48V Battery Malfunction
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
48V Battery Malfunction
Anyone know if Mercedes has found a solution to this problem? I see across multiple product lines this same issue.
Mine failed! It is at the dealership and they are still trying to diagnose the cause.
Almost immediately after starting it after sitting all night, the yellow malfunction notice popped up; a/c stopped working, lost power and then a red engine temperature warning and the vehicle shut down. This is my wife’s vehicle and she was with my grandson. Very frightening! Had to be towed. I see there is a technical bulletin issues but it doesn’t seem to be a proven solution. Anyone have this problem permanently fixed?
Mine failed! It is at the dealership and they are still trying to diagnose the cause.
Almost immediately after starting it after sitting all night, the yellow malfunction notice popped up; a/c stopped working, lost power and then a red engine temperature warning and the vehicle shut down. This is my wife’s vehicle and she was with my grandson. Very frightening! Had to be towed. I see there is a technical bulletin issues but it doesn’t seem to be a proven solution. Anyone have this problem permanently fixed?
Last edited by 9157; 05-06-2021 at 12:41 PM.
#2
MBWorld Fanatic!
I’ve read it’s a certain amount of batteries, and the fix was a new battery for the system. Apparently a bad batch of batteries in the system made it into a few cars.
mine threw an error once outside of a grocery store after sitting for about 20 minutes. Car drove like normal but had the error in the screen. It went away on its own on the next restart…
mine threw an error once outside of a grocery store after sitting for about 20 minutes. Car drove like normal but had the error in the screen. It went away on its own on the next restart…
#3
Member
According to my service advisor, it happens quite a bit.
one good thing is that service part swap is very very easy work.
I'm not keeping my X167 after the warranty expires.
one good thing is that service part swap is very very easy work.
I'm not keeping my X167 after the warranty expires.
#4
Junior Member
Thread Starter
This my daily messages from the dealer:
Good afternoon. Your Mercedes-Benz is still with my team leader diagnosing your GLS. I will update you again tomorrow with the diagnosis.
--Mercedes-Benz of
Good afternoon. Your Mercedes-Benz is still with my team leader diagnosing your GLS. I will update you again tomorrow with the diagnosis.
--Mercedes-Benz of
#5
MBWorld Fanatic!
but bring the car in on fire, and they’d tell you “we could not replicate, operating as normal”…
at least that’s been my experience across now 4 dealerships.
OP, did you check out the GLE section of this forum too? It’s the same engine and has been in play for longer than our GLS’s. Likely to find some commentary over there too on this topic. That’s where I saw something about it being a bad batch of batteries for the 48v system that’s under the drivers seat.
unfortunately I suspect we’re going to have some these issues with the current crop of GLS’s given what Covid has done to the supply lines across so many different sectors of manufacturing. I suspect quality control isn’t quite up to par in some areas for many part makers. Not just Mercedes, but everything from microwaves to lumber to whatever. To give you an idea, I ordered a built-in GE microwave in the beginning of February….it arrived two days ago..
Last edited by nc211; 05-07-2021 at 07:36 PM.
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wyatt88 (05-07-2021)
#6
Junior Member
Thread Starter
The dealer said today they are waiting for direction from Mercedes. It’s not the batteries or the paint on the battery connections. My car has 24k miles and this is the 2nd electrical issue in addition to the propane smell when driving with the windows open. That by the way, took 3 visits and over a week for the final diagnosis and fix from Mercedes Corp.
#7
MBWorld Fanatic!
Yeah, sorry I missed the propane smell issue too. That’s strange! Curious, and sorry if already asked, but when did you get yours again? I’m curious if it was one of the original batch that came off the production line?
I haven’t a clue on the propane smell. One would think an exhaust issue and maybe winter blend of gasoline. But I’ve never known it to smell like propane. I remember years ago with our 2005 4Runner V8, if you had that tailgate window rolled down and no other window open in the car, it would basically gas you to near death with stink exhaust. Smelled a lot of different smells over the years, but never propane.
my new opinion, I think you’ve got a short somewhere and it’s getting hot to the point of making that stink. I wonder if an out of spec hybrid motor. I saw a really cool video on YouTube last week on how it’s replaced. No small job, but can be done by removing the transmission and then basically sliding it out of the back of the engine and slide a new one in. It was an impressive piece of hardware for sure, looked like something out of Star Wars
Giod luck and please let us know what the conclusion is! .
I haven’t a clue on the propane smell. One would think an exhaust issue and maybe winter blend of gasoline. But I’ve never known it to smell like propane. I remember years ago with our 2005 4Runner V8, if you had that tailgate window rolled down and no other window open in the car, it would basically gas you to near death with stink exhaust. Smelled a lot of different smells over the years, but never propane.
my new opinion, I think you’ve got a short somewhere and it’s getting hot to the point of making that stink. I wonder if an out of spec hybrid motor. I saw a really cool video on YouTube last week on how it’s replaced. No small job, but can be done by removing the transmission and then basically sliding it out of the back of the engine and slide a new one in. It was an impressive piece of hardware for sure, looked like something out of Star Wars
Giod luck and please let us know what the conclusion is! .
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#8
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Yeah, sorry I missed the propane smell issue too. That’s strange! Curious, and sorry if already asked, but when did you get yours again? I’m curious if it was one of the original batch that came off the production line?
