PaulX608

The Mrs. was on the way home from shopping today when our '04 ML350 died pulling away from a light. She got it to the side of the road and called me. Here are the details:
Cranks easily and starts immediately.
Idles fine, but all dash guages occasionally drop to zero then come back up.
Battery light remains on.
No CEL.
Dies when throttle is applied.
Headlights and power mirror not working.
Windows sometimes work and sometimes don't.

I've had it towed to my mechanic and I'll call him in tomorrow. This is our fourth M-B and our second W163. I've always done the vast majority of our service work and I'm generally a good diagnostician. This one has me stumped. Any ideas? Could a lack of charging voltage do all of this? I hope my guy can figure it out quickly, my wife does love this car.

ohlord

on when running?
Your voltage regulator or alternator is done in.
They will figure it out.
$185 at autohausaz.com

PaulX608

Yeah, I think so as well. Went and dropped the key and had a chat with my guy. He seems to think that's the case as well. It seems likely that the alternator died and the Mrs kept driving without noticing the light until there was no longer enough juice to run everything. I could do the alternator myself but it's getting cold around here, and I'm getting too old to work on cars in the cold. This guy is the only one around here I trust with my cars. Anything else I do myself.

PaulX608

Altenator was indeed the problem. While removing the belt, he found the source of the little rattle we'd heard as well. Water pump Also having him replace our leaky power steering resovoir. Gonna be about a grand. More than I want to spend right now but we got a pretty good deal on the car 2 years ago and this is the only trouble we've had. Better to get it all at once.