W221 battery just died in my garage. Need help planning battery change.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 54
Likes: 13
S350
W221 battery just died in my garage. Need help planning battery change.
I have a '13 S350 and have been driving it since Nov 2012. Now the car cranks but wont start. I never thought a battery change could go so wrong that it could cost thousands of dollars in repairs. I need your help planning a flawless change.
Here is my plan of attack and I need your thoughts/ideas on the Do's and Don'ts: An AGM 12V 95Ah battery. Mercedes-Benz, Varta or Bosch. While everything is turned off, remove the negative first, then positive. Install the new one then connect the positive then the negative. In case of any error messages, I should do the lock to lock, and windows and sunroof sync. Avoid any piece of metal accidentally touching anything in the process. No battery change while the engine is running.
Is that all I need to do and pay attention to?
The dealer wanted to charge $215 to send a specialist to start the car and $430 to change the battery including the battery. Pretty steep ask. An independent tech asked for $280 (MB battery, all inclusive) to come and replace it in my garage which is reasonable but he wanted to change it while the engine is running which made me question his knowledge and judgement. I wanted to make sure he does it the right way.
Here is my plan of attack and I need your thoughts/ideas on the Do's and Don'ts: An AGM 12V 95Ah battery. Mercedes-Benz, Varta or Bosch. While everything is turned off, remove the negative first, then positive. Install the new one then connect the positive then the negative. In case of any error messages, I should do the lock to lock, and windows and sunroof sync. Avoid any piece of metal accidentally touching anything in the process. No battery change while the engine is running.
Is that all I need to do and pay attention to?
The dealer wanted to charge $215 to send a specialist to start the car and $430 to change the battery including the battery. Pretty steep ask. An independent tech asked for $280 (MB battery, all inclusive) to come and replace it in my garage which is reasonable but he wanted to change it while the engine is running which made me question his knowledge and judgement. I wanted to make sure he does it the right way.
Super Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 643
Likes: 51
From: Southern California
2007 CL550
If your vehicle is eligible for free road side assistance, they wil usually have batteries with them and only charge the normal cost of the battery and no charge for labor. Since your vehicle is at home, you should be able to connect a battery charger for a few hours. Then start the vehicle and drive it to a facility that replaces batteries. I am surprised your battery failed so soon. My 2007 CL550 which I received in November 2006 had the starter battery fail after 7 years. It also has a separate accessory battery in the trunk which is still working after over 10 years. Only pre-facelift vehicles had two batteries.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,691
Likes: 826
From: Newcastle, WA
2019 S63 4Matic+, 2018 E400 Cabrio, wardens car.
I just did a battery change on my 2012 S550 4Matic and it went fine. Turned the car off, disconnected the positive, then the negative. Removed battery and cleaned out area. Also removed tray and cleaned under that as I had a lot of leafs and debris below the tray. Cleaned it all out and re installed tray. Installed new battery I purchased from Batteries Plus for 179.00 and connected both terminals and clamped battery down. Took about an hour with all the clean up. Everything worked fine when I started it up. Car was not running during procedure BTW, that sounds dangerous. The Duracell AGM from Batteries plus is the exact same fitment, shape and spec as the original BTW.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 54
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S350
Steve:
Where I live the dealer offers roadside assistance for 24 months only. And as to the short life of my battery, the summer here is very hot (120+ degrees in the Jul-Sep period). My fuel pump got cooked last August and I had to two my car to the dealership. They found out that excessive heat caused the pump to fail. So I guess hot weather does shorten the life expectancy of the battery. That's just my guess though.
superpop:
Thanks for reporting on your experience. However, from what I read I think you got lucky. My understanding is that you need to remove the negative first and hook it up last to avoid short circuits. Obviously short circuits are highly circumstantial but you don't want to take chances with such an expensive machine. I'm going to do it as the manual says.
Where I live the dealer offers roadside assistance for 24 months only. And as to the short life of my battery, the summer here is very hot (120+ degrees in the Jul-Sep period). My fuel pump got cooked last August and I had to two my car to the dealership. They found out that excessive heat caused the pump to fail. So I guess hot weather does shorten the life expectancy of the battery. That's just my guess though.
superpop:
Thanks for reporting on your experience. However, from what I read I think you got lucky. My understanding is that you need to remove the negative first and hook it up last to avoid short circuits. Obviously short circuits are highly circumstantial but you don't want to take chances with such an expensive machine. I'm going to do it as the manual says.
Super Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 643
Likes: 51
From: Southern California
2007 CL550
Mercedes has been reducing the the eligibility for free road side assistance for newer vehicles. It remains lifetime free only for vehicles purchased prior to Jan 4, 2011. For a while it was free also if you had service at a dealer within the previous 24 months - this appears to have been discontinued. It still remains free as long as the vehicle is still under the factory or CPO warranty. I understand their increasing cost for providing free service for all vehicles. Unfortunately $100K+ S class vehicles are treated the same as their least expensive vehicles. I would expect better free service for S class especially with the change to run-flat tires.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 4,242
Likes: 628
From: Chicago burbs
2015 S550
If the car cranks with no start, it is unlikely that the battery that is bad. It appears to not be getting fuel or spark. I'm not sure what could possibly be wrong with your car, but you'll likely need to have it towed to the dealer and read by STAR.
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Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 54
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S350
Quick update for those who may run into a similar problem: It was indeed the battery.
A tech from a small workshop came and tried to jump start the car. A series of error messages popped up (steering wheel column malfunction, ESP malfunction, ...etc). The car didn't start.
Fearing a bigger damage that could have cost me more than the dealer's visit to my house, I called the dealership and I agreed to pay for their service. They came in, brought an external battery and jump started the car. It started immediately with no error messages at all.
