terrimw

I hope someone can give me some advice. I have a 98 ML 320. I bought it cheap a year ago and other than a very slow oil leak, it's a great vehicle. Or, it was until Monday.

I came out of a store, got in and turned the key over but got nothing. It didn't even try to start. No tick,tick,tick noise, no cranking over ... just a big, fat nothing. We tried to jump it but that did nothing.

Since then, it's been a comedy of errors. The dispatcher sending out the tow truck sent the wrong type so they had to send another. As a result, it took nearly 8 hours for it to be towed 5 miles to the repair shop so, of course, they were closed when it got there. The next day the mechanic slipped on some ice and hurt his back and was out of work for a day and a half. Finally back to work, he diagnosed it as being the starter but no one in town had one so that took another day to get.

They put in the new starter and it ran just fine. They pulled it into another bay then to clean it up and when they went to move it again ... it wouldn't start again. ARGH!!!!!

Anyone have any ideas? I read several posts about vehicles not starting but they all seemed to crank over at least so I'm completely puzzled. I'd like to get some ideas from y'all so that I can at least not seem like a complete ditz when I talk to the mechanic! Thanks!

vmystikilv

I wonder if its having a problem sensing the key. I had this problem with the circular thing around the key hole on the steering wheel went bad.

c3212571

Sounds to me starter was fine. Loose battery cable. People usually just slap in some random batteries.!!!!!!!!!!!Change your tranny fluid!!!!!!!! On ML's. Fair warning!

Wkjones

Battery terminals probably need to be cleaned/ tighten; it could also help if the terminals are jiggled ? Relays/ fuses probably need to be checked? A bad ground could also be a culprit?

cmitch

There's nothing worse than a cheap Mercedes. You'll pay eventually.

Easchef

Check the cps (crank pos. sensor), it licked my NO START problem