A few days ago the battery in my 300SD went stone cold dead. It was a 2008 battery so I can't complain. Ever got $40 credit on it.

I sort of remember "In the GOOD OLD Days" that car batteries use to like go bad slowly and not just fail 100%.

In other words you had some warning.

Wondering if anybody had noticed this say in the past 20-23 years; give or take.

Steve

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1982 300SD

I don't know... gassers may give warning as the battery gets weak and difficult to start as they fail... a diesel uses SOOOOOO much power to start with the glow plugs, and the compression they have to overcome... I think a diesel just REQUIRES a top shape battery to successfully crank...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Yarp. I've had gassers with batteries so flat the engine seemed to craaaaaaawl but on the second rev it would start sputter and take off.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

What Causes Car Batteries to Fail? – Battery University

"Battery malfunction is seldom caused by a factory defect; driving habits are the more common culprits."

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Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

My 420 was able to start up last winter after sitting over a month without being run, with a junky undersize battery, it turned reeeal slow a couple times then coughed to life. I guess thats one advantage to gassers. My 300SD's battery is 7+ years old and still still start it fine after sitting for weeks. Its an official MB battery, top notch.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

I just had my OEM battery fail in my TD. Stopped to get gas, got back in
turned the key..click..nothing. Has to be the solenoid. That symptom in a gasser would be solenoid. So I did the little jump trick. Nothing. Turned on the headlights..fine...honked the horn..fine. Gotta be the starter or solenoid. Got out the tools to pull the starter. Then I remembered my wife's SD did something similar 10-12 years ago. I pulled her battery
put it in the TD. Bingo no problem. Then I thought DOH! why didn't I just
check the old TD battery voltage with a meter. Yep 11.9 volts. So even though the headlights worked, horn honked, gauges OK there was just not
enough to run the glow plugs and turn that starter against diesel CR.
The old battery worked fine in my gasser truck, yeah I had to try it for kicks. Went and got another OEM battery, put it in the TD and all has been fine for weeks.

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85 300TD FED-Daily
84 300SD-Wife's
86 XJS-Sunday
66 GMC-Work- Given to my stepson
83 BMW Airhead- Given to my stepson

The battery in my 300D failed recently. It went from fine to needing a jumpstart to being too dead to jumpstart in about 24 hours. It was about four or five years old, and I determined it was killed by a faulty voltage regulator putting out 16+ volts. The previous battery failure I had was in a gasser about two years ago, and was much more gradual.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I started carrying one of those jumper box batteries. It isn't enough to start a diesel but if ya catch it the first time the battery fails to start it can give enough to push it over the edge.

On the big boat I just carry a couple of extra batteries cuz failure to start while out on the water sucks and I've got a big engine room .

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.

Wallyworld has a 1200amp jump box equipped with a 450 watt inverter, usb ports, and 12v sockets for accessories.... and a light, and air compressor built in...
I've started my 617 diesel with nothing but the box connected to the battery cables... it's amazing.

and it's only $99

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Is that the Schumacher?

I have had a couple of high output ones (Canadian brands) and they die after one winter. Schumacher used to be pretty common around here, not so much now.

How long have you had yours?

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Nice! I'll have to upgrade to that one. Mine claims to be an 850 amp but wouldn't start the cheby truck after a night with the lights on. It did start the 300CD when I bought it with a bum battery.

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.

I think it comes down to the quality of materials, or lack of, used these days in most commercial brands.

Some emergency lighting installations I visited years ago had very high quality materials in their batteries such as plates made from Virgin lead. These days it's all lead alloy with exception to a few premium brands.

Cells and batteries was a very small module in my studies but I do remember how important it was that (lead) batteries were continuously charged ie. no longer than 24hrs. It is difficult to achieve this in a car situation unless you plug your battery in every day or are using it as a daily driver.

I use a pretty neat charger called a CTek on a car not driven very regularly.It has several different modes of charge, most importantly the final mode 'float'.

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1995 E300 Diesel

You can always spring for lithium A123 battery packs. A 2lb sandwich-sized battery runs my 600cc bike.

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Incredible aren't they. The cardboard box they come in was almost as heavy as the battery.

I priced one for my car but the cheapest was close to $1000! So I opted for a Bosch S5 which was still expensive but was under $200

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1995 E300 Diesel

A shorted cell will kill off a battery. Generally that's from a broken plate. At least that's how I understand it. AFAIK batteries are not built with as heavy of plates as they used to be, they are more fragile...and go caputs sooner.

And yeah, if the car sits it needs to be on a trickle charger, for parasitic drain and self discharge. Once left discharged it will not charge up to the highest volts any longer. As time goes by they just won't hold a charge anymore. Time for a new one!

Sometimes you can revive them from a peak cycler, electronic charger.

I have golf cart batteries in the motorhome. They do work well but you can start to tell when they will no longer top all the way up. The old benzo is starting to do that too. All 4-5 year old batts.

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Chris Brown
"OC", So-Cal
1979 240D, 122K, 4spd, Colorado Biege w/Tobacco, Pwr Roof, AC, Cruise, Becker Corona - SOLD
Past Benzos: 71 250 • 83 240D • 84 190E • 04 C240 • 11 GLK350 • 13 c250 Coupe
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ine=1276896801