does my 1987 560sl have a seat sensor for an airbag? - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

kimmy · #46 03-10-2004, 02:51 PM

Sorry about the quote button guys, I didn't know I was hitting it. My bad. Im a real newbie if ya couldn't tell.:

I returned the new battery back to the "Battery store" and told them it was not working correctly, they said to go have my alternator checked. I need to take it back again and let um have it. Ya think?
Kimm

blackmercedes · #47 03-10-2004, 04:07 PM

Well, something has cooked your new battery. It's plain not holding a charge. It was disconnected overnight and lost it's charge. Not good.

You need to have the charging system and battery load tested. My own C230 battery reads a decent static charge, but can't even pull 9V at 300amps. It's toast.

If it was a key-off drain, your battery would have held it's charge overnight while diconnected. Unless, of course, your repeated cycling of the battery due to some other problem has wrecked it.

I still don't understand how the car can drive without problems for hours. A failing alternator will have the car driving on the battery, and given the poor state of your battery, I'm not sure how long it would last on reserve. The car needs power to run the EFI system, lights, etc. Eventually the battery will run down and the car will die.

Has the ABS light been on at all? This is a typical first symptom of an MB charging system failure. The ABS system requires a minimum voltage to operate, and if that voltage is not being met, the ABS shuts off and lights the ABS warning lamp.

Overcharging? Intermittent charging?

I'm stumped. This might take some detective work by a mechanic. Be wary of someone that simply wishes to throw parts at it...

kimmy · #48 03-10-2004, 05:18 PM

Oh no ya don't, ya can't give up on me now. And YES THE ABS light is on. I began coming on and staying on since the begining of all this. What does that mean again? I'm begining to think that this battery is bad. However why did my car not want to start when I had the old battery? Because it sat too long, and it really did sit too long. How long will a car sit before it won't start again without a jump. I have small kids and really don't drive it at all. Maybe once a month if I'm lucky. But not anymore. I'll be drivin her every chance I get. If I ever get this thing figured out.
Kimm

MikeTangas · #49 03-10-2004, 09:11 PM

Kimm,

Is the ABS light on as well as the SRS light? If the ABS light is on you need to check the 10amp blade fuse on top of the OVP (over voltage protection relay). Could be the fuse is blown from the repeated jump starts.

When you reconnected the battery this morning did you hear any pumps, motors or other electrical devises come to life? If there was a motor or something similar continually running (something drawing enough juice to drain the battery) you might have heard it when you connected the beast to power.

I'm still leaning toward an overcharging situation, that could cook the battery, and possibly blow the fuse on the OVP. I can't remember right now did you check the output at higher RPMs???

What's your take on this tonight Gilly??? You here???

MIght be you'll have to break down and seek out a MB Tech, a good independent should be able to sort this out for a whole lot less than the dealer. It does get difficult to fix something vicariously through others...but we keep trying

EDIT: I just went back and checked...saw that you did test at higher RPMs. How long did you run the test? You might have to watch it for a little bit to see if the voltage keeps creeping up. I seem to remember a couple posts a long time back where someone's regulator wasn't working and they were getting upwards of 17vDC and boiling the battery, but can't remember how long it took for the output to climb that high.

kimmy · #50 03-10-2004, 09:29 PM

Mike, I did check it at high rpms and it was 13.92. Sorry, the SRS light is on NOT the ABS light. The only shop here that isn't the dealer already told me that it was the clock. I had him disconnect it and it didn't do the trick. He is convinced that it is a slow drain. I need to go back to square one and do a test removing each fuse one at a time. Should I remove the fuse and put the tester in its place? Or should I remove the + cable and put it in line with it? Won't some show a natural drain anyway, like the one that keeps the radio preset?
I'm tellin ya, this is drainin me!!!!

kimmy · #51 03-10-2004, 09:32 PM

I gotta tell ya that I really want to take it back and make them replace it with a new one. Ya know the green spot on a new battery is not green anymore either. It's a brand new battery. Do you think the trunk light wires are causing any of this? What does the SRS light have to do with all this? I only ran the high rpm test just long enough to read it. That is it.

MikeTangas · #52 03-10-2004, 09:49 PM

Hmmm....green spot, no maintenance...what kind and what size battery did you put in. Both of mine take those huge series 49 (at least I think thats the series) batteries. I would assume the SL takes one similar.

The radio preset memory is only going to draw milliamps, same with the clock. My 4.5 sat unstarted for over 3 months and she lit right off when I went home two weeks ago...clock was still holding time and the radio held it's presets. If you have soemthing drawing enough to drain the battery it is something bigger than the clock or radio memory.

