What is the consensus at the moment for a replacement battery - anyone using the dealer or a genuine Mercedes battery?

 

for my 2007 GL450, been using H8 AGM battery from either Costco or Sam's club, for about $220 each, and replace it every 4 years.

 

There are only like two or three North America battery manufacturers. There is no point whatsoever to getting a MB branded battery, which is one of the few (Exide, if I recall correctly) with a MB logo slapped on it.

 

Same here, just changed the battery 2 weeks ago with an AGM unit from Costco, cost was $179 plus $15 core charge and tax.
All other auto parts stores quoted me about $260-270 plus the tax and core charge, I was looking at $300 out the door.

 

Another Costco battery here in my 2012 GL350. Been in the car for about 18 months, no complaints.

 

Get the largest amp rating battery you can get for a diesel. Cold weather gets tough on the battery to start the engine. Deka makes excellent batteries (they are a "manufacturer"). One of the companies that buys Deka batteries and relabels them is Duracell - which you can get at Batteries Plus. If you can get a battery from the dealer for a decent price, get it.

 

Any AGM battery that will fit, with the highest cca and best warranty you can find. An MB battery will probably outlast the car so that’s overkill.

 

Thanks everyone - for closure, I purchased a Costco H8 battery - $179. At the last moment (of course it was planned for Sunday), I rationalized that replacing the auxiliary battery would be the same amount of work (as well as a PITA due to whatever failure it was causing) in the future as replacing a battery and basically little extra work to replace now, so I went to Mercedes on Monday and bought the battery for $53 and replaced both.

I saw some references to "don't unplug both batteries at the same time" online and while I can understand the implications, I couldn't duplicate a scenario where I could keep one battery plugged in without creating a scenario where I cause more damage - so I just committed to being very fast with the replacement time.

 

Interesting thing, the auxiliary battery on my 2007 was the original battery from the factory. It lasted from 2007 until the car was totaled a few years ago.

 

Batteries are weird for sure, I owned a W210 for more than 12 years, previous owner was a friend of mine, about 9-10 months before I purchased the car, he replaced the main battery (210 dont have an aux) and I sold the car with the same battery.
In 2020, when I changed the main battery on my 2011 E350, it was the original battery, dating back to late 2010, go figure, it could`ve gone another year or 2 easily on that actually but had park the car that winter due to some health issues.

 

The single purpose of the auxiliary battery is to back up a failed main battery to allow you to shift transmission out of park so you can move the vehicle.

 

Lead-acid AGM batteries can last a very long time if you keep them on a maintainer and don't move a lot of electrons in and out.

My own battery lasted as yours did. No failure until 13 years after manufacture.

 

Yup. This. MB doesnt make the battery, so why even go to the dealership?