I used to be a battery snob...
 

My C230's battery is getting on in age. I had it recharged, but I know it's life is limited. Five years ain't bad, considering the cold weather torture test I've given it on occasion.

Well, I ALWAYS buy the MB brand battery. Nuthin' but the best, right?

Hey! Interstate sells the same battery (the honkin' big battery) with the same CCA specs and longer warranty for about half the cost.

The recent battery thread got me to thinking about this. While I don't mind paying for quality, I think that the "replacement" battery market is highly competitive and has a lot to offer with regards to performance and value.

Serves me right for not shopping around all these years...

My battery failed me on Chrismass day in 1996. I was 250 miles from home in a small village, north of Quebec City.
The only battery available locally was from a remote service station, was not of the exact size but fitted in the tray.
It was a NAPA battery.
It is still in the car and had not caused me any problem in almost 6 years.
Why pay for a high price MB battery???
jackD

I run Optima gel-cells in my suburban and in my boat but the Interstate is whats in my Benz.

It's all in the amps....
 

Mercedes batteries have amps designed for the mercedes electrical system. Just as the car is not "insinc" if you run green antifreeze, it is not performing correctly without a properly amped battery. Mercedes amps are heavier that regular amps, meaning they have more electrons in the outer shells. Sure, your car may start ok and appear to run fine on any old battery. But the real measure is the quality of electricity you're getting from it. This is most noticeable in the quality of light from the lamps all over the car. Bosch systems are designed to operated on Bosch amps. Not providing that quality of current is robbing your car, and you, of the ultimate driving experience!! And whatever you do, don't use a Japanese battery!! They're not even the same voltage!!!

Quality of electrons? Huh? I'm no PhD of physics (JCE..) but I have a good rudimentary knowledge of electricity.

Amps = Watts/Volts. Suppose you have a circuit that requires 1200 watts. With a 120 volt system, you require a 10 amp circuit.

As long as the battery is the correct voltage, physical size, and capable of "pulling" enough amps, I have no idea of why it wouldn't work, and work well.

When I refer to battery quality, I am thinking of reliability, service life, and cold start ability.

I was not aware that there was special Mercedes-quality electricity...

Yikes!

I just "found" a Yokohama battery in my car and it has 1998 printed on the top...:D

I guess the sublimal message in this thread is "to each, his own"...;)

Right, and sadly this is a little known fact. Back in 1929, at the World Electrical Congress in Geneva, an agreed upon standard was created for electrical measurement. Although Germany signed the agreement, Hitler decided to make German amps more "potent", part of his plan for world domination. This wasn't discovered until after WWII and by that time all German industry was based on the principal that "amps = pressure, or force" and the more, the better. This is one reason for the difference in voltages in Europe. More volts = more pressure, or amps. The Canadian decision to adopt 247 volts was based on this principal. While America was happy with it weaker amps implemented by Jonathan Fender, Germany was cheating with the Humbucker amps. ( The Marshall amp didn't come along untill later, after the occupation of Japan). That, in a nutshell is the story of the Powver Amp, as it is still known today. Think about this, why do American electric products fail so often compared to German products? It's all in the power, or "amps". Hope this helps to clear things up!

I've been running a Chinese battery in my German MB but an hour after starting it's hungry for power.

I should have read the first post closer...

Battery
 

Would two Die-Hard batteries in parallel equal a Mercedes battery? I have one in my W124 and it is doing fine.

I have seen battery's last for

LOL.....good rule of thumb is, ......after 3 or 4 years, if it hick-ups, Get a new one!

Some of my cars have 4 to 6 year old batteries, but I keep them up on trickle chargers, and they seem to perform well.

This is OK when you only drive a car every other month.

If it is your daily driver, just get a fresh new battery every 3 to 4 years, and if you are lucky, you won't get stuck with a dead one!

Check your spare tire, and jack, as well.

Fill the spare tire with 40lbs of air, and check it every time you service the car.

It's so, easy to do at home, but so hard to understand, why you don't have it on the road, when you need it.

Just say, "Happy Holidays, to Me" and buy a new Battery!

It will make you feel all Good Inside!

C'mon Cap'n ... that is some impressive German standard automotive electrical knowledge, but please tell me you're joking.:rolleyes:

I've had a Sears Diehard in mine for I don't know how long (at least 4 years) and it still cranks with the best of them.

My owner's manual says nothing about MB "quality of electrons" and any must-use batteries. :p

blackmercedes said:

Me too

:cool:

Just remember the Cap'n has a hard time with "German food"

Back off!