I haven’t a clue on the propane smell. One would think an exhaust issue and maybe winter blend of gasoline. But I’ve never known it to smell like propane. I remember years ago with our 2005 4Runner V8, if you had that tailgate window rolled down and no other window open in the car, it would basically gas you to near death with stink exhaust. Smelled a lot of different smells over the years, but never propane.
my new opinion, I think you’ve got a short somewhere and it’s getting hot to the point of making that stink. I wonder if an out of spec hybrid motor. I saw a really cool video on YouTube last week on how it’s replaced. No small job, but can be done by removing the transmission and then basically sliding it out of the back of the engine and slide a new one in. It was an impressive piece of hardware for sure, looked like something out of Star Wars
Giod luck and please let us know what the conclusion is! .
I haven’t a clue on the propane smell. One would think an exhaust issue and maybe winter blend of gasoline. But I’ve never known it to smell like propane. I remember years ago with our 2005 4Runner V8, if you had that tailgate window rolled down and no other window open in the car, it would basically gas you to near death with stink exhaust. Smelled a lot of different smells over the years, but never propane.
my new opinion, I think you’ve got a short somewhere and it’s getting hot to the point of making that stink. I wonder if an out of spec hybrid motor. I saw a really cool video on YouTube last week on how it’s replaced. No small job, but can be done by removing the transmission and then basically sliding it out of the back of the engine and slide a new one in. It was an impressive piece of hardware for sure, looked like something out of Star Wars
Giod luck and please let us know what the conclusion is! .
Our car was purchased in early December 2019. It was one of the first I think. My wife loves it, but reliability is an issue. Never had a problem with our previous ones.
#10
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Update:
The dealer called to say that Mercedes-Benz said we could pick it up after 11 days as they could not replicate the problem after clearing all the codes. They did not do anything except clear the codes.
They said if it happens again to bring it back!
I questioned if that’s the case and it shuts down again like the first time, put my family in danger, only for you to clear the codes again and wait for it to happen while in your possession a second time?
they said I could leave it and they will keep trying to duplicate the problem.
I have owned multiple Mercedes GLS’s and never had this happen.
Crazy!
The dealer called to say that Mercedes-Benz said we could pick it up after 11 days as they could not replicate the problem after clearing all the codes. They did not do anything except clear the codes.
They said if it happens again to bring it back!
I questioned if that’s the case and it shuts down again like the first time, put my family in danger, only for you to clear the codes again and wait for it to happen while in your possession a second time?
they said I could leave it and they will keep trying to duplicate the problem.
I have owned multiple Mercedes GLS’s and never had this happen.
Crazy!
#11
![Angry](https://mbworld.org/forums/images/icons/icon8.gif)
I have a similar problem, was driving 5 miles from home on a secondary road and received the 48 volt battery error light, bright red square on my dash, with a red check engine light. The car is 4 months old with less than 2,000 miles. I pulled the car to a side street, car was throttled, with no power, turned it off, then on and the check engine light was yellow. I spoke to Mercedes service in my area and they suggested I have it towed. I had the car towed. That afternoon the service rep called me and said they could find nothing wrong with it, no check engine light etc. He kind of sort of acted like I was making up the error lights I received. As it was a Friday, he told me they wanted to keep it over the weekend and check it out again. Meanwhile they pulled out the back seats and the carpeting, yipes, I guess to access something. He called me Tuesday morning and said my car was ready to pick up they found nothing wrong with my vehicle. I told him I could not pick it up until 6 pm that evening and he said that was fine. Two hours later, around 4 pm, the service rep called me back and said he had good news/bad news. I asked what news? He said the detailer had pulled the car into the car wash and got the same red light I had and this time the car died. Meanwhile they finally got me a loaner car and said it may be several weeks to get this fixed. Now I don't trust this car or this dealer. What would have happened if this happened on the interstate during rush hour or some deserted road???? Has anyone found a solution to this warning light and then having the car just quit?
Last edited by Maggoozzer; 08-25-2021 at 07:46 PM.
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chassis (08-25-2021)
#13
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2017 GLE350 4MATIC
I have a similar problem, was driving 5 miles from home on a secondary road and received the 48 volt battery error light, bright red square on my dash, with a red check engine light. The car is 4 months old with less than 2,000 miles. I pulled the car to a side street, car was throttled, with no power, turned it off, then on and the check engine light was yellow. I spoke to Mercedes service in my area and they suggested I have it towed. I had the car towed. That afternoon the service rep called me and said they could find nothing wrong with it, no check engine light etc. He kind of sort of acted like I was making up the error lights I received. As it was a Friday, he told me they wanted to keep it over the weekend and check it out again. Meanwhile they pulled out the back seats and the carpeting, yipes, I guess to access something. He called me Tuesday morning and said my car was ready to pick up they found nothing wrong with my vehicle. I told him I could not pick it up until 6 pm that evening and he said that was fine. Two hours later, around 4 pm, the service rep called me back and said he had good news/bad news. I asked what news? He said the detailer had pulled the car into the car wash and got the same red light I had and this time the car died. Meanwhile they finally got me a loaner car and said it may be several weeks to get this fixed. Now I don't trust this car or this dealer. What would have happened if this happened on the interstate during rush hour or some deserted road???? Has anyone found a solution to this warning light and then having the car just quit?
#14
@Maggoozzer sorry to hear. What is the build date for your vehicle? It’s on the front door jamb decal.
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chassis (08-26-2021)