouldn't necessarily do it. You could also have a bad alternator or have blown the main charging fuse, lots of stuff. But it'll take a mechanic to get it properly diagnosed.

STP

MoTorque

Hi JDT1,

I just bought a GL450 on Friday and drove it Saturday morning (the car had about 115 miles total), but today (Sunday) around 4PM I went in the garage and heard a beeping comming from inside of the car (like an alarm clock buzzer). Nothing worked on the car and I could not start it (the only sign of life was the continuous beeping and the "MPH" & "x1000" symbols on the instrument cluster were dimmly lit. I called roadside assistance and a guy from the local MB dealer showed up and jumpstart the car.
Now it says "MALFUNCTION" and it displays the car with an arrow pointing up underneath the car. I think is the vehicle rising feature because there is no action and no LED lit when I press that button. This is my third MB IN 4 years and was hoping that they got their act together, but no such luck.
I will take it to the dealer tomorrow and let you know what they said.
Any idea what caused your battery to discharge?

JDT1

I have no clue. Roadside assistance will be coming out early in the morning to check it out. I had one other Mercedes, an 02 E Class that overall, I had no trouble with. Due to the poor reliability ratings of most of their vehicles over the years, I hesitated too on whether to get another. I just loved the GL so much, and when I heard that MB was trying to get out from under those reliability issues, I decided to go for it. For now, I'm still willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but I won't deny that there is a little skepticism in the back of my mind. I'll report back on what I'm told the problem is.

raymond g-

Alternators are not designed to replenish a fully dischargedbattery. They can
only apply a superficial charge. If the battery is deemed salvageable after acid
level, specific gravity and electrical review, the only viable fix is to trickle/slow
charge using a dedicated charger.

alx

... climb in, close all doors, fire up the engine and wait a minute or two. if nothing happens - press the rise/lower button.

i found that the truck will not raise/lower if any of the doors are open.

it may be that simple. then again - you might be having a problem...

alex

oknish

Sorry to hear about your troubles, JDT1. Wish all the best and a speedy recovery for your GL.

JDT1

Well, my vehicle is back and running. The dealer came out and tried to jump start it. When it wouldn't turn over, he proceeded to install a new battery and voila, started right up. They actually drove it back to the dealership to reset some of the settings and returned it a couple of hours later. I was told that the original battery had a bad cell and a short in it. Overall, it was just a defective battery. I guess problem solved.

LEOSOPHIE

How does your carpet look after cutting for battery removal?

JDT1

It looks great. Actually, there is a color matching plastic cover with thick foam rubber under it that fits over the battery compartment under the front passenger seat. I can't detect that any alteration has been done. My lighter color (Macademia) carpet in the second row footwell, appears to be clean as well.

LEOSOPHIE

Good to hear battery changing won't be an issue.

MoTorque

It turns out that one of the Airmatic front control modules went bad and it drained the battery. Also the car was leaning forward due to the malfunction. It should be ready tomorrow I am told. I am bummed since the car has only 135 miles.

MoTorque

Not to mention that my last 05 E500 had transmission problems that started at about 1000 miles (at first it was downshifting when I was accelerating so it would slow down when I was trying to pass - I had a few near misses on the freeway, after several fixes it started to slip and it only got fixed recently with a new valve design).

I wasn't as lucky with the 03 E320 when I rear ended somebody. The car felt like it was accelerating instead of breaking, so I asked the dealer to give me a statement that it was safe to drive. They didn't and shortly after that MB issued large recall for malfunctioning breaks (basically the breaks would not work sometimes) which included mine.

The service manager was a jerk that kept denying there was an issue until the recall happened after which he went into hidding.

After this GL issue I feel like I am dating a ***** that screws me over everythme I give her another chance.

jongaines

Excuse my ignorance on the battery issue (a more thorough reading of the manual probably is in order), but is the access to the battery covered by carpet which must be cut?

