I really need some help. Car died on me
 

I have a 1993 190e 2.6liter 6cyl
I started the car and the battery seemed weak when starting. I replaced the battery 2 years ago. As I'm driving within minutes the gauge lights inside seemed dim as did the outside headlights. Then my abs and other idiot lights flashed while driving. That scared me. I had to park and turn the car off. The car started back up 10 minutes later but battery seemed weak again. Lights were dimmer. Abs and srs (maybe a mistake) lights came on. My radio shut itself off. I knew the car was going to die and it did. I had to push it a long way and luckily some nice people helped me. The battery did not have enough power to close the windows or move the windshield wipers. I will have to have AAA tow it to my house tomorrow (around 7 miles). It sounds like the alternator or the voltage regulator to me. Has anyone had similar symptoms? Any advice? How hard is it to replace an alternator or voltage regulator on my year and model car? I'm handy with a wrench but I'm not a mechanic. I really would appreciate any and all answers. Thanks in advance :)

Battery was not charging or it's kaput.
Check your voltage regulator, alternator/dynamo, cable from alternator to battery.

Thanks for the reply. This happened so suddenly. Battery was fine earlier today. What is a dynamo?

Another term for "generator."

spree17, sounds like classic symptoms of worn voltage regulator brushes. Remove the voltage regulator from the back of the alternator and check the length of the brushes. They are probably worn down to nubs. If so, simply install a new voltage regulator. You can buy a new one online for around $30.

Disconnect the battery before removing the regulator.

I pray that is the case. Thank you. :)

Thanks for the advice. :)

It is highly likely that it is the voltage regulator....if not then the worst it would be is the alternator itself. Should be a pretty easy repair. :) I carry a spare voltage regulator in the glove box of my 300E just in case it decides to have that problem!

Thanks. My first step is trying to get the car towed home today. Once I do then I can try to get to the voltage regulator to see if it is worn down. That sounds like the easiest and cheapest repair so I really hope that is the problem.

Quick question. I dont know where the alternator on my year/model car is. Can I get to the voltage regulator from under the hood standing up or do I have to go under the car? Thanks in advance. :)

On your 103 motor, the alternator/regulator assembly is on the right side front of the engine block. It'll look a bit different than the attached image, but you should spot it easily enough. No need to get under the car to get at it; should be able to access it from under the hood.

If you have it towed be sure its on a flat bed tow truck only. Not the kind that drag the car with the rear wheels on the ground. Towing with the wheels on the ground can ruin the transmission.

Cal thanks so much for your help. Are you familiar with the 1993 190e model? I'm trying to find out if I need to tow it for sure. If I can access the voltage regulator from the top of the car I should be able to swap it out right in the parking lot. Please advise. :)

I'm not sure how much room there is in the engine compartment of a 190, but on my W124/300E I can get at it pretty easily from above....if so, yes you could do it right on site. There's not much to it, just angle it in and out of the opening and fasten the two Phillips screws.

You'll probably still need to get a good jump start though if your battery is dead.

if you just want to get car home,borrow or buy a fully charged battery and change out to drive home.murphy's law says that you will need to buy a new battery after this little escapade anyway.

Thanks a bunch. I will go drive by take a look. I really hope I can get to it on my car. If I can do it from above I can save myself a tow at least. A cab out to my dads to pick up a spare car will be around $35. If I can save the towing fee that would be great. I could probably jump start the car or take the battery to get charged if I can fix it in the parking lot. :)

Thats true, if you charge the battery up pretty good you should be able to start and drive it several miles at least. My wife's former Buick managed to cover like 30 miles with a dead alternator before she called/asked me why the battery light was on and it was "idling rough". :eek:

spree17, you may be able to access the voltage regulator from above if you have very long arms. It's much easier from below (at least that's my preference). You could use the jack to raise the right front, remove the noise ecapsulation panel (if you still have one) and have at the voltage regulator. As mentioned, you most likely will need to jump start the car or recharge the battery with a charger. If it were me I would definitely replace the voltage regulator where the car sits, and skip the towing expense.

A qord of caution, if you do use a flat bed. Make sure the driver uses the tow hook to pull the car on the tow truck. Many of these gorillas will hook on anything they can find under the car. The frame rail on my 420SEL got ripped open by a careless operator because he didn't know a tow hook existed.

A regular tow truck can tow a rwd car by the rear wheels, and is probably a safer way to have a car towed.

If you are there for the towing its easy to supervise where they put their hook.....when we bought a car with a dead engine they inspected it and used the tow hook properly....I'd have say most of them probably do at least check.

