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Good morning. My 53 has recently displayed a battery light. I read in the manual there could be a few different causes and to bring it in to the dealer. I might just replace the battery as it is almost 4 years old. Has anyone replaced their battery and are there any tricks or things I should be aware of?
Good morning. My 53 has recently displayed a battery light. I read in the manual there could be a few different causes and to bring it in to the dealer. I might just replace the battery as it is almost 4 years old. Has anyone replaced their battery and are there any tricks or things I should be aware of?
Thanks!
C
Replaced mine. There is a YouTube on doing it. It is under the drivers seat. It isn't simple but not crazy difficult. Dealer wanted $800. Make sure you disconnect it prior to unplugging the harness connections on the seat or you will have to get the safety restraint system warning alarm reset. Mine is a H8 AGM.
Do you use the Mercedes Me app? It should give you a battery status, and allow you recharge the battery before that "critical" warning light appears.
Unfortunately, driving to recharge probably takes 60 mi plus.
A good practice is to have a maintainer (not a trickle charger) that you use monthly to get a FULL charge. Doing that can add a couple years to your battery life.
I use a CTEK, which is the one that Mercedes re-badges and sells in their parts rooms (for more money).
If I'm going to leave my car for a week, it's on the maintainer. Your car is not fully asleep, and it will noticeably drain your battery in 2 weeks for sure.
I am just under 4 years, and I asked the shop to run a load test and it passed. So far so good.
You might get a maintainer, let it do its thing for a couple days, and you might recover. A maintainer is a good thing to have in your arsenal anyway.
I think the battery light comes on at 12.2 volts, So it may not be terminal.
Interesting. I do use the Mercedes Me app and I do not have any messages regarding the battery. And definitely not an option to recharge it. I wonder if you have a different version or it applies to your model and not mine?
When you put it on a maintainer, do you connect down below the drivers seat?
Interesting. I do use the Mercedes Me app and I do not have any messages regarding the battery. And definitely not an option to recharge it. I wonder if you have a different version or it applies to your model and not mine?
When you put it on a maintainer, do you connect down below the drivers seat?
Thanks!
C
The app will only send messages when you're critical, and I get a text. (or an email. I can't remember for sure)
But when I pull up the app it'll show me low battery before it alerts me.
I use the charge points under the hood, right in front of the driver.
Last year I was getting a red battery warning pop up on my W204. It seemed to happen if i didnt drive the car every day. I would start the car and be pulling out of my driveway, I would hear a ding and the battery warning would pop up. id drive down to the end of the street, stop and restart the car and everything remained fine the rest of the day. I tried a few things, obd scanner for codes, charged it with a Noco genius charger, even bought 2 different battery testers to see what was going on. Long story short it just went away, over a year later and hasnt happened again.
Last year I was getting a red battery warning pop up on my W204. It seemed to happen if i didnt drive the car every day. I would start the car and be pulling out of my driveway, I would hear a ding and the battery warning would pop up. id drive down to the end of the street, stop and restart the car and everything remained fine the rest of the day. I tried a few things, obd scanner for codes, charged it with a Noco genius charger, even bought 2 different battery testers to see what was going on. Long story short it just went away, over a year later and hasnt happened again.
What is my point? Who knows, maybe its just the car acting up and turns out to be nothing.
If you short-trip every day, you're battery will probably gradually run down.
Takes a lot of highway driving to bring the charge back up. Like an hour or three.
There are just too many systems awake or waiting to be awake, that draw down the battery more than a couple of miles' driving can recover.
Approaching the car with a key in your pocket uses juice. Opening the door or even the hood uses juice.
I have a limited draw Voltmeter that I use, and I can see the voltage drop from 12.5 to 12.2 just by opening a door and hood.
It recovers gradually over a few minutes, but until the car goes to sleep again, it'll never go back to resting voltage.
One thing you can do to save your battery is keep your key far away from the car. And don't use the Mercedes me app because it wakes up the car also.
To expand on this a bit.
My running voltage is a 15.1 volts UNTIL it gets fully charged, then it'll settle down into the lower 14s.
But that's usually after 3 more hours on the road.
I set my escort radar detector to show the voltage instead of mph.
There is a (relatively complicated) way to dig into the service menu to show voltage in the instrument cluster, but I'm not sure if it displays "continuous" or only "instantaneous."
It dominates your instrument cluster so your chosen display disappears.
Interesting. I do use the Mercedes Me app and I do not have any messages regarding the battery. And definitely not an option to recharge it. I wonder if you have a different version or it applies to your model and not mine?
C
In the app you select the "Car" symbol at the bottom then under those sub selections select the "Service" tab with a wrench symbol and battery status (Charged, Partially Charged or Critical) is shown there along with the status for Brake Fluid, Coolant and Washer Fluid
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