MurrayG

If I did my math correctly (and I am not promising I did), this unit is about 170 AH - which means about 1.6 starter batteries (depending on the kind of battery).

As a much cheaper alternative you could, of course, just buy another good-size starter battery - or better yet a marine deep cycle battery of similar capacity (and of course 12 volts), and a pair of jumper cables. Keep the spare battery somewhere on a trickle charger. When you are going to be leaving your car for an extended period, drag the battery out to your car, stick it in your trunk, and hook it up to a (hopefully) convenient point such as where you would boost your car battery. This way you will greatly extend the amount of time your car can sit without charging.

Of course the battery is heavy (but I imagine the Anker unit is as well).

All the usual caveats apply .... do your own homework to verify what I have said before doing anything. It is your car and if you break it I'll be sympathetic but can't help you otherwise. And if you do something really dumb, I might not even be sympathetic. :-)

Streamliner

To me, the real issue here is that unless things have changed recently, MB does not TELL prospective buyers of these cars that they require extraordinary care. How is anyone supposed to know? You walk into the showroom where you have purchased new MB's before, you see this nice SL and you go for it. Is there any sort of "WARNING" sticker affixed to the window, saying that these cars may require the owner to constantly use a trickle charger? Do they tell you about double clicking the key fob and that you need to remove the fob from being anywhere near the vehicle when it is parked in your garage? No. They just sell you the car and then when there are issues, they hand you a trickle charger and give you the facts of life as to how you need to change YOUR behavior to care for these improperly engineered $200K+ cars.

I'm happy for you folks who find the R232's just SO enjoyable and compelling that you are willing to put up with this. I would not put up with it for a minute.

MurrayG

I understand that if they did need extraordinary care that this would indeed be a huge problem. But my point is that I don't think they do need extraordinary care. Every car will deplete its battery when sitting idle. Every new car that depends on computers gets very unhappy if the voltage drops below a certain point. My comments about the extra battery apply to any car that sits idle for a long time and can't be plugged in.

Not trying to argue with you at all or to be defensive about the car (people are more than free to love or hate the car) - just to point out that nothing I said indicates the cars need any special care at all, and I certainly do not give mine any special care in this regard (and have not needed to).

The only thing I have seen is that the car warns me a fair bit after a week or so if it is sitting idle.

Streamliner

I appreciate your thoughts. I had a 2022 S580. It was constantly giving me this warning message and that warning message. One day, I drove it home for lunch and on my way back to my office, in lunch rush traffic on a very congested area of Pacific Coast Hwy., I get a red message that says "12V battery low-pull to side of road and charge." Before I could even change lanes, the car went 100% dead. Even the emergency flashers would not work. Had this happened at night on an L.A. freeway, I might not be writing this here. I have had 17 brand new MB's. I have had several SL's that I would leave unused for over 30 days at a crack and I never had a problem. These new cars are DIFFERENT and MB needs to tell folks, before they sign on the dotted line.

mgardner23665

Yes. This car needs care as does must new super cars …. I can live with this. My friend with a brand new Ferrari 812 (?) has already had his car on a flatbed going back to the dealer as it was dead in his garage and would not jump start. Mercedes did five recalls on my AMG SL63 R232 and yes, they put a trickle charger in the trunk. However, they did not “hook it up” nor did they install a plug in the trunk !! They told me that I have to pay to have it either hooked up or a plug installed. “Penny wise, and pound foolish”! After a “polite” confrontation with the service manager, he finally agreed to install a plug in the trunk at “no charge” !

MurrayG

Yikes - that's a bad breakdown. I am curious if you were able to find out what failed. Battery short?

But yes - I completely agree that the MBUX is a huge departure from the past systems and absolutely has some issues to work out (especially with notifications as we have all been discussing).

Time will tell about general reliability and other issues.

Thanks for the comments.

Streamliner

I can't buy the "super car" explanation. Reliability is one reason folks buy MB's. Those who go with an exotic such as a Ferrari, Lambo, etc. EXPECT the problems that have been legendary with exotic cars. The R232 and other new MB's are supposed to be reliable and relatively "bullet proof," but since 2020, the new models have all had issues.

mgardner23665

Agreed. Okay …. We’ve purchased 21 new MBZ vehicles and lots of pre-owned beginning in 1975. As you, we’ve left cars for weeks and never had problems until our new AMG SL63’s …. I’m on my second one …

MurrayG

I have to agree. If my cars had the reliability of those you mention, I would not consider them daily drivers. MBs need to be reliable (and fortunately mine all have been). I have had some other cars (a Jag, a Range Rover, a Lincoln Navigator) - all of which were NOT reliable and I quickly returned to MB for this very reason. I know others have experienced reliability issues but I seem to have dodged all those bullets so far.