Took it to the dealer and told me my battery still had some life in it but no guarantees it wouldn't breakdown again. So I chose to change it.
FWIW, they told me it's OK to jump start the car as long as you're using an external battery only or a trickle charger. Also they told me extreme care should be taken while changing the battery (wear gloves, unmount the batter before removing the cables, never let any piece metal touch the battery in the process, ...etc).
I can't believe a simple battery change would scare me this much but it did. Anyway glad I got it over with.
A tech from a small workshop came and tried to jump start the car. A series of error messages popped up (steering wheel column malfunction, ESP malfunction, ...etc). The car didn't start.
Fearing a bigger damage that could have cost me more than the dealer's visit to my house, I called the dealership and I agreed to pay for their service. They came in, brought an external battery and jump started the car. It started immediately with no error messages at all.
Took it to the dealer and told me my battery still had some life in it but no guarantees it wouldn't breakdown again. So I chose to change it.
FWIW, they told me it's OK to jump start the car as long as you're using an external battery only or a trickle charger. Also they told me extreme care should be taken while changing the battery (wear gloves, unmount the batter before removing the cables, never let any piece metal touch the battery in the process, ...etc).
I can't believe a simple battery change would scare me this much but it did. Anyway glad I got it over with.
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Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 303
Likes: 25
Heh the battery died on my 2013 S350 the day after the factory warranty expired (delivered October 30th 2012). Symptoms were very slow cranking, and the cheap midtronics imitation battery tester I have from Amazon saying that it was only 45% State of Health. The push button start also didn't always work the first time.
$164 plus tax and core, for a Duralast AGM Platinum battery at Autozone, changed in the usual way without any special preparation. Total time car had no battery connected was about 20 minutes so that I could clean up all the debris under the battery and tray. When reconnected, there were no error messages, lost settings, etc. Windows, sunroof, trunk, etc. did not need normalization. I suspect the under-dash battery supplied enough power to maintain memory in these systems.
All in all a non-event. Interestingly the Duralast AGM battery looked identical to the MB factory battery except for the color. The plastic injection moldings, seams, castings on the terminals, etc. all matched the OEM battery perfectly.
$164 plus tax and core, for a Duralast AGM Platinum battery at Autozone, changed in the usual way without any special preparation. Total time car had no battery connected was about 20 minutes so that I could clean up all the debris under the battery and tray. When reconnected, there were no error messages, lost settings, etc. Windows, sunroof, trunk, etc. did not need normalization. I suspect the under-dash battery supplied enough power to maintain memory in these systems.
All in all a non-event. Interestingly the Duralast AGM battery looked identical to the MB factory battery except for the color. The plastic injection moldings, seams, castings on the terminals, etc. all matched the OEM battery perfectly.
Newbie
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: Plano, TX
2011 E350 P2 /2010 R350
Long time lurker. I picked up Diehard Group 49 battery at Sears last Wednesday to replace the EOM on my E350. It's slightly longer than the OEM battery, but fits in just fine. I thought I fried the electronics because there's no power at all. Everything's dead. I couldn't find the answer online, so I bought a voltmeter the next day. Apparently I got a bad battery as the reading showed only 2.5v.
The store employee confirmed the battery is dead. Decided to return it and purchase a AutoCraft Platinum H8 at Advance auto parts. Somehow it works out because the store was having a muscle car meet up this morning or something and everything is 30% off. And this time I asked the store employee to test the battery, because I don't want to take that thing in and out of the car twice.
Anyway, it's installed and everything works fine. I'm glad nothing is wrong with the car.
The store employee confirmed the battery is dead. Decided to return it and purchase a AutoCraft Platinum H8 at Advance auto parts. Somehow it works out because the store was having a muscle car meet up this morning or something and everything is 30% off. And this time I asked the store employee to test the battery, because I don't want to take that thing in and out of the car twice.
Anyway, it's installed and everything works fine. I'm glad nothing is wrong with the car.
Last edited by dotnetanalytics; Mar 24, 2018 at 06:08 PM. Reason: Similar thread, wrong forum
Super Member
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 804
Likes: 74
From: Staten Island, NY
2010 MB S550, 2017 MB SLC 300
MB likes to scare people into paying a premium for an MB brand battery and service to install it. I replaced the battery in my E class and S class and never had an issue. There is nothing special about how a battery in a Mercedes-Benz is installed as opposed to a Honda.
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Joined: Nov 2004
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W221 S600, W220 S55 AMG Kompressor, W124 300E, W140 S320, W210 E3204M W164 ML320 Bluetec
FYI - if you call 1-800-FOR-MERC (the 24 hour roadside assistance number) see if you qualify for free roadside assistance. I have always gotten my batteries replaced in this manner. A workshop technician will come to you and install a new battery for you - no charge for labor, and the cost of the battery is actually less than what you would pay over the parts counter at the dealer. No brainer.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2004
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W221 S600, W220 S55 AMG Kompressor, W124 300E, W140 S320, W210 E3204M W164 ML320 Bluetec
No “reprogramming” needed. Only as the poster above started, you may need to re-normalize your power windows and sunroof to re-activate the auto open and auto close feature. Leave all four windows closed, and hold the “up” button for about five seconds on each window individually. The sunroof/pano roof is done the same way - when it is closed, press the button in the “close” direction for about five seconds.
This teaches the respectve modules the resistance shown when the glass is closed and when it can release the current going to the motor.
This teaches the respectve modules the resistance shown when the glass is closed and when it can release the current going to the motor.
Member
Joined: Nov 2017
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2008 S550
Even for the pre-facelift battery change? You know, the big one in the back of the car.
I recently had the battery changed on my 2008 S550 and got charged 1h for the programming. Indie garage rates but still ...
I recently had the battery changed on my 2008 S550 and got charged 1h for the programming. Indie garage rates but still ...
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