CommanderCody

For those whom have experienced the dead batteries in their GL's, did you notice the engine having a hard time starting prior to the failure, or was it a situation where the battery was fine one day and then dead the next?

Also, did your dealer suspect/replace the Alternator on the vehicle?

I've been making several trips between SD and LA this week, and it seems that after longer (3+hrs) trips of continuous driving, the engine is having a harder time starting once I reach my destination vs. short local drives. I work from home so we're talking <50 miles a week in the car usually.

Part of owning any vehicle is being intimately familiar with the acoustics of of said machine. Over the course of the last month I can tell the sound of the starter is slightly different and more strained between long and short drives. So far it's always started up, but it sure sounds like an alternator to me.

robalo220

Well I can say from my experience after having a dead battery 3 different times that after driving long distances, my GL 320 would start right up. When sitting overnight I could tell the battery must have been low and the engine would turn over slowly and then start. Yes, I listen to the sounds and since fixing the tailgate issue, I have not noticed the slow cranking at all. During the 3 service runs after the dead battery issues, one of the first things they did was check the charging output voltage. These 320's have huge alternators and AGM batterys as the diesels have high compression and need a lot of voltage to turn over to start. Service tech said they were in the 60amp range.
Does your engine turn over slowly after long drives or crank over fast and just take a long time to start? If it is cranking fast and slow to start, that sounds like a fuel related issue (common rail issue). If it is turning over slowly, that could eithor be low battery or a bad starter that may be getting hot on long drives and malfunctioning. GM had that issue with their 454's for a while back in the old days. If your alternator is not charging, your short trips would not allow enough time to charge the battery and it would be low sooner on the short drives. On the long trips, it would eventually die causing entire shutdown. (diesels dont need electricity to run, but these new ones do need it to run the pump for the common rail fuel system). Sounds like you may need a trip to your friendly service dept. Good luck.

dieseldoc

no issues with mine.

robalo220

Sorry Commander, I didn't notice you had the GL550. I thought you had the 320. Good luck.

MomsBenz

Well mine battery issues were with the 450 as well not the 550. Mine always popped up dead with no warnings. I would drive it one day and the next day dead. I too drive very little and the dealer was saying that maybe I wasn't driving it long enough distances for the battery to charge, so I don't think that is your problem when driving back and forth from SD to LA. I never got a battery low message either. Have you recieved any messages regarding the battery?

CommanderCody

No messages/warnings on the Instrument Cluster. I'm taking it in to rotate the tires in about a week, so we'll see what the dealer says. My dealer is in OC, so it's a bit of a drive now for me.