You will have to run the elevated RPM test for a little while longer, if you just do it long enough to get a reading you won't see if the voltage keeps rising.

You also need to disconnect the negative cable not the positive...my fingers got confused last night

.

kimmy · #53 03-10-2004, 10:05 PM

I will do the test in the morning. Just how long do I do it? And you really got me confussed with the whole neg pos thing. I forget, why do I take off the neg cable?
Kimm

kimmy · #54 03-10-2004, 10:09 PM

Hey, is this a trick or something, How do you expect me to get it started if the neg is off? And let me get this straight, we don't want it to increase as rpms go up, is this correct?

Gilly · #55 03-10-2004, 10:22 PM

If you have the wrench on the positive terminal when the negative is also attached, and it contacts metal on the chassis, it will short the battery direct to ground. On the other hand, if you touch the negative to ground while the positive cable is also connected, nothing will happen. So when disconnecting the battery for any reason, disconnect the NEGATIVE first (before the positive side), OR if you simply want the battery "taken off-line", simply remove the negative side.
Now if you are say installing a new battery, the opposite is true; CONNECT the positive first, THEN connect the negative. You never want to take a chance of working on the positive cable whenever the negative is connected, this is pretty dangerous. The power we're talking about here, even with a fairly lousy battery, can make a wrench glow red-hot in seconds, big sparks too.

On a 107 like this, even those metal straps that hold down the battery box lid can short out the wrench.

Gilly

MikeTangas · #56 03-10-2004, 10:24 PM

The neg/pos thing is in refrence to disconnecting the battery...disconnect the negative cable first...always. No you won't be able to start it if the battery is disconnected

It will probably take two people to run the test unless your meter lead are capable of attaching to the terminals. The voltage might climb a small amount, maybe as high as 14.2vDC. If the regulator is bad in the over charge state you'll see the voltage climbing, if the voltage climbs past 14.2vDC I'd venture to say you've found something.

kimmy · #57 03-10-2004, 10:31 PM

I must have an angel over me or something, because with all this fooling around on off on off on off jump, jump.........WOW. Good to know this tid bit. What would happen to the car or battery if for some reason I did touch something that would a caused a spark and some scaryness, no burn though. I think I remember somethng like this a few months ago. I'm holding my breath, so someone please hurry.
Kimm

Gilly · #58 03-11-2004, 04:59 AM

A little scaryness is no problem, slight contact and some "oh crap" reaction. When you're "screwed", you know it. No sparks, wrench glows red. Eventually the wrench melts, or whatever the wrench contacted. Hopefully no serious damage is done, the battery may or may not be OK. If you just got a shower of sparks, it's just a wake-up call for you and no damage was done.
Hope the ol' involuntary muscle thing kicked in and you're breathing OK. Can't help you out there, I'm not a doctor, stick to auto issues...................

Gilly

#59 03-11-2004, 09:49 AM

Ok - Time for a different angle of attack. Kimmy - you say you only drive the car once a month. Do yourself a favor and go out and buy an AUTOMATIC 10amp - 2 amp dual 12 volt battery charger with auto shutoff when the battery is charged. DO NOT buy one of the cheaper MANUAL battery chargers - if you leave it hooked up you can cook a battery. An Automatic shut off charger can be hooked up to the battery and left on it indefinately and it will keep the battery fully charged and not damage it. Now you will have a fully charged battery even if you only drive the car once every 4 months. BUT - the other benefit to having the automatic charger is that you can use it for this problem. Disconnect the negative lead from the battery and hook up the automatic charger to the battery for 24 hours. If it is still in charge mode (battery is not fully charged) after this length of time - disconnect the charger and let the battery sit with the negative lead disconnected for 12 hours - Then check the voltage on the battery - if the voltage is below 12.56 - the battery is toast - no matter what the dealer says.
Please get the charger - you will be doing yourself and your battery a favor - and try this test - at the least - you will always have a fully charged battery when you let the car sit a long time once we get this problem figured out. - I still lean towards a bad battery.
Morris

kimmy · #60 03-11-2004, 02:52 PM

I will do that. I also want to report my test on the battery this morning at 2000 rpms when it was idle it read 13.78 and after 2 minutes at 2000 rpms it went to 13.82 but then just after 2 minutes it fell to 13.78. When I went back to idle it was then 13.72. Does this help you at all? It also smelled a little funny after that exercise, not sure if it was a burning kinda smell or not.
Kimm