Hi, I am new to this forum and recently I have gotten some Ideas from another MB forum that some of you probably post on. I just want to try to get all of the ideas that I can. Three months ago I purchased a new, 2003, S55 in Houston Texas. I live quite a distance from Houston. There are dealers in Tyler and Dallas that are much closer to me. My new car will not hold a battery charge. In the three months that I have owned it, and I was gone 3 weeks of that time, it has been jump started 6 times. It will not start now so the 7th time is coming. Two of the times the car was unmoved for 2-3 weeks. Four of the time it sat for 2-3 days and the car is not starting today and it was driven yesterday. I have taken the car to Tyler and they replaced the battery, which did no good. I have an appointment next week in Dallas and I know they need to see if there is a short circuit to the battery or if there is an electrical problem. Would you please tell me what you think and what I might ask this well-established Mercedes dealer in Dallas. I want to know what they do instead of sitting in a waiting room. Do they just push you in the room to get rid of you. I know the dealer in Tyler just replaced the battery quickly and charged Mercedes and got rid of us. They told us to drive the car for 30 minutes every 2 days. I don't drive that car that often, but I sure think it should start when I want to drive it. Any Ideas and Thanks so much.

One of my relatives in New Orleans had the same problem you as yours with a brand new S500. I believe his was a 2001. The dealer changed his battery twice to no avail. The car still wouldn't start after parking it overnight. The dealer finally took it back and gave him a new E55 in its place. I'm not familiar with the details, and the financial transaction, but I'll find out and let you know.

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Riadh
'89 560SL Rauchsilber
And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good -- Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

You might want to check out this website if the dealer can't help you http://www.mercedes-benz-usa.com/

Hi rooney4. It's obvious that your car has excessive rest current draw. The problem is most likely the vehicle interior CAN (data bus) is staying in it's "ready" or "awake" state. This can cause various control units to remain "powered up" even though the vehicle is not in use. Removing the fuses one at a time until the rest current draw is within spec's is the usual method used to diagnose problems like this. On your car though, disconnecting the control units one at a time is probably the way to go. Your dealer should be well aware of this. Since the early 90' MB has been making cars using this networking technology, so current draw issues are nothing new. MB has a scan tool (not even available to dealerships!) that can greatly simplify the diagnostic process, but the factory rep. is the only person who can do this. As far as you sitting in the waiting room? I'd suggest leaving the car at the dealer. Unless they get lucky, this could take a few days to figure out. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

i had a similar problem.when you put your headlights on are they dim?do they get stronger if you rev the engine?my problem was my alternator.i don't know how many times we jumped it and they thought it was the battery for the longest time.we put a load tester on it and it tourned out that the system was undercharging.turns out one of the phases in the alternator was gone.good luck,hope this helps

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'95 s500 (bought for wife but can't bear to share!!!) 125kms
'92 legend 180kms
'88 tbirdturbo(fantastic car-only regular maint.)120kms
'87 mustang gt(gone)
'86 tbirdturbo(gone)
'85 mustang gt(gone-but not forgotten)

I talked with my relative earlier today and asked him about the details of his problems with the '01 S500. He said he had to jump start the car 4 times and each time he had the dealer look into the problem. The dealer spent on average 6 hours each time trying to diagnose the problem. They changed the battery twice for him. After the fourth time, he told the dealer he didn't want the car anymore. He got an E55, but had to settle for $3,000 less than what he had paid for the S500 just to get rid of it. I don't know why he didn't invoke the lemon law. It certainly seems applicable in such situation.

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Riadh
'89 560SL Rauchsilber
And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good -- Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

Sounds like something is drawing the battery down. One example is a trunk light that stays on when the lid is closed. That's probably simplistic but the dealer shoud be able to measure the amount of current being drawn out of the battery when the ignition is off. If it's too high, one starts the process of elimination. Pulling fuses is a good way to locate the problem.