ultracarnut

so I decieded to take the family on a adventure of shooting. got to the range fine...decided to move Ml to another site w/table to put gun on. got in truck and tick,,,,tick,,,,tick from the battery area.
what the heck ......
so got a pair of cables and and a fellow shooter to give me a jump.....nothing...after jump.... still tick,tick,tick,tick.
No cell phone reception. kids. 2hrs of day light, and my merceds that has never given me a single problem, dead. :v :v :v
dept. of fish and game warden happens to drive by...flag down ,,,take me up on a hill about 2 miles away. call AAA
someone drives up to greet us....USAF police. Tells us where being watched because now we are on US GOV. property. something about a NORAD radar site within range thing....go figure. silly because the road didnt say that. she was cool ....told her our problem. One hour later tow arrives...AAA send wrong tow truck..dark now....waited another hour for flat bed. Found out AAA only pays for first 5 miles. Im 32 miles away....X @$4.00 a mile ..total fun factor cost $150.00. Kids now hungry and Im in a daze why and how can this happen without a single warning. 5 hours later and I didnt fire one bullet and am now wondering anyone here figure out what the $%$^&%*^ ...happened.

00ML430 Bulldog

Bad luck, and maybe a bad starter.....

55fanatic

your tick tick tick sound could be bad starter, try rocking the ml back and forth in neutral and it my rotate into a spot where it will start

ultracarnut

where is the starter located at. Can it be accessed easily.

55fanatic

not sure but if you find it wale on it with a screw driver... then it will start. then drive it to your mechanic or cealership... let us know if you find it and where its located...

jfinch

Same thing happened to my 98. Luckily I was at work. Got the tick tick tick when I tried to start it and it would not jump off. Turns out it was the battery. Called Mercedes Road side assistance and they bring me a new battery and install it. No problems since. After talking with a local indy it seems when these batteries go they go big and develop a complete short internally and you cannot jump start the car with the battery installed. Next time I may try disconnecting the battery and then start it with one of the jump packs. I keep one in the truck. By the way the new battery was $145 and install was free.

Ronin007

Wow!!! For that much I hope they installed an Optima or Odyssey battery. I have seen those take plenty of abuse off road so for the money they are would be great in an ML that only sees road duty. The 300E and Range Rover both have Optima Red Tops in them while the ML and SD are both still on their original batteries.

ultracarnut

update....took out a battery with a july 03 sticker on it from napa. It came with the car when I purchased it several years ago. tested it...low on water...9.5 volts. battery was a 72 month battery..problem it came with the truck. I purchased several years ago. No reciept...no battery. After some logical conversation they were willing to prorate for me. cost 40 bucks. PHEWWW>>> that was cheap fix. sucks about tow though.(150$) leason learned.
Im surprised that this vehicle uses a battery that to me seems so old school, needing distilled water. what about maint. free? optima? figured for fourty bucks Ill take this one for now.
thanks for all your feed back guys! Now its off to oregon tomorrow.
Now if I can just figure out what the slight ticking sound is that I hear during hard acceleration. its coming from drivers side of motor and not anyother time. Im thinkin a slight exhause leak. last year had duels added with a stainless muffler. hmmmmmmmmm hopefully not cats.
other that these issues truck has been a good ride. Just with I could get more power from this strong 8 . thinkn 55 now. their coming on the market at some great prices.

RenaultFreak

rocking the truck back and forth in neutral will not move the starter at all....you are in neutral

if you own a manual you can engage 3rd gear and move the car 6 or 8 ft so the starter rotates 90 degrees to a new contact point (or just bump start the truck if you can find someone strong enough to move the whale fast enough).

In all, this teaches us to keep an eye on batteries, they are never manteinance free and after the 2-3 year mark the tendency to fail is much stronger than we think.

jfinch

yea $145 is steap for a battery but the ML seems to take an odd size that is hard to find. The Indy I spoke to about it said he had a battery but it was $140 and I would have to come pick it up and install it myself. Not really a problem for me but since it was only $5 more I opted to call Roadside Assistance which is what the Indy suggested. They were at my office in about an hour installed the new battery disposed of the old one reset the radio and had me motoring agian. An Optima would be a good choice but I don't think it would fit correctly and you would have trouble securing the battery. Don't ask me how but I know from experience that you do not want a battery to jump out of a tray and get into the fan while driving. I know the battery in the ML could not get to the fan but I would want a battery that could be held securely in place.

Ronin007

I will have to look at the battery location in the ML, but I find both the Optima or Odyssey batteries are normally smaller in size than the same rated battery. Securing the battery is normally not an issue. If the normal hardware does not work it is easy to fab something up or the local parts store might have something to work. I find the little extra work to make one fit worth it.

So far I have only replaced two Optimas in two different off road Range Rovers. One was in a Rover for 5 years and then sold it, but kept the battery. I took it out to run a generator in a remote location that did not have battery backup so it was abused for another 5 years that way. The other was in a Rover that the PO had sitting in a garage and would drain the battery dead and then recharge it. This went on for 4 years until I purchased it and used it as a DD and off road rig for another 2 years until I took that one out to run the generator. Needless to say I am a big fan of the gel batteries and they seem to last easily 5 years or more under what I would consider not normal conditions.