usairsmitty

2021 GLE 450 6000 miles battery fail N Michigan towed to Appleton Wisconsin nearest dealer 2 days before they can look at it they find bad 48 volt battery 4 weeks for new battery fly home to Virginia step off airplane they call got the battery ready by Friday fly back out Sunday after confirming it’s repaired go to dealer Monday it’s broke same issue No hotel no rental cars no flights back home no loaner car all I get from mercedes customer service is sorry. I’m done will never buy a Mercedes again poor poor customers service impossible to get any help from the trip interuption as they keep saying it’s the dealer dealer says it customer service worst experience of my life as far as cars go . Sold it to dealer took 14k loss only option buy a new car and it was not a Mercedes.

E55Greasemonkey

PeteyV

Did they merge GLE450s to the W166 GLE AMG forum now too? It's like they merge everything in the W166 GLE AMG forum besides the W166 ML63

chassis

Sorry to hear. If the V167 threads are read it will be clear the 48V is a weak point. E-class owners are reporting problems also.

The 48V system is the main reason I would not buy a V167. I recommend no one buys a V167 with the 48V system, unless wasting time going to and from the dealer or getting stranded in northern Michigan is how they like to spend their free time.

For the sake of whatever brand equity MB has left, I hope the W223 S-Class owners don’t suffer the same 48V experience the V167 and W214 beta test owners have experienced.

Ron.s

As far as anyone knows the 48 volt failure was very rare, maybe one or two, until Q4 2020 when some started failing. It’s probably the built in control module that is produced by a vendor.

E55Greasemonkey

I was at the local dealership this week and overheard an upset customer with his GLE53 broken down going back and forth with the service writer about the 48v system. His car had 100 miles or so on it and "just bought it" he said. If it's rare then it must have been my lucky day!

nextmilenium

Sorry to hear what happened. Do you know the build date of your car? Mine is April 2021 and I have less than 1500 miles. However, we intend to use our GLE for lots of road trips and it's scary to hear these horror stories.

ItalianJoe1

We have had a rash of 48v battery failures at JLR, it's not a Benz problem but a supply chain issue with the batteries, from what I've heard from our engineering guys. We have received brand new Rovers with faulty 48v batteries. It happens, we fix them and move on, but yes it's highly inconvenient for the customer when the battery can be several weeks out and the car is useless until it's replaced.

mikapen

No, this IS the V167 forum. There are several models - 4, 6, and 8 cylinder variants.
In this generation, the GLE450 is a straight six.

mikapen

I had a similar experience as the OP, with our C240 in Washington State on our first trip. It caused a lot of trepidation for a while, wondering if it would start the next time - I understand your concern.
The local dealer there just missed the diagnosis, more than once, over a week. Our home Dealer found the problem right away and fixed it for good. It was a stressful 1500 miles home, wondering when the car would fail again.
But all in all, the car served us really well for another 80,000 miles. Kept it 12 years. First Mercedes.

I'd be curious to find out why the Trip Interruption didn't work. You might still be able to collect, but probably not for airfare - if you paid any.

BTW it's too bad you didn't take the time to get acquainted with the country there. The culture is certainly different from Virginia, and you'd come to know that the area there is called the "U.P." not Northern Michigan. Upper Peninsula.
@usairsmitty do you prefer flying to driving anyway?

Ron.s

Installing the 48 volt is not like a 12 volt…as I understand it, very complicated. The odds of an immediate failure are probably a million to one vs maybe an error made by the installer much more likely, IMO. Might be wrong, but so far no report of a failure at zero miles/zero minutes. Doesn’t seem to pass the smell test!

ItalianJoe1

The 48v battery is it's own 'module' and must be programmed to the car, but install isn't anything strange compared to replacing any other part on the car. Just has to be done by a dealer as it must be coded when installed before it will work.

Ron.s

Have any JLR 48 volt battery replacements been bad “out of the box”?
It’s my understanding that Mercedes sends an install kit with the battery. Maybe it’s just a Dialectrical type of grease and instructions. It’s also my understanding that there is a test performed on each battery after production. My car was test driven after my new battery installation. Something doesn’t add up, IMO.

toban

I think they ship a paste with every 48 volt battery and is a critical part of the installation I was told.

Toban

Lucky 777

I just dropped my E350 off at the dealer this morning and was chatting with the service advisor about how I was glad I didn't get a 450 because of the lithium batter issue. He said they've had a ton of them fail over the last 12 months. He also mentioned their supply chain was just starting to get back to normal and now its drying up again.

toban

But, having said that, all Mercedes Benz vehicles are being switched over to the 48 volt system. Presently, the S, CLS, E, GLE classes are already switched over with the other classes following. There’s talk the GLE 350 maybe going this way also. Mercedes Benz seems committed to the 48 volt system.

Toban

mikapen

As are most of the other manufacturers, from Ram to VW.
And there are several reasons.
One is that cars with systems over 60v are required to have additional warning devices, that alert emergency personnel of a "hot" car, and the occupants as well. I believe the 48v charging voltage is @58v, so that 60v threshold is not exceeded.
However, to be honest, I have never investigated how this applies to pure EV's.

ItalianJoe1

The original engineering targets were 50v, they settled on 48v as a supplier agreement from what I have heard.

Anything over 60v is considered "high voltage", and requires orange cables, markings, special bonding systems, etc, along with certifications for anyone working on them. 48v is technically no more dangerous than 12v so it's normal to deal with.

Pure EV vehicles are between 300-800v from what I've seen, and have dedicated safety protocols in place accordingly.

marchgroupinc

There are other threads on this subject. In particular this one may be relevant to anyone looking into this 48V.

https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...t-battery.html