mercedesbenzs55

Thank you Monroe! Ill keep you in mind

Mike5215

If it looks like **** and smells like **** it's probably ****.

MrRat

The MB maintenance guide recommends testing the battery and charging system with a midtronics mdr-717 tester. If you bring it to the dealer, that's what they will have(or something newer).
The least you can do is check the accessory battery voltage prior to installation, it should be about 12.8V.
If it quickly drops back to 11V the battery is defective. This would happen in about a minute.
If the voltage is at 11V when you go to pick it up at cost less auto parts, then they need to give you a good fully charged battery. Putting a known charged battery in will allow you to drive it for a while, even if the charging system is defective.

fastlife23

Scanned yet?
Lucid yet?

Yeah the O'Reilly auto shop drop out is an authority on the Mercedes platform especially after you telling him what's going on

xpl0sive

do you mean to say that the charging system on a 2007 Mercedes is somehow different from a 1970 Chevy Pickup? They both have batteries, they both have alternators, what else is there?

fastlife23

Of course they're the same silly pants they both have wheels and an engine vroom vroom.

Whats hilarious is you actually think the only thing wrong with this vehicle is an alternator or a voltage regulator according to the auto zone dip****

Mike5215

If he were to consult an expert it would ruin the myth that he could buy a wrecked S and restore it with $1,000, luck and some elbow grease. Hence the inexplicable resistance. It's more important to him that the forum view him as a hero who single handedly rescued the car.

mercedesbenzs55

Exactly!
She's a damsel in distress

DATURK

I'm confident you'll get your car's problems resolved and get in good working order....it may not be $1000.00 budget you set but I believe you'll get it done.

Mike5215

Makes sense, since the whole story is turning out to be a fairy tale.

mercedesbenzs55

You won't say that when she's running strong and looking sharp!

Bluemax

6k later....

DaveW68

$6k? Well aren't you the optimistic type! I think if he gets the entire car sorted for double that amount then he'll be doing better most of us naysayers think.

mercedesbenzs55

Alternator will be here Wednesday.

I just got the Battery back from charging. Before doing this test I unhooked all power to the car overnight.
Here is the test that you recommended and the Voltage readings are as follows:

Before Install: Rear Batt. - 12.51 / Front Batt. 12.61

Car On w/ Headlights Running: Rear Batt. - 11.99 / Front Batt. 12.51

Car Off: Rear Batt. - 12.35 / Front Batt. 12.55

All three readings were done 60 seconds between one another.

25 seconds after turning on the car the Battery icon popped up again.

Maybe its a fairy tale, but something tells me my alternator is malfunctioning.

Bluemax

We should keep track of all his expenditures and have everyone guess and see who comes closest... 6k was a joke but i think he will be at least 15 k in with all the extra unnecessary parts and tools he is massing.

Plus he's a turbo builder....Ya right...

mercedesbenzs55

Ugh. Please keep your negative and derogatory comments to yourself.

- You can hear me thanking the people of the civic forum I used to frequent where people didn't fling their personal inner hates towards me because I aspired towards a goal.

Thats a built H22 engine in a 2400lbs civic which then got gutted. Beat it both times.

Thats my 1.6L SOHC beating a GSR with bolt ons.

These were taken nearly a decade ago.

I too took an engine from a car with an Engine Hoist when I was 8 without my fathers help.

I'm all for shootin the S.h.i.t, but it seems some of you come to this thread to shoot your filth to make yourselves feel better. I believe that the reason one would do these things is to make their own lives feel less miserable. I can feel this from many of you.

To the people that have given me advice with an encouraging tone, I commend you, and will be giving you thanks in my youtube video when I am successful.

just1time

OP, you have done a great job at being able to keep your cool through this entire thread albeit many have thrown unnecessary banter here and there. Not a lot people can exercise such patience and resilience. So don't let that get to you now. Just extract the good advice that you can from the posts and get your car going.

It is what it is now...we all know his original budget of $1k (which i don't believe he was ever serious about) has been well exceeded. No need to make it a recital all through the thread guys.

I hope you able to achieve your goal without much more stress. Just please try and do things in the right order.

Good luck

BeachBunny

I admire your enthusiasm, but if you don't know how to work a $4 multimeter from Harbor Freight, you have *no* business working on a modern car, Mercedes, Nissan, or otherwise. Seriously. Honestly. Troubleshooting my 2004 Infiniti, by the service manual, required full and proper knowledge of how to operate a multimeter and that was a far simpler car than a W221.

You need to take it to a pro because you lack the skills to adequately troubleshoot, let alone repair, this car. Please don't take this personally, as I don't intend for it to be derogatory. This is just a matter of fact.

You're going to spend far more time and money and cause more damage to the car than if you were to just get a pro to take even a rudimentary glance at the car. Yes, I know they charge $$$, but you're not paying for their tools, shop, or even their access to StarNET -- you're paying for what's between their ears.

A quick story:
In a previous life, I used to do a ton of bleeding-edge automation work. We were automating things which were said to be impossible to automate, (ab)using automation equipment to do things the manufacturers hadn't even thought of. In short, we were absolutely nuts and top in the field.

