I need to know where to connect a battery tender on my 2011 ml350? I know you have the battery terminals where you normally use , but you also have the terminals under the hood where you hook up your jumper cables when trying to jump start the car. The terminals under the hood are easier to use compare to the battery, but is it safe to hook up the battery tender there? Please advise. Thanks.

 

Do not try to jump start your car!

You run a serious risk of damaging the sensitive computers!

Seriously, don't ever do it.

I connect a battery tender to the connections under the hood. Fortunately, my garage has mains power.

 

Thanks texterted. How long can you keep the car battery connected to battery tender? Can you keep it long so as not to drain the battery? What is best to do to start the car if you have dead battery?

 

I leave mine connected all the time. It's one of those "smart chargers" that even has a specific mode for the AGM battery on my car.

The only way to start the car is with a charged battery! If it won't hold a charge then you need to replace it with a new one.

Seriously, never let anyone (breakdown recovery etc) ever try to use a jump pack or jump from another vehicle. Firstly, the mounting posts under the hood aren't capable of passing the required amps. Plus the possibility of voltage spikes killing the fragile computers (SAM Units) is very real.

 

Thank you so much. That was really very informative.

 

No worries, good luck!

 

It’s very likely all this is covered extensively in your owners manual.