Question on battery
 

When do you think the battery is a real goner?

OK, this is the situation. I apparently did not close the trunk lid all the way 2 weeks ago and the lamp drained the life out of the battery. The battery is about 5 years old. I tried to jump it but the car won't even turn. You can hear the starter clicked and that was about it. All lights went dead as soon as I disconnected the jumper cable from the other car. So does than mean the battery was at it's last lag? Or did I fry something jumping the car? I frequently heard that the SL is prone to get fry by jumping. Any truth to that? I connected the cable with the other car not turned on. I let the other car ran for a minute before I got into the SL and tried to start it. Was that the right procedure? BTW, it is my '95 SL. Thanks for any input.

I believe the trunk light goes out by itself after a 1/2 hour, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Just replaced the battery in my SL with the same symptoms. Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong,,, it was just it's time.:bigcry: BTW, after I replaced the battery, the top would not go up until I ran the windows up and down.

A lead acid battery will not always be damaged by daining it completely, but odds are a five year old battery is on its last legs.
When you tried jumping starting, your car was depending on the host car for all of it's starting amps. Most cable I see out ther today are not very good quality and the clamps they use can't transmit the current required to start a car with a dead battery. You can try recharging your battery with a quality charger.