My benz is back at Circuit City for the fourth time. My mechanic deemed the alternator to be in good shape, since it's a newly rebuilt Bosch Alternator that was generating 13.2 - 13.5 Volts. The serpentine belt was fine, since mechanic said it was auto-adjusting. Mechanic also did a light bulb test on the battery when the car was off and the light came on - he said it shouldn't come on, it means current is going through. He also measured a current of 5.5 amps drawing from the battery when the car was off, but he didn't do anything more to find out what was drawing the current.

Mechanic suspects the alarm system, so the benz is back in Circuit City. I told them to take it out, but they wanted to diagnose it some more and they seem to be making some progress. They are checking every single wire now with other specialized technicians on the phone to guide them. To be honest, I would much rather them pull it out, but they insist that after all the hard work of installing it they want to try to find out where the current is being drawn. It's a Learn as you Work situation and my car is the Case Study. I wrote a nasty email to circuit city customer service and maybe I'll get all my money back. But this isn't the end of the story, my car is still in the service shop, so who knows...??? I'm so nice and patient to give them three chances....strike 4 they are out!