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HElP guys i just got home tonight (i dont drive my car often maybe once a week) and when i walked by my benz as i did not drive it today. my dashboard lights are on i tried everything to turn them off but they wont shut off. No one has touched my car in the past 3 days.
THey won;t drain your battery ( i don;t think..) your CAN will sense the draw and shut off after a while anyway. Are you sure you never noticed this before or did you switch your light switch to automatic? this happens if you are in automatic and have your locator lights switched on in your MFD. the das and all four insode door handles stay on for a while after you leave the car. YOu can set this in youyr MFD. maybe you can change the settin and change it back or something and see if it fixes itself.
Sorry for TMI but I was thinking of all of the possibilities...
Thanks ill go and change it to non automatic. But after about 15 sec's all the lights shut off except for the dashboard. It has been on for at least 2 hours now. As for the door lights they turn off with the headlighs after 15 secs
okay i tried that it did not work. Now i have a display defective light that flashes real quick when i turn the car off, but then it goes away but the dash stays lite.
If you're lucky it is a defective display, which is covered by a 10-year warranty extension. If you're not lucky, it's something else like a SAM. In any case, if the dash doesn't quiesce, it will run down your battery so you need to get the car to the dealer pretty soon.
okay i tried that it did not work. Now i have a display defective light that flashes real quick when i turn the car off, but then it goes away but the dash stays lite.
those lights are on the same circuit.. You may have a faulty instument cluster. Is your car one of the free replacement models?
I wouldn't worry about the light draining the battery too much, its very low power and the car will more than likely shut the entire can-bus down when it detects the draw. it may take 30 mins or so since they are such low power.
something else to try:
The reason I told you to take that car out of automatic was because there is a light sensor that turns on the dash lights at twilight even when the headlights are off. This may be faulty, and I think it is actually located in the cluster. IF its faulty it won't matter if its in automatic or not.
If you have a flashlight shine the light at the two little black sensors right under your fuel guage. see if it gets bright or dark then remove the light.
Also the dash lights ONLY work with the drivers door. be sure it is ciosing well, and hitting the switch or try to hold the door switch manually. There may be an issue there
Did the flash light and the lights are still the same.
As for turning the dash off it has been 3 hours and still going.
My car is one that does have a faulty cluster, however does anyone know if i need to have a letter or something to take? or is it done with the sereal number? so i can have them fix it
All registered W220 owners got a letter, but you shouldn't have any problem. Just tell the dealer to look up the W220 cluster warranty. They will probably know all about it. There is no VIN range qualification.
Show them this warranty extension if they have any problems. They can call MB headquarters in New Jersey if all else fails.
Did the flash light and the lights are still the same.
As for turning the dash off it has been 3 hours and still going.
My car is one that does have a faulty cluster, however does anyone know if i need to have a letter or something to take? or is it done with the sereal number? so i can have them fix it
The flashlight test should have dimmed he light. if it stayed bright, then the light sensor is bad.
You shouldnt need a letter or anything you just may need to remind your SA of the instrument cluster recall then cross your fingers that they will do it right.
The light stayed bright, so then it is the sensor correct?
Does this mean they will replace the cluster under the warrenty or tell me i have to replace the sensor at my own cost.
I did receive the letter but i lost it when i moved.
The sensor wouldn't keep the CAN from sleeping. But if it were the problem, as long as it's part of the cluster it's covered. There are no limitations to the warranty. If it's a cluster problem, the warranty covers it.
New 2009 C300 owner. I found this forum to research the same problem and tried the suggestions.
Turns out that setting the alarm was the fix for me, So if your car is "garage kept" and you are not using the
door lock/alarm you may want to try it.
My 2001 Mercedes ML320 did the same thing, nothing I could find online was much of any help so I opted to sign up and share. It was just as with the OP fine, I parked it for a few days, came back, it was dead. I cleaned off the battery terminals and posts, the negative/ground had some corrosion built up inside, so it may have not had very good contact. It's been in the 20's over night here so things are a bit harsher on everything regardless.
