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Bummer!! I just took delivery of my 53 last week and almost every other time I try to start the car I get the message "put key in marked place" which the owner's manual mentions. I just dropped the car off at the dealership and got an MBz loaner. Hopefully they can figure this out as this is a different problem than you are having. Hopefully an easy fix.
Ron, I’m just curious, did you put a battery charger on a regular basis to the contacts under the hood like overnight?
I know there’s lots of theories out there but I believe the 48 volt battery supplies power through the voltage converter even when the car is off to the AGM battery to keep it up. I say this because of the contacts at night read 12.4v at night, In the morning the reading on my multi meter says 12.8/9.
Just my theory.
Ron, I’m just curious, did you put a battery charger on a regular basis to the contacts under the hood?
Toban
No charger used ever, I drive it every day and it’s garaged the rest of the time. Known issue...I’m just happy that I will get the new battery. The fact that it failed after sitting overnight might indicate that warming & cooling contribute to the failure. Some failed in the first few days, mine is a long hauler failure, maybe.🤒
The good news is this. There is a new part number 48 volt battery in MB system. Apparently MB had said this should solve the battery issues. Apparently they are not shipping the old batteries anymore. Before I took delivery of my 450 a week ago, I told them I wanted the NEW part number battery. They agreed to put it in for me. So, they took out the old battery and switched it to the new updated one. I had to wait for nearly a month for delivery so the car sat there waiting as I wouldn’t take delivery and they were fine with that.
Hope it works.
Unfortunately I don’t think a charger has anything to do with the failure. As I understand it, the problem is with the battery connection terminals somehow failing. Another theory is that there is an internal short of some kind. Since Mercedes came out with an updated battery they must have come up with a better design intended to solve the issue.
Yes, the connections are on the internal board in the battery. There are relays and some or one fails. Apparently, there has been a change either in the board or the board itself. The battery also has come from a different manufacturer.
It’s just me but I intend on putting the CTEK on the car overnight on a regular basis. I live in a small community so a drive everyday will not charge the batteries sufficiently. You need to drive long distances to properly charge I would think.
Ron,it takes about 6-7 hours for the battery change.
They then should do a complete download and updates of all the software once again. Ask your SA about this and make sure they do it .
Ron,it takes about 6-7 hours for the battery change.
They then should do a complete download and updates of all the software once again. Ask your SA about this and make sure they do it .
Toban
Thanks...I met with the Service manager & the Mercedes Shop Foreman about my issues. He is personally going to work on my car as he did on my 2020. He has received several awards as one of the top (5?) in Mercedes Tech knowledge at training sessions. My early build GLE 450 had a number of issues that he resolved quickly including being the first in the US to fix the sleepy key fob.
He was aware of the battery issue but I’m the first one at my Dealer. I really wasn’t interested in the technical failure just happy that they have a fix. I did learn that after more than 2 years, Mercedes is finally working on the stop sign misread problem that can cause unsafe braking or acceleration. Our 3 1/2 year old Audi is very close to 100% accurate. I’ll post what they do to my car and might ask a few more questions.
Look forward to your analysis Ron once the work is completed. I had the head shop foreman do my battery. They did 2 more before mine all 2020's so when they did mine they had the drill down.
There's paste they use which comes with the battery as part of the install and apparently is important. Don't know what it does.
Great, mine was built November 10th. I've only driven about 200 miles a month since I got it and usually put in on charger every other week.
I was very concerned about my build coinciding with all the failures attributed to a bad batch of batteries to the point that I took my wife’s Audi on a winter trip. Then after a few months and almost 5,000 miles I became complacent, assuming that mine would be OK. You may be OK but the odds probably aren’t good. I was told that Mercedes will not replace the 48 Volt unless it has failed. Toban got his replaced as a condition of sale so who knows.
I considered filing with the NHTSA because if the failure occurred at the wrong time it could be dangerous. Also the Distronic and traffic signs could cause a rear end collision if an inexperienced driver panicked. The first time your car starts braking aggressively in Freeway traffic could have a bad outcome if you don’t hit the accelerator quickly. The same with a dead 48 volt but there may be no acceleration possible.
Drove the car 40 miles yesterday. No issues.. Fingers crossed.....
I was wondering how those who had the 48v battery replaced are faring now (i.e., did that resolve the problem). I had a similar problem and the dealer did replace the battery, but I haven't put many mies on since them and am holding my breath. Thanks!
Here’s an update to my previous post #119. After three weeks at the dealer, we picked up our GLE450 yesterday and drove it 200 miles back home, without incident. I’ll try posting a photo of the repair invoice, but the summary is that they could not duplicate the problem, and did not find anything that needed to be repaired or replaced. The vehicle is now operating fine, as it was when the problem appeared. Before we picked it up, we were pretty sure we were going to trade it in on something else that could be serviced locally and with more dealers in our sparsely populated part of the country. We were looking at a 2020 Lincoln Nautilus V6 from a local dealer, and considering a new Cadillac XT5 Sport from the dealer where we bought our GLE. The present market is favorable for trade ins, but there is not much available inventory to chose from and factory orders can take a long time. For now, have decided to give the GLE a second chance, so to speak. It’s just such a great vehicle.
Sorry, I don't know. Earlier posts suggested that there was just a bad batch of batteries on some of the 2021 MB's. Mine went bad at less than 200 miles. It's been replaced and so far everything seems fine.
We just purchased a 2021 GLE 450 couple of weeks ago. How can I tell if we got the new battery?
You should have the new one but anything’s possible. Since the battery is under the rear passenger side it would take a lot of work to look. The only other thing you might try is to have your Dealer run your SN to see if the part number shows. The shop guys can look up every part that came on your build by SN...just don’t know if it shows updated PN’s.
I just received my Vin for the GLE 450 we ordered back in late Feb. I would assume they new battery should be put in mine but I guess it's something I should inquire about since it's in the current process of being built. I can reply back with anything I find out. So far I've been told everything is "on-schedule" and should be in NC by the end of the month.
Before the car arrived, the dealer put in my VIN number and looked up the part number of the 48V battery that was installed in the car.
They had the NEW 48 V part number battery which was in their parts list and compared numbers. That's how they knew I had the old battery. Mine was delivered March 23rd.
Suggest you ask dealer to do the same thing to see if you have the new battery. Quick way of finding out.
Guess I could do that but don’t know how helpful the dealer’s service advisor would be. There’s nothing for them to gain. Also, even if I have the old battery there’s nothing I can do now. 😩
Guess I could do that but don’t know how helpful the dealer’s service advisor would be. There’s nothing for them to gain. Also, even if I have the old battery there’s nothing I can do now. 😩
Well, they could gain your confidence, you might tell a friend or post on a forum, and you might continue to use their services!
Give it a try.
It’s too bad a dealer would take the attitude if there’s nothing in for them, why would they bother to help. I’m my opinion, they have a lot at stake like keeping you happy with them so you might buy another car sometime or recommend them to a perspective buyer?
I would welcome comments from forum members on the dealer service notes I included above in post #140. When the problem occurred while we were driving the vehicle, the dash displayed a message that the 48 volt system had failed, but it looks like they could not detect any problems with it once it was towed to the shop, and could not replicate the problem. The GLE continues to operate normally since we drove it home earlier this week.
Maybe now that the battery has failed and you had to have it towed, the dealer must know there was a starting problem. They don’t need to duplicate it.
I would ask them to replace the battery under warranty to the NEW part number battery and not accept the answer that they couldn’t find anything wrong. It had to be towed because it wouldn’t start.
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