I was driving my 1982 300D Turbo through Chicago to drop off a friend this evening. We were driving through a parking garage and all power seemed to give out. I was worried about other issues at that moment(I just started hemorraging oil badly recently and am cleaning the block this weekend to diagnose all of them) and turned the car off (BIG MISTAKE). My starter won't engage. I've had my ignition switch bypassed through wires running to the fender for awhile for starting after inserting my key. My batter drained, and all someone could get me was one of those f'n jump boxes. All I could get was clicking when I engage my starter (again by jumping the small screw to either of the larger).

Does that bypass the Neutral safety switch? I have yet to try that. I will be able to in about an hour or so; however, what other items do I need to look at right away.

What will make the starter click but not do anything else? Its in a parking garage at the moment. I have no way to get it home 40+ miles without a massive tow bill. And shame on me I don't have any of my tools with me.

224 381 2660 if you're local I'm near Loyola at the moment.

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

If it clicks, the NSS is not the problem. Clicking can be caused by a dead battery, dirty connections at any point in the starting/charging system, or a bad starter solenoid.

If it clicks, your NSS and ignition switch setup is OK. Can you put a multimeter on the battery to see voltage? Can you get someone to give you a jump?

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
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I don't have anyone around yet, and I'll be right back over there in about an hour or so. I do not have a multimeter around. I have a hammer and a tire iron, I don't even have any beloved duct tape. I DO have my massive jumper cables.

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

You have a hammer?! Sounds like Clarkson. You could host the new Top Gear. Haha!

Okay, so you are pretty bare as far as resources. Do you have illuminated dash lights and the dome light?

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

Yes. I do.

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

Sounds like a badly drained battery. Use those big jumper cables to get you started and home and then start looking at battery/charging system problems.

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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'm hoping that is it. I had to remote into a meeting since I wasn't going to make it home on time. unfortunately at 4am there was no one around who could jump it for me. Only option was one of those crappy boxes designed for small cars

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

Jumping the Wire Terminal Block that is in front of the Battery on the Fender Well bypasses the Neutral Safety Switch so even if the Neutral Safety Switch was no good it would not effect cranking from the Terminal Block.

Jumping a really Dead Battery as you would on a gasser usually dose not work out. You need to connect another vehicle up to your Batter and it needs to sit there and charge the Battery like 10 minutes or more.

I would not expect one of those portable jump start boxes to work because I don't think they have the amperage available in them to act as a replacement for your Battery if it is entirly dead and also don't believe the clip on connectons are not going to conduct well enough even if it did have enough amperage.

As soon as I got married I joined the AAA (Auto Club) and now believe anyone who has an old Car like these Mercedes ought to have it or an Insurance Policy that has free towing. You can one of the Auto Clubs and join or if you have access to the internet.

I had situation where my Car startred fine (Volvo Diesel) and I stopped to eat. When I went to start I got nothing; not even a click. To shorten the story the Battery must have developed some internal fault as it showed 12 Volts but had no amperage to make a good spark.
There was a Autozone acroess the street and I walked over and bought another Battery; installed that; started right up and was on my way home.

So there is 2 other alternatives suggested. Join an Auto Club or buy a new Battery a Store opens.

This is a long shot but if your Block to Chassis Ground Strap had deteriorated you could try using one of your Jumper Cables to act as a Ground. If the starter livens up a little you know you also have an ground issue.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Battery did not hold any charge (from the little it had while disconnected ) in the last few hours (had a few meetings I remote into. Tells me it's toast. Waiting for a car to come by for a good jump.

Not enough juice to start it just clicks when I try to start it. Not sure of the batter might be that dead?

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

Tried to jump it. Only person that came around had a Rav4. Left it about 20 minutes to charge mine, tried starting it while hooked up. Just clicks. As soon as we disconnected the cables. My battery had no charge.

Sounds like I need a new one. Where to track it down...

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

This is interesting: I had the EXACT same thing happen on my Mazda (not the Benz) last Thursday. Starter just clicked rapidly, I had power but none while starting (and after starting it would take a while for dome lights etc to turn back on) and I had headlights etc with jumper cables hooked up, but taking the cables off would cause instant loss of electric power. I was stuck at work, as it failed to start when I tried to leave for my lunch break.


Long story short: Battery clamps were dirty and negative wire was loose. Cleaned it all up, tightened the clamps down on the wires (they were aftermarket anyway) and she fired right back up. The loss off power was instantaneous, it never had an issue before. Weird.


So, I would take a long hard look at the battery clamps, and if all OK: Drop your battery off at O'Reilleys or some other similar place. They do free battery testing, and at least that way you'll know if it's the battery that died (possible) or something else.

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"The MB W123 is so bulletproof, you can drive them forever. Which is a good thing as it takes that long to get anywhere."
Betsie: 1984 W123 300D (hobby, 280k miles)
Myrla: 2001 Mazda Protege 2.0 ES 5spd (daily driver, 130k miles)
The Turd: 2007 Toyota Camry (wife's car, 118k miles)

Good call. I'm going to try to clean them up asap. A friend is running me to grab a battery from AZ

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

Replaced the battery now it clicks and seems to try to turn the starter. What's the way to jump the starter?

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly

Not the clamps...

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1982 300D Turbo 203K silver
Need to fix these leaks badly