Marshal Amps
 

Actually, Marshal amps are every bit as powerful as German amps, but the coating is not as smooth. This is caused by using more rebellious electrons, and as a result Marshal amps are a bit fuzzier than other kinds.

Certain circumstances can increase this fuzziness, particularly the proximity of Fenders. This is known as the Hendrix effect and is measured in nano-Jimis.

Have a nice day!

Hey, don't look at me, man..I'm like, just an Ibanez guy, dude...:D

Actually the Diehard (pronounced de had) contains a high percentage of German amps and is probably the only western made battery that can safely be substituted. This is likely due to the fact that it was designed in Berlin and uses German lead plates.

This probably should be another thread, but never put atmosphereic air in a spare tire. Always use air with a compressed nitrogen content. This prevents dryrot.

Remember to change the air in all your tires in the Spring and the Fall.
You do not want to be running with moist Summer air in the winter(can ice up), or dry winter air in the Summer(cracking or dry rot).
It's best to change the air in your tires when they are hot, so that you will get more of the contaminants out.

John, I think he gotcha good...

I'm surprised at the Canuck pricing. Down here in the 'states MB batteries are priced competitively. I just went through this last week - the original battery in my '98 finally gave up the ghost. Dealer price was $109, which is competitive with a DieHard or Interstate group 49. McParts stores will have a group 49 for ~$60 or so, but I've averaged one year of life, followed by a sudden (and inconvenient) death on those batteries, so no more for me.

BTW, I'm definately a battery snob - I have Optima orange tops in both my MBs. The Optima is a great choice for the 210, since the battery is under the rear seat.

Re: It's all in the amps....
 

Brilliant! :D Almost reverse flushed my sinuses with hot coffee when I read this

HA HA HA

Not really, remember that this is another example of the Completion Backward Principal and all the reverse dynamics have already taken place prematurely! This is best explained in the peviously unpublished best seller "Engineers Don't Just Drive Trains" by Pascal Newton-Dyne.

I buy the lower cost imported batteries, but to get MB quality electricity I take all the electrons out and replace each nuclei with nuclei extracted from discarded MB batteries from the local MB wrecking yard. Sure it takes some time, and special precision tools, but its worth it in the long run.

Seriously, though, let me cast two votes, one pro, one con.

I'll cast a vote AGAINST current Sears DieHard batteries. Used to be good quality product, backed by a good warranty. Now junk, backed by the same good warranty. Sure you get new free batteries, but who wants to keep getting jumped or towed to pick it up. This has been my experience in all my cars, not just the MB's. Sears must've changed manufacturers at some point in the last five years or so.

I'll cast a vote FOR Interstate batteries. I've had good luck, my friends have had good luck. Seem like solid product.

We only use Hen-weigh electrons in our cars.

when you turn on the lights, it gets darker.

no, no, no, thats only on cars wired by either the original prince of darkness, Lucas or his cohort, Marelli.





Joe

Ah yes, you're asking for trouble if you use anything less than MB-approved compressed nitrogen air in your spare -- none of that cheap gas station crap.:D

And I agree with Cory that you must "change it hot and change it often", to get all of those contaminantes out. I've heard tread separation horror stories from other manufacturers, from not following these guidelines. :confused:

G'luck

sublime and very funny, in a way only this group will understand
thanks guys. :)

Cap'n - hilarious post. ;)

I too lost some coffee out of an orifice it was not intended for...

Oh, and as a guitarist in a successful Canadian rock band I can only state that the sound of a Marshall amplifier grows louder at an exponential rate in reverse proportion to the diminishing of the size of the stage it is being played on...unless of course a Peavey amplifier is present in which case it will not play at all...;)

Aussie question
 

Which way do the electrons go down there?

Simple - they go down under....where women glow and men plunder....can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

See, in Australia, like all other places in the Southern hemisphere, electrical current and thus the direction of electrons in a vacuum, goes in the opposite direction as that in the Northern hemisphere.

It's the same principal as the direction your toilet water turns as it vortexes when you flush the toilet. It goes in the opposite direction.

I also point out that the seasons are the opposite in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

It's all part of God's Natural Law as stipulated by Sir Francis Bacon.

As stated in another thread, the British automotive electrical giant Lucas, ever resentful of the post-1945 German voltage laws and their European Union monopoly on electrical current, went to the International Court in The Hague and tried to have Ohm's Law repealed.

They quit, however, when they ran into too much resistance! :p

That is shocking!!! :rolleyes:

Well the jokesters are out in force today.

I have one testimonial about interstate batteries.

On my 380SE I had the car down for about a year with the battery disconected but not getting a charge.

