I have a 2001 Mercedes C320.... Latley when idling, my car will just shut off. No harsh running, no choking. It just shuts off. After many attempts at restarting the vehicle it will finally start back up like nothing was wrong. The check engine light will remain on after i start it... After the vehicle has sat for 2-3 hours and the car is restarted, the engine light is off..

NOW...

Today on the way home im at a stop light, and my car just dies at the stop light, again, no choking...

However this time I noticed a warning light come on the says "BATTERY/ALTENATOR VISIT WORKSHOP!" it flashed in red and the went off. After about 10 minutes of turning the engine over it started as if there was no problem at all..

My first question is
If the altenator fails on this vehicle, will the car remain running off battery power or is it not like the old cars?

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be?

What can I check?

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2001 Mercedes-Benz C320 3.2
1991 Mercedes-Benz 300E 3.0

It will run until battery juice out,have someone check your alternator.

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MB STARS Master Guild Technician,17 years MB tech
14 years independent shop owner

Yes but will the altenator cause the car to just shut off without any signs?
The battery wasent dead, it turned over fast after it konked out.

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2001 Mercedes-Benz C320 3.2
1991 Mercedes-Benz 300E 3.0

I will read the code from your OBDII to start diagonstics why the engine shut off on you.

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MB STARS Master Guild Technician,17 years MB tech
14 years independent shop owner

How are you going to do that?

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2001 Mercedes-Benz C320 3.2
1991 Mercedes-Benz 300E 3.0

Goto AUTOZONE to have codes pull for free.

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MB STARS Master Guild Technician,17 years MB tech
14 years independent shop owner

I'd guess that the alternator light is a result of the engine shutdown, and not the cause. Find out what trouble codes are stored in the computer, and go from there.

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1989 300 SEL that mostly works, but needs TLC