Streamliner

Here are copies of the work order. Notice the open & ready dates:

Wolfman

So they found an intermittent component, repaired it and your car ended up to be lemoned. No great but you were able to unload it.

The reality of all modern cars is a high reliance of lots of stand-by power and engines that require 48Volt tech. Couple this with a key vendor to the industry (Bosch) that struggles with deliveries and some quality issues (Mercedes can't build 100,000 E/GLC-Class models resulting in a $500Million loss of profit due to that issue).

This is of course a separate issue than MBUX's excessive and annoying messaging about non-existent battery issues. That is a coding issue that MB can and needs to fix.

MurrayG

Wow - took a month. That would be annoying. I had a similar experience a few months back - but at the MB body shop. The car took 6 weeks to repair - all because they had to keep waiting for parts. And one is still back ordered now (but I can drive without it).

Sorry you had this experience. It's a pain. I can see they did perform a lot of tests - I wonder if that was the issue or if they had to wait for parts as happens so much these days.

Hope the car is trouble free for you now.

All the best -

Streamliner

The untold part of this story, is that I hated the car. It was a loaded S580 with the $6,500.00 EABC suspension option. The car had a horrible ride quality. It suffered from all sorts of other annoying issues. It had been in the shop on and off for around 20 days when it died and spent another 30 days out of service. I was actually thrilled, as I knew the car would be repurchased by MBUSA, and it was. I bought a CPO S560, which I feel is a much better car.

Huncowboy

Did you have to remove the batteries for this install? I am going to do this also. I did buy a more robust fast charger, but it only connects to the jump starter connectors. This will be more convenient to plug in. The outlet in my garage is also closer to the trunk.

wem

@Huncowboy - no need to remove the battery. Just loosen the battery terminal post clamps to connect the charger wires to the battery terminal nuts that you loosened. Fyi, I stopped using the battery charger/tender. The false messages about the critical state of the battery on my phone were too annoying. The only messages that I get now on my phone without the charger/tender connected are that the car is unlocked. I have also left my keys by accident in the car unlocked for several days without any negative effect on the battery. The car has always started up for me.

Huncowboy

Thanks! I will install it regardless. At the moment I am barely driving. Once a week I open the hood and use the other charger. It seams in 5-7 days the battery goes from 14.5-14.7V down to 12.5V or so. I gotta keep it on charger until I will drive more again. Worst case I delete the app for the time being.

drgek

I find that interesting. When on the charger (as the snow has started to fly in Chicago, the car is clearly not going to be used much) I don't get any critical battery state messages on my phone.

mgardner23665

Hi wem …. Thanks for the info …. I’m curious, you said that you have left your key inside the car for a time and then it still starts up ? How do you get into the car when you have left the key inside the car ?

wem

A few times, I have left the key fob by accident in the cup holder while in my garage. I don’t lock the car since I’m at home. In doing so (by accident), I don’t do the two most common suggestions to preserve the battery (lock the car and keep the fob at least 30 feet away).

EZ2020

So I dont get it; I have had the car on a trickle charger since I last drove it a week ago, the charger indicates almost a full charge and yet when I went to get something from the car, the app sent me a critical charge on the starter battery message. There is something messed up here....

Huncowboy

Am I missing a cable? I do not have any cable that can be connected to the terminal nuts, unless I start cutting and creating it myself.

wem

No - you are not missing an additional cable. In order to make a "permanent" connection to the battery terminals, you need to sacrifice the 12v/cigarette socket adapter (I was originally told this by the MB Service Advisor). If you look at post 36 in this thread there are more details on the additional parts needed to create battery terminal connectors. However, if you don't want to do any cutting or sacrifice the 12v/cigarette socket adapter, it is almost as convenient to use the battery clamps/jaws that are supplied with the MB Charger. Just remove the red plastic cover on the battery to expose the positive terminal and connect the jaws to the positive and negative battery posts.

Huncowboy

Sorry! I did remember to look up your post with the images but I did not go one post above (36) where you explain all this.

EZ2020

I think that your dealer should install the permanent solution without any cost; mine did and I was one of the early owners dealing with this issue.

FlyingBear

The charger is made by Ctek. If you search for “Ctek eyelet cable” on Amazon you’ll find a cable that replaces the one with a 12V plug that came with the MB charger. It has two eyelets that you attach directly to the MB battery.