Hey everyone~

You all have been an emense amount of help. I bought my 06 SL in June and have used this forum on a daily basis since then. But I am puzzled by what happened to me the other day...

So Friday night I decided to take the SL out because she had been sitting in the garage for 3 weeks and figured she needed some lovin. So I drove downtown and when I got back to the car after dinner, I started her up and the red death light came on... "Battery pic, Take to workshop." On the way home the whole spiel happened... command shut down, spedo tachy, lights all turned off. Luckily I got home ok. Thinking I knew what was wrong with her I took her home and called roadside assitance to come and replace the accessory battery. Had a talk to give that night so again, took the SL downtown. Low and behold... the red death warnings came back and the whole thing recurred. Angrily I called roadside assistance again, they said well maybe the master starter battery needs to be replaced as well. So I said sure, why not... makes sense. The guy came and checked the battery- couldnt give me a straight answer as to whether it was good or not but had no trouble generating a $200 bill. So then- went and gave my talk, feeling relieved that the problem had gone away. The tech said that the red battery death warning would go away once the alternator sufficiently charged the battery on the way home....
SO! as I got half way home, the whole sequence started again and I drove home sans command or consumer electronics- yet again, only this time enfuriated.
Called the dealer the next day to tell them about it- they of course said bring it in. Got on here did a search and found that there was a recall on SL's containing the BOSCH alternator and it's voltage regulator which was likely the culprit of screwing everything up. So I called the dealer, they ran my VIN and said that there was not such a recall on my car.

So after all of that- heres where I need your guys' help....
- Im convinced that my car's got the faulty volage regulator which caused my alternator to fail and refuse to change my mind until I see it in writing that it does not have that faulty regulator. I think that the stealership is trying to pull a smooth one on me and have me pay for a fix.
- Is there a way that I can cross-reference this myself? So that I can go to the dealer with some concrete evidence? I'm assuming a sequence in the VIN?
- Has this ever happened to anyone else?
- And if indeed my alternator crapped out... Do you think its feasible to replace the alternator on my own? seems relatively fundamental... and I found em online for $250... not the $800 the indi wanted... dont even want to know what the stealership wants for an alternator replacement.

- I appreciate all your input- Glad a forum like this exists...

Happy Benzing~

Dr. G

 

Sounds like your regulator was the problem to start with. Very common with many variants of Bosch alternators used by MB.

There is a recall, but it was limited production numbers even though many fail that weren't part of the recall.

Not to bad a job to replace the regulator, some can even be done without removing the alternator, but make it easier on yourself and remove the alternator and replace the regulator on the bench instead.