The battery in my car is being pulled down by something. The glow plug light on my dash will not come on even after the battery has been charged. Any possible ties between the two?

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"BECAUSE KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE"
G. I. JOE.

I have had a similar problem, and I had to have my battery replaced. It had an internal short in it, which caused it to go dead all the time. My glow plug light did come on, but there was not enough charge to start the car. Another time, I had the 80 amp glow plug fuse burn out, and this caused the glow plug light to not turn on

Clunker,

They may or may not be related. If you turn the starting key from the glow position quickly back to the off position and then back to the glow position a few times does the glow light come on or not? What if you have a set of jumper cables hooked to the positive terminal on the battery and some ground connection on the engine itself?

If a plug is bad, or two are bad the light acts up to let you know. If the battery is just dead, bad cell or something, and cannot put out the necessary voltage to activate the relay, you should be getting some other signs, like openning the door and the interior light won't burn, or the buzzer for the seat belt or open door with the key turned will not buzz normally, etc.

A multimeter and some checking is next. Try a search on the same subject and you will find this is a common issue. Good luck, Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Clunker,
I doubt if there is a tie in between the two problems. You should be able to find diagnostic info on the glow plug problem so I'll leave that one alone. Finding info on tracing battery drains is a bit more difficult so, here is a fool proof test. Go to an electronics store like Radio Shack and buy a 1 ohm 10 watt resistor. I built mine into a cool little box from Rario Shack but you can just attach some alligator clips to the ends of the resistor. Remove the neg battery lead and connect the resistor between the post and disconnected lead. Measure the voltage drop across the resistor with a digital voltmeter (an analog meter won"t work). The voltage dropped across the resistor should be .05 volts or less. This allows for slight draw for radios and such. If you read over .05 volts start pulling fuses to find the source of the excessive draw. As a reminder don't be dumb enough to leave a door open or somethong while you're running this test.

Good luck,
Peter

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