I was able to reach the voltage regulator despite my short arms. The screws were not tight. That made it easier. The stacks are worn but I'm not sure if they are worn enough to cause the problem. Only Mercedes has the part locally for $107 plus tax. So I'm in a bind. Take a chance on the part at a rip off price or tow the car. Any advice?

Here are 2 pictures of my part. What do you think?

It doesn't actually look all that worn, mine was way worse when it stopped working.....almost no brushes left at all. Your alternator itself may have failed, or the regulator may have simply gone bad. Obviously the first thing to do would be swap in a new regulator....$107 is WAY steep though, online they are only $30ish....you don't have a NAPA or anything near you? A voltage regulator is a fairly common part.....

Napas by me dont carry it. I looked online as well. I agree $107 is a rip off but my other choice would be towing and then ordering. I guess I can call and get a tow estimate

I can get it towed for around $65 if I use AAA. The part costs around $30 plus shipping online. So thats $95 and I would have my car home just in case the part doesnt work. That might be the safe way to go

I'm going to play it safe and get it towed.

Last question. Where do I find my toe hook for the towing?

You meant "Front Wheels", right?

Your insurance company likely offers free towing.

Its under the front bumper inside that flip up door on the passenger side. Do you have your owners manual for the car?

You realize you could also just charge up the battery nice and full then drive it home....it should easily last the trip especially if all un-needed things are turned off like the radio and climate control etc...

Thanks for all your help. Other than jump starting I dont have a way to charge the battery and I dont know if that would be a good enough charge. I'm actually paying $65 for the tow. Once it is home I can figure out if its the voltage regulator or the alternator without worrying about the car being towed away. It is in a restaurant parking lot that has towing sign warnings all around for customers only so I'm nervous of leaving the car there. If the car dropped dead again on the highway coming home I would be in worse shape. I hate spending $65 for a tow after spending $40 on a cab this morning/last night but I'm just going to have to bite the bullet. Usually I would ask my dad for help but he just had major heart surgery and is not doing well. I'm just going to have to choke on the $105 wasted on the cab and tow. I really do appreciate everyone's help. Once I get it home I will try to fix it. I do think there is a chance it is the regulator. The symptoms sound similar and those bushes are only a little more than half way of a new regulator I saw (not the same model as mine).

Just jump start it and drive in 3rd. The higher RPMs will charge the battery faster. It does, however, sound like the battery has failed.

One other thing to check on the car before spending more money is the cables. Make sure the plus and ground cables have solid connections and no significant corrosion. I once had a Golf where the gremlin turned out to be the plus cable corroded up inside the insulation (voltage drop between battery and alternator ends provided the clue). And I know we all have discovered loose terminals even when we were certain it just couldn't be the case.

Yay my 16 year old car is home. Battery had enough power to lower the windows despite sitting all day in the hot sun. Last night it did not have that ability. The cables are tight. I installed the battery a couple of years ago. I think it is probably alternator or voltage regulator related because of the symptoms. The car just died while driving. I figure if the alternator and voltage regulator were working correct the car wouldn't just die while driving even if the battery got weak.

2 questions for the experts. :)

1. Does it mean anything that my battery seems to have a lot more power now than it did last night or this morning. I took the voltage regulator out. Could that be why?

2. I'm almost tempted to try and start it with the voltage regulator out. Would that be bad? What would happen if it did start without the regulator in the alternator?

1. After a lead acid battery sits for a while it will "re-gain" some of its energy, but it will quickly run down again if a load is put on it.

2. Don't start the car with the voltage regulator missing, that can damage the alternator/electrical system. :eek:

spree17, the voltage regulator brushes appear OK to me. Before buying a new voltage regulator remove the caps on the battery and check the water level ... add, as required. New Interstate batteries from a MB dealer typically last 4 years.

FYI: Your post motivated me to check my battery's water level. The cells were "dry" -- no visible water, and required about 6-8 ounces of distilled water to refill.

Perhaps add that to your To Do list.

Thanks for all the responses. I dont have a mercedes battery. I have a Walmart battery. I will check the water on it. I'm surprised you guys think the brushes are ok on the regulator. They were worn down around half the size of a new one. They had steep concaves and the brushes were not even. I wish I could narrow it down to the battery, regulator or alternator, so I dont waste money. Maybe I should disconnect the battery and bring it to autozone? Will they do a free charging and test? I would not mind buying an alternator replacement for $107 from Autozone BUT it seems like a big job to switch them out

Mr. Spree,

I wish your dad a full speedy recovery.