I put a charger on it for a couple of hours, it fired right back up, left the charger on it longer to make sure the battery had full capacity. The lights would not go out, and attaching a photo of them. I left it overnight, about 9 hours later to see if it would hold enough of a charge to fire up again on it's own, it did not, the battery was dead, no lights, nothing. I put the charger back on for about an hour, it fired right up. It still had some charge left over from the night before since it took two hours before to get enough for it to charge back up before it would turn over.
From there, I disconnected the drivers side air bag, it's the side that I need to redo the power and lock window assembly since neither one of them work, and the door panel is off so I can roll up and down the window manually, long story there different subject. I disconnected the controls to the drivers side power seats as well, the power seats I disconnected from their main terminals behind the seats the first day I owned it 3 years ago since those were the cause of it's prior battery drain. I checked fuses, not all yet. I searched for the buttons an earlier poster shared here with his photo's of the door sensors, there wasn't any, but there were a couple of rubber pads inside of the door jam, I pressed down on them just in case they were embedded switches in them.
I let it run for about 30 minutes this afternoon before heading out to do some errands, letting the alternator do it's thing rather then using the battery charger. I came back about 3 hours later, the lights were now all out, opened the door, they came on as per how they were designed, fired right up. I am letting it idle for about an hour to let the alternator do it's thing to top off the battery.
This is my first Mercedes and I turn my own wrenches, each vehicle I've owned has it's own nuances to get used to and know in order to be effective and nail it on the problems as they come up. In this case, the battery required is absolutely overkill, well beyond anything I've owned including some rather heavy duty trucks. It's likely the same for more Mercedes and I won't get into why, it is just what it is, but this means it needs a battery that's at peak performance, otherwise the electronics and the rest get all funky and strange, the battery in this case was purchased the day after I owned it so well within it's life span.
From here, I bought an ignition switch, not the tumbler and the rest which don't really exist for this make and model to purchase new, it will arrive tomorrow to switch out later regardless.
I also have to note, it takes several tries with the key to start it up at times, not all the times, and if I lock the steering wheel it takes a ton of jiggling to get the key to disengage it, also it's funky some times if I don't fully turn it down to activate another sensor which set's of the key in ignition warning beep when I exit the vehicle. My gut is telling me this element it's just a low battery charge but it could be tied to that, so going to replace it pro-actively even if it's just fine now and hoping it's not the tumbler that doesn't exist needing replacement.
Now at the end of the write up, turned it off, no dash warning lights are shown as with the photo, just the normal what are supposed to show and shut off after about 5 min "which it did". I will keep this updated for future use should others run into the same problems, and being as detailed as I can with mine a bit much, but it's helpful when troubleshooting problems like this to know as much as you can of what's going on with your rigs as possible since it's easier to see other things to look into rather then taking a stab at the dark.
Also, at the parts store, one of the customers overheard me asking for the part for this and happened be shopping for the same make and model and asked me if they are any good. I have to attest, this is a very under-rated vehicle, it's simple, basic, easy to work on in general, just these electrical things you gotta go to school upon and pioneer at times to figure out. This may be my first Mercedes, it certainly will not be my last, I will always have a MB in my fleet!
This lengthy report stated, start with making sure the battery is perfect before tearing into anything, even though it could start up some big 4x4, these need more, much more.
It fired right up this afternoon, the lights are working perfectly, no more battery drain. I have to reiterate, make sure the battery is fully charged and doing so under the vehicles alternator to do so, regular chargers can only get it so far. I am wondering now how many of these were brought into the shop when all that was needed was some terminal cleaning and getting the battery back in shape.
This model could use an electric gauge given this is a more critical element to stay on top of.
Forgive me, but WHAT WAS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION? I have two Mercedes and they are NOW both experiencing this issue.
The battery is not charged up enough. They require to be in tip top shape for keeping the computer happy. It could be failed battery or failed charging system or simply, was sitting around too long and the battery lost it's charge.
HElP guys i just got home tonight (i dont drive my car often maybe once a week) and when i walked by my benz as i did not drive it today. my dashboard lights are on i tried everything to turn them off but they wont shut off. No one has touched my car in the past 3 days.
Any ideas i dont want to drain my battery
I have a similar problem tonight. How do I resolve it pls
02-18-2009, 09:49 PM