One day I entered a new facility and noticed one of their major systems wasn't fully running. They said they the installing contractor had been working on it for over a month and hadn't been able to get it fully running. This was the first time the contractor was using a computerized system instead of individual analog devices. The contractor was there, blueprints and schematics. I jokingly offered to help. Exasperated, he tossed the prints in my direction and said to have at it. Within 10 minutes I managed to figure out what was wrong, came up with a solution, rewrite their code to make the system work properly, even though it was a system I'd never seen or used before. That was 18 years ago and that system's still functional today.

Never underestimate true expert experience -- it's worth every single cent.

BeachBunny

Well, maybe driving it isn't his thing.

Keep in mind there is a certain subculture in the USA whereupon owning a Cadillac is a major status symbol. The Cadillac may well be held together with rust & bondo, may have body panels missing, may not run, may be older than they are, and may spend the rest of its life in their front yard on blocks, but they've arrived because they own a Cadillac!

Here's a few proposals as to why the OP might be more interested in owning this car than seeing it be repaired properly:

1) Bragging rights at work / with relatives / with friends. It is an S-Class after all.

2) He likes the idea of an S-Class parked in his garage. Although if this were the case he should have found one with front-end damage and a pristine rear so the neighbors would be impressed.

3) Man Cave. Maybe he likes the interior. I'd agree with him on this. The interior of an S-Class is a very pleasant, relaxing place to be. Comfortable seats, built in DVD player, great sound system. Just hook it up to shore power and you'd have everything inside the cabin working. If you could find a way to drive the AC compressor via electric instead of by the engine, I could see it turning into a great man cave.

4) A "fort" or "princess castle" for the children to play in. Have the car connected to shore power, disable the starter and permanently engage the electric brake and let the little tykes pretend all they want and watch videos of Frozen, Barney, Kids Bop, et al on the DVD player. Bonus: It's sound proof so you won't have to hear the children's movies/music. This would actually be awesome! It certainly would be better than the cardboard castle things my parents got us.

5) His wife kicked him out of the bedroom since he bought this heap. Fortunately the rear seats of the S do make for a decent place to catch a few Zzzzs.

goosesedan

This Makes No Sense!

boltonblue

it is an old joke but still makes sense.


There is an old story about a multi-million dollar power plant that had mysteriously ground to a halt. All efforts to restart it had failed and an expert was brought in. After studying the problem for a few minutes he took a hammer and hit one of the valves. With a rumble, the plant came back to life. Incredulous glances were shared, grateful cries and high-fives were exchanged. Later, the expert’s bill arrived for the amount of $10,000.00. The outraged executive in charge thought “All he did was hit a valve with a hammer, this bill is ridiculous.” he asked for an itemized breakdown and the consultant responded with a bill that read: “Hitting valve with hammer $10.00. Knowing which valve to hit: $9,990.00.”

MrRat

A bad AGM battery will discharge in less than a minute. Ask me how I know . I've experienced this same situation with a nearly new AGM battery, the hallmark of a defective AGM is the quick discharge, and failure to hold a full charge. After charging for hours, once hooked up and under load, the voltage would drop to something like 11V in less than a minute.
You may have a bad alternator/voltage regulator, it would need to be tested. You likely need a new accessory battery.
You should have had the battery tested. At 12.5 V it was sufficiently, but not fully charged.
I would note, that during the 25 seconds the battery held its charge, your charging system thought everything was ok.
So
1) Have the battery load/conductance tested. It should be able to hold a full charge. There are readily available battery testers, and the auto parts store or dealership will have the tester.
2) Once you have established a good fully charged battery is not the issue, then something in the car is very quickly discharging the battery, and you will require some professional diagnostics to determine what is creating such a high current demand.

xpl0sive

Just return that battery and get another one. I don't see what the big deal is. I know the auto parts store wants to get rid of their old stock of batteries before they sell new ones. But insist on a recently dated battery. There's a reason all batteries have date stickers on them

DaveW68

I really don't think anyone is purposely shooting any "filth" your way. I just think that many folks here, myself included, have sometimes gotten tired of your lack of any kind of common sense or logic. You seem to ignore the best and easiest to follow advice in the forum, and instead follow through on the things that are the most stupid or illogical, almost always conjured up by yourself. As I and pretty much every other "naysayer" have said many times already, we want you to succeed in your little project, as ill conceived as it may be. But for God's sake man, use that lump on top of your neck and stop doing stupid sh*t or making stupid comments. If you were the "slow kid" in school and have a difficult time grasping logical advice, then at least take the time to read through the many threads on this board so you can see what the smarter people usually do. Even the "slow kids" are able to learn, even if it's at a much slower pace. You've been told the right things over and over in this thread. By now, I hope it's starting to sink in.

Now have your car towed to the closest Benz dealer and let them properly diagnose all of your issues. And let them or a very good indy handle the repairs that are outside of your realm....which I imagine is all of them. This is not a simple Honda Civic.

Mike5215

The story just isn't that interesting anymore. A guy without much technical expertise buys a wrecked car from a salvage yard and spends a lot of time and money trying to make it roadworthy. Was the guy foolish? Of course. Will he eventually be able to get the car on the road? Maybe. If you throw enough time and money at something anything is possible. Will it be a monumental achievement? Not really. Hope it works out.