Although the brushes are not worn down, the regulator may be faulty. Most regulators fail due to worn brushes but the electronic or soldered components can fail and cause the alt to not charge.

now that your car is home, top up the water level and charge the battery.

Re install the regulator (with battery disconnected) then get a voltmeter (multimeter), If you don't have one get a friend to come over with one and help you out.

Check battery voltage - should be 12 volts or more. Now start the engine, the battery voltage should now read 13 to 13.5 or 14 volts.

If the battery voltage stays the same as with the engine off (12v) that indicates the regulator is faulty and should be replaced. Given that all connections are clean and tight.

Please note that when my regulator went bad, I was able to gently tap it with a screwdriver handle and it would kick in and work so I could drive the car to get a replacement, of course this was specific to the problem with my regulator at that time but it is something to consider for anyone in that situation.

I suggest this test but replace the regulator with a new one.

About the battery test, call ahead to see if they can do it, I know Canadian Tire or Part Source have the right equipment and offer free diagnosis. The battery must be fully charged prior to being tested and they should have the proper tool to put the required electrical load on it for testing as well as looking for shorted cells.
Good luck with it,
Acky

Acky,
Thanks so much for the kind words and all the detailed suggestions. I just tapped off the battery with water. The battery was very dry. I thought they made no maintence batteries now.

My current problem is I'm having trouble getting the regulater back in. I'm doing this from on top of the car. Do the bushes have to be depressed to get it back in? Are there any tricks to getting it back in? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as always. :)

You are most welcome.

I assume you are installing the new regulator to save a step and also these are usually not returnable.

As you install it, understand that the brushes will press upwards and compress the springs in the brush holders. Angle the regulator and position it at the bottom of the opening, then set it flat against the back of the alt while pushing it up into position to line up the screw holes. You must hold it in this position, as the brush spring tension will be forcing it down and on an angle.

You will see clearly what I mean once you try to line it up. It’s easier from the bottom because things are much more visible from below but you will get it in. Just take your time.
Acky

I'm trying to put the old part back in to see if the water helped the situation. I have to try and do it from up top from feel where I'm basically blind. I can get it in there. I'm just concerned I could be doing it wrong. I'm also concerned that I cant see the screw holes because the screws I took out seem like they can just fit in and out of the holes with little screwing needed.

Use a mirror, propped up and angled so you can see what you are doing. Also use a light. You can thread the screws in to just make sure the threads are not stripped.

Unfortunately we don't know what has been done in that area in the past.
Make sure the battery gets a full charge and test as required.
Acky

Thanks Acky. Thanks to your suggestions I did get the old part back in. I'm going to go buy jumper cables and a volt meter. I topped of the water in the battery. After I go get the supplies I will jump the car and measure the volts as you and others prescribed. Where should I connect the volt meter needles to measure the volts?

spree17, hopefully you didn't overfill the battery cells. Typically there are U-shaped plastic pieces above the battery plates and you add enough water so the level is at the bottom of the U-shape. If you added water until it was just under the cap it's too full and may spill out when cornering hard.

I may have over filled then. Should I take some out. Crazy as it sounds my step moms car I was using went out today. It was a crack battery mount. I just finished that and will first get to my car in around 30 minutes. :)

OK guys some quick updates.

I went to go get battery cables in a borrowed acura...dont laugh the acura died. So I check the battery cables. One was way loose and I notice the copper mount had cracked. I spent an hour with borrowed tools at autozone taking the old cable out. Since Autozone and Oreilys next door did not have an exact match cable I used wire cutters to breeak off the old cracked mount. I replaced it with a much tougher steel universal mount ($2.37) and she started right up. Then I got battery cables and came home. I had cleaned up the old voltage regulator and filled up the water levels that were bone dry on my battery. I probably filled them too high but I did not see a mark on where to fill them I will look again. I then jumped my car. My car started up fairly fast. I shut it down and started it again. I used the lights and the windshield wipers. I drove it up and down the block. So far so good. I dont trust it yet so I will go buy a volt meter to measure the voltage from the battery with the car started and not started. I know the readings but the volt meters come with 2 needles. Where should I touch the needles for the best readings? Thanks so much to all you guys. You have been lifesavers. I may even order a new voltage regulator online just in case and throw it in my glove compartment. If the readings come out as you guys say they should would it be ok to drive it without fear?

If the battery was bone dry,you are probably on borrowed time with it, so I would set aside the voltage regulator money for a new one. (My water was only about 8-oz depleted, but I would not be surprised if I have to get a new battery soon.)