Battery drain & After market wiring E Class S211 260CDI (2006)

[gilesbracher]

I have just