I've got 130K on my '97 W210. This morning, I start her up, back out of the garage, "Lamp Defective" light comes on. Get out of the car, walk around, all lamps AOK. Think to myself, maybe a brake light or reverse light. I wasn't really paying that close attention when the warning light came on. Shut the car off to see if the fault comes on when I hit the brakes or go into reverse. Thinking I'm a clever fault isolator at this point. But guess what - car won't start. Just one loud click when I turn the key. Not turning over, no series of clicks, one click and that's it. Power is working, lights, radio, etc. Tried jumping it off the family truckster, no dice.

What does this august group of pundits and luminaries think? Could it be the starter? Alternator?

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

Did you try starting the car in neutral instead of park?

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Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

Rebel62, you may need a new battery. They die very suddenly from my experience with MB automobiles.

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Fred Hoelzle

I agree with the battery as the first thing to try, especially if it is 5+ years old. Even if you try and jump it if dead you may not exceed the threshhold voltage for the car to crank. It could also be a bad ground, or loose cable at the ends which connect to ground and to the car but start with the simplest thing first and check the battery.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Didn't think of the batttery since all lights were shining brightly. Also, didn't think to start it in neutral. I flatbedded it over to my indie but they haven't come back with a diagnosis. I'll let y'all know what they come back with.

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

Was the click from the starter motor? Trying giving it a sharp tap with a hammer.

Parrot:
Click did sound like the starter, still waiting on my indie diagnosis. I'll let everyone know.

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

The diagnosis from my shop - broken battery cable. Ever hear of this? Seems really odd since I haven't been doing anything under the back seat. Do these cables just break??

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

Perhaps too much activity ON TOP of the back seat?

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

In a 10 year old car anything can "just break". Consider yourself lucky since the fix is very cheap and you obvioulsy have an honest mechanic there. I know it can be upsetting to have a car towed for such a minor issue, but it could have been worse...also, had you followed my prior post you might have found it yourself (I had said check the battery and cables for loose connections). Often it is the simple, obvious things that are the culprets.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

nhdoc:
You were tight on the cables. Hard to believe they would just break.

Blackmercedes:No monkey business in my backseat. Unfortunately

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

I have talked to serveral owners before and they do not seem to know that MB has free for life of the car breakdown service. They will come to your house and replace a battery, change a tire,etc - simple stuff. They will also change a MAF or CPS for you if you have a spare.

See post #13 for the original problem description...

Here's some more info:

Using the climate control pusbutton control module to view vehicle data,
(see Steve Brotherton's article: http://www.continentalimports.com/ser_ic40142.html)

I noticed the following:
24 - Battery voltage = 13.1 volts
This is the reading while driving @ 50mph. Do you think it's a little low?
23 - Terminal 58d (99.0 corresponds to 99% battery voltage). Mine =0.0
What is this? Is it somehow a measure of the battery health?

Thanks for your help!

Paul

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1998 E300D 1-tank Elsbett Veggie system
1986 190D 2-tank Veggie system -Sold

Let me confirm that this happened to me and it was just a bad battery. There seems to be a point below which the car won't turn over, even if everything else appears to be working fine. Let me put it this way -- I was very surprised to learn the battery was bad, because the way the car was acting was very different from most other cars I've had with a low or bad battery: no clicking (just one solid click), nice bright lights, even while holding the key to the start position (because the starter is controlled electronically). I even connected jumper cables from another running car to the posts in the hood, and the dashboard lights visibly brightened, but the car still wouldn't start. So you can see it was a stretch for me to decide to test another battery, but that's what it was.

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1980 300SD (daily driver), 1981 300D (Inca Red)

I've seen this battery cable problem many times in the W210, there is a through connection in the driver side firewall and the cable from this connection to the starter corrodes. What i do is replace the through connection and the cable to the starter.

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600SEL '91
300E 4Matic '88
240D '83
280SE '77
350SE '73
The most complex systems can fail in the simplest way.
Contra verbosus noli contendere verbis, sermo datur cunctis, animi sapientia paucis.

i don't believe in the lord! He's never bought me a Mercedes Benz.