So last night I'm on my way home. I'm using distronic for the first time and about a mile before I get to the house I get an error on the dash, something like "Distronic is no longer available" and it disengages. I drive home normally.

This morning I try to start the car and it's completely shut down. Keyfob won't work. Horn won't honk. Completely shut down. The only thing I can see is the hazard triangle light is flashing very quickly and dimly.

Sounds obvious but uh... dead battery?

 

My distrionic goes out randomly. It doesn't like the rain I know that, but I just about never drive it in the rain anyway. Not a big deal. I've had the dealer looks at it and it is fine.

Sounds like a dead battery. get the truck open if you can and get a charger on it.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I replaced the battery with a Duralast Platinum. I'm hoping that the battery is what triggered the distronic error. I have no idea how old that battery was... it was a Mercedes branded battery, but for a 2004 with 40k miles, it *could* have been the original.

All is well now. I have power and the car is back on the road.

 

Check the output voltage of the alternator. If that is fine and you happen to have another dead battery then it could your alternator is not putting out sufficient amps.

Your battery should not just die while driving if the alternator is putting out the appropriate amps and voltage.

 

Good advice.

As it turns out, I left the head lights on. It's not really my fault. I always have my lights on Auto so they turn off automatically one minute after I turn off the car. I'm out of my garage by then so I didn't notice that the lights didn't turn off.

The lights setting was changed by the valet guy.

I had the battery recharged and returned the Duralast. This totally doesn't explain why the distronic failed on me last night. So I'm going to try to duplicate it.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

Do a search about distronic turning off. Google too. Lots of reasons. I've had mine do it about a dozen times in 5 years. Each time dealer says its fine. Works after I restart car