After I put it back together I figured I would need to buy a new battery, but I figured what the heck I'll charge it and see what happens.

Not only did it start but it has been starting effortlessly for the last three months.

My money is on interstate.

Geoff Furr

The Cap'n could have mentioned the fact that the MB battery custom made for your car will, if shorted, spark in the exact color of your paint, except for black. In that case sparks will match your rims. This little known fact is of most interest to the fashion conscious woman and generally overlooked by men.

I was not aware of that! You learn something every day!!
But then I'm a denim and khaaki kind of guy!!;)

As an owner of a British car, I know a lot about the LUCAS syndrome. This electrical system was apparently conceived by a British prince called ''Prince of darkness''.
Those Brits had it all wrong. First, the electrical polarity is reversed (up to 1970) whereby ground is on the positive side of the battery and power is on the negative side of the battery. (this is not a joke). It mean the whole car is full of positive electrons all trying to return home (the battery) through negative wires going back to the positive side of the battery....
One day in 1970, the Brits realized they had made a mistake and decided to turn everything around.
The wiring system was designed (back in 1906) with the intent of having all of those nice electrons traveling in one direction (from minus to positive). When they reversed polarity, the wires were all fooled. (LUCAS only manufactured one-way wires.) To try to correct the problem, they tried selling SACUL batteries, but it did not work. They are still working on the solution.
JackD

I am with " MY PEOPLE ". I love this place!!

As a Brit, I've had more than my share of Joe Lucas equipped cars. I never had a problem with one way wires. It's the no way wires that always annoyed me!

The worst I ever had was a TR7. I never managed to get all of the electrical equipment working at the same time, though it all worked at some time.

The Cap'n is quite right.

I use nothing but Mercedes batteries and the quality of my lights is excellent!

amps
 

you folks are missing one of the most important contributions to the world of designed amperage.

what about the invincable VOX amps from the sixties when the uk was fully contributing to the amp dilemma of those days gone by. over here they were the amps of choice after 1963. their only drawback was their electrons left hand rotational movement. mostly known as the "Paul" phenomenon. little was done with VOX amps after 1968 but it certainly has laid it's claim of amp history.

for my own electrical choice i'll stay with the tubed fender. not taiwan or Mexico only USA.

aw get out loretta!

Re: amps
 

I did not mention the Vox amps because we were specifically dealing with Mercedes Benz in this thread. You do however make a good point, and anyone interested in the complete history of amperage should read the thesis by Jojo Wasaman. It also contains a special accounting by Nigel Tufnel, documenting the "Tap" amps and how, when all other amps had a maximum of ten electrons, his "went to eleven". Thanks for bringing this up.

I don't need a German battery anymore as my BOSCH alternator has been specially modified to feed on non-German amps supplied by the non-german battery. The ''bad'' electrons are eaten up and recycled into perfectly lined-up ''good'' electrons.
The alternator (with the help of the OVP (Old Volts Processor)) takes care of the rest.
jackD

ah cap'n
 

i see,

you want to re-hash that dreaded spinal "tap" fiasco of 1986 again.

it's over, no sense in dredging up that can of worms. let's let sleeping dogs lie. enuff said

Re: ah cap'n
 

You're referring to "England's Loudest Band". Who can forget the 'Break Like the Wind Tour' of '86'? And...

The memorable quote, "It's a fine line between genius and stupid".

I have a French car and a German car next to each other in my garage. I had to put up an insulating Maganoit line the keep the German electrons from occupying the French car.

I'm afraid the Maginot line will never work.

Just like the Germans did, the electrons won't go through it, they'll just go around it.

Thanks to all that have posted here!!!!!
 

I'm still a newbie.. But if anyone ever gets on my case about posting a stupid question, or taking up un-necessary bandwidth, I can always refer back to this thread....

I love it..Keep the funny stuff coming..

I'm sure if you look around you can find a Mexican battery willing to work twice as hard, for half the money:D

Sorry about the political incorrectness...

Jay..

Hey...this is a whole new direction for the thread:

French battery - doesn't work from noon to 4 pm
Russian battery - filled with grain alcohol
Canadian battery - works better in the cold
Italian battery - doesn't work at all in August
American battery - each individual battery decides if and when it wants to work

Any more?? :p

...or I could follow up on my Die Hard comments with this link to straight off the AP wirefeed haeded "Former CEO sentenced to 10 years in car battery fraud case ". Here's the link to the story in my local paper's online version...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2002/12/20/national1426EST0659.DTL

I knew they'd switched to crappy Exide product, but I did not know at all about this whole scandal. Maybe explains why I was having bad luck with Sears batteries in this timeframe.