LEOSOPHIE

Yes the carpet is to be cut for battery removal. Jump start provision is provided elsewhere, I think under the hood.

oknish

Yeah, but she is hot and you do like to be seen around town with her

MoTorque

You got it!!!

ijustice

I purchased my gl450 2008 in Sept 2007 and it has died on my 5 times and the dealer has not been able to figure out what's wrong with it. The battery dies every time, is able to be jumped, and then drive fine but then a couple of weeks pass and the battery dies again. They've monitored for a drain for 7 days once and they replaced the battery once already. I told them the I would hear the air suspension going on and off but they did not think any thing about that and that was "normal." I've started the process for the car to be a lemon and at this point am going to trying to get a new car. What a disapointment. My father has a 1989 e class that has almost 300,000 and he drives it to work 80 miles every day. I guess they have really changed their standards because this truck really sucks. The first time it died on me was two days after I had it. It only has 2100 miles on it. If any one has any ideas or suggestions as to what else I should do please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a shame, would never have thought this from a company with such a good reputation (I guess they lost that a couple of years ago).

MoTorque

I think that just like in my case (I had a bad Airmatic control module that was draining the battery) it is not the battery, but some component on the car that draws current even when the key is removed from the ignition. Ask them to measure the battery current (they can use something like a Hall effect clamp) with the key removed from the ignition and all the interior/exterior lights off. The idle current should be in the 10s of milliamps. When you open/ close the car doors even when there is no key in the ignition you will notice that some of the airmatic suspension components keep getting activated/ de-activated because you can notice the car raising/ lowering and the loud air release. If one of these components is not operating correctly and it draws too much current, it will discharge the battery. That's my engineering 2 cents.

ijustice

thanks MoTorque for the info. I'll talk to them about that tomorrow. They've had my car for about a week now, took them 2 days to start working on it, I really need to do something different (or at least they do)

Nevada Jack

Sorry to hear about your battery problem. Keep in mind and as related by you, the problem appears to be a "dealer" problem and not a "Mercedes Benz" problem. Contact your zone rep and relate the situation to him (her) and get MB involved.

MoTorque

The dealers are doing whatever they can to get it done and replace any part that seems to cause the failure, yes perhaps they can do a better job troubleshooting and finding the root cause of the problem, but the real issue is that a brand new car has so many early failures (mine at happened two days after delivery at 130 miles?!). Lucky for idiots like myself that keep paying for their genetically dysfunctional design engineering.

I owned over 15 cars in the past 11 years and I can say that the only thing left that Mercedes has going for them is styling (int/ext). I wish they contract the rest to somebody like Toyota/ Lexus (I don't care about the Lexus product, but I LOVE their ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING PROCESSES) and get it right.

ijustice

Went to the dealer today to get the car. Just like the past 4 times, they once again could not find the problem (I was shocked.) They then said that they probably would not be able to do anything else for me and that I should just have my lawyer get in touch with Mercedes. I got home and then called mercedes and they were no help what so ever. This sucks!!!!!!!!!!! I love the car but a car that I can not drive is worthless.

oknish

That is indeed a bummer. Hold your cool and start going up the food chain. Start with dealer's service manager and go up to GM and then MB Zone rep and all the way to MB Corp. Keep all the documentation and your notes. While it does suck to spend so much money on a car and not be able to enjoy it, don't let your emotions dictate your actions. Be polite but firm.

Become familiar with your state's lemon laws but I do hope it won't come to that and MB will resolve it for you. Looks for posts by AutoSaurus who did get MB to buy his GL back. He has put out some really good information.

All the best.

Nevada Jack

I agree totally with oknish approach up the food chain. For a dealer to tell you "they would not be able to do anything else for you" is total B***S***! Meet personally with the General Manager of the dealership (including the jerk who made the statement) and demand (nice and calm) a fix or a buy back. Write a letter to the President of MBUSA (registered) outlining your situation and request a buy back. Someone should contact you and do the research and then apprise you of the outcome.

Don't let the service department be the final decision maker for you or the car fix. Good luck...be persistend and patient (not easy but necessary.)