Hi There,

As you can see I`m very fresh user of Mercedes S-class S320L W220, I have bought that car December last year, car is 14 years old so I can expect few things playing up, I had to change battery about couple of months ago as the old one was original, also when my clusters are everything of LCD screen disappeared and clock stopped displaying, I was after repairing these failures very soon but something new just come in which is really bad and I don`t know where to start.

Yesterday when I was at work alarm went off making horrible noise and police come over to see what happened-that was around 11am, I get back from work around 5.30pm so only heard siren making funny noise but battery in car was completely drain, ok then I opened the boot using my key, park my other car next to it and using starter cables connected batteries and I still couldn`t disconnect alarm at all - didn`t stop making noise, started car and it was making even worse alarm noise. I read in google that I need take the front left wheel off (I`m in UK so RHD), removed plastics, found siren and disconnect it using attached to it cable, siren was making silent buzzing noise. I thought ok then now problems are over - from now on I`ve got even bigger problem, went into a car, started engine and I can hear beep sound after 2 seconds and LCD changed from greenish colour to the red one ! of course LCD don`t display anything so I cannot see what problem is displayed. Also there is orange ABS warning light on the right side. I can drive the car normally, I can lift it, radio work, but this red colour on LCD put me off... Breaks do work as usual. Another thing which I noticed - I cannot regulate steering wheel any more, it can go only one direction, of course was unplugging battery, was trying with towing button which could not switch off the siren!

What would you think is at fault? Siren? If so why steering wheel don`t do job properly, there is some warning which changes display to red and ABS light is constantly on.

Today morning when I tried - battery was completely drained again even if I disconnected siren yesterday, I observed the car and wasn`t flashing or anything... After work have tried again - I`m just loosing myself here

Please please help me - I really want to become a happy S-Class user rather than miserable


Any ideas would be much appreciated

 

My horn alarm went a couple of months ago and I took the broken one off for a few days whilst I got hold of a new one. None of the things you mentioned happened.

However, since the horn alarm is buggered why not switch it out anyways? Mine was an easy swap once you'd got the wheel off and the lining of the wheel arch.

 

Have you drove your car with no problem without the horn? How did you removed the old one? I`ve got no idea as the middle one looks like a security lock and three which are on the metal bit are something between 7 and 8 like 7.5"....

What kind of problem did you had with your horn? You also couldn`t shut it up using the car key by pressing unlock?

no idea what happened to mine... anyone please?

 

When you used another car to jump start your car there may have been some new electronic problems introduced. These cars have lots of electronics and jump starting them is not a very good thing to do.

You might try disconnecting your battery for a few minutes. Then reconnect it and see if some of the problems go away. Also, remember that when you disconnect the battery you have to go through the re-sync process which includes the windows, doors, sun roof top, etc.

Might help eliminate some of your lights that are on.

 

Thanks for your post, I`m little scared doing the reset with sunroof, seats, windows and steering column as I can move steering column to cluster instrument but I cannot do it in my direction, also can move it up but not down and if I will put it close to clusters I won`t be able to remove clusters to make them fixed...

Any other suggestions? anyone ever had similar problem? Would you think that responsible bit is a horn?

cheers

I hope after I sort out that issue eventually my next posts will be in regards to nice bodywork fixture as there is a fair amount of rust on known places...

I have bought it as I always dreamed to own this particular S-class model...

 

OK, another weird thing, I have run the engine for about 30min, I can drive with it so I made a run, come back home, switch the engine off, (horn is disconnected of course during all of it), pressed the button responsible for towing before I lock up the car so that way I made sure that alarm doesn`t work and go back home to write on this forum, 3 hours later (now) I went to car I cannot open it again - battery is completely drained - what that can be?

 

Dude! You are asking us to hazard a guess as to which of the literally thousands of electronic components could be causing a battery drain and setting off the alarm? Obviously, just disconnecting the horn is not resetting the alarm and the alarm is still drawing power even though there is no noise coming from the horn. The alarm system would be a good place to start but there must be a few dozen areas there to investigate. I don't see how anyone here could possibly narrow it down for you based on the brief history provided. Electrical issues are VERY difficult to track down and can be expensive to diagnose as it is time consuming to trace the electrical connections to a short. I wish you luck but I think you will probably end up taking it to a pro before all is said and done.

Keith

 

Correct
Just disconnecting the siren did not stop the alarm power being used

You'll have to have your electronics sorted out

And I don't think hitting the "towing" button shuts off the tilt alarm

 

Thank you for your thread. What I don`t understand is that alarm is not flashing, even towing button supposed to stop the alarm going off, Would you think that horn is ok and it isn`t faulty? I read so much in past couple of days which make me headaches... Usually people blame the horn - anyone had experience with faulty horn? How the car reacted? I think I will have to check all fuses (removing them and checking with amp how much each socket takes...)

 

Hi,

Was wondering how your car was driving when you removed the quote? How did you it was faulty? what it was doing prior to that?

 

Lucas:

Have you done any real research on your vehicle? The first thing pointed out in my research is that these machines are very susceptible to low/high voltage conditions. If your battery is flaky, ie unable to hold a charge, then your voltage will drop, current go high and subsequently fry electronics..........

So, firstly, is the battery drain due to the quiescent current being high (if I remember quiescent current is about 50ma) or is it due to a f*****d battery? So, either replace the battery with a new or known good battery and check the quiescent current and SEARCH out how to do that.

Tower

 

Hi, my battery is approximately 6weeks old so I don't think is at fault, by reading more and more threads I come up with conclusion that alarm siren is responsible for all faults and battery drain, because system is searching for siren in circuit and cannot find it as now is disconnected and prior to that was just faulty-dont get me wrong part specially electronic part which contains battery and has got 14years may be eventually at fault, red screen I'm getting and abs light might be effect from alarm keep draining battery life and because it al low power is switching all pheriphals off, what do you think about that guys? I want to give it a go and ordered new alarm siren (around 50bucks) so as long as it will connect I should be able to tell what that is. My idea of buying that car in such a "vintage" age was to learn how to fix problems myself and do it if I can, of course if that would not be successful I would have to go to pro who will probably drain my wallet volume quicker than my s class draining its own battery... If you guys had ever problems with your siren and had to replace what problems did you had with your car? Thanks for supporting me so far on this...

 

Hey Lucas, I'll chirp again....

It's good that you replaced the battery (I hope for the proper size), but have you check the quiescent current? Have you checked the battery voltage first thing in the morning? A lead/acid battery whether gel or flooded, is nothing more than a reservoir for electricity. It stores it. Once you have depleted the reservoir, the lower voltage may be the culprit. So check it out.

A fully charged battery will show around 13.2 volts. A discharged battery will show 12.6 volts or lower. After your car has sat overnight, what is the voltage level of the battery (to check this, first thing in the morning, turn on the head lights and ignition for 10-15 seconds and then check the battery voltage at the battery. What do you get?)

 

Long story short - replaced battery for brand new one - they did quickly tested that the other one saying is completely dead, and even they didn`t wanted to test it overnight.

New alarm siren turned up this morning as well, so having these two brand new parts, I have lifted Merc, took the wheel off, removed all siren, plugged new one in, connected everything, installed battery and... doing exactly same thing... alarm noise in on and I cannot switch it off, when clicking the unlock button on the remote it open the car but alarm noise does not want to go off, I have even thought that might be my battery in remote key getting faulty and took my spare set of keys which also cannot switch the alarm off so basically I have to disconnect siren.

Any clues at that stage please???

 

If my alarm goes off, UNLOCK won't stop it.
I need to press the red PANIC to stop the alarm.

 

How the red panic button looks like and where is it located? How long shall i keep pressing it for? My S320 is from 1999...

 

This is mine, maybe it's different than yours.
Just hold 2 seconds or so.

 

Mine looks like the one on link attached[URL="http://http://allegro.pl/kluczyk-obudowa-pilota-mercedes-c-e-s-ml-i3060275990.html"]

Has got red switch/latch/lock to remove mechanical key

 

if this a "online purchased" key, it will not work correctly, as these cannot be programmed properly (and probably will trigger the car alarm).

Go to a Mercedes dealer and have the key fob checked.

 

Siren went off at the nighttime by itself on my 2005 W220 S500. It's located at the front wheel well at driver's side. I removed it and decided to take it apart. This is what I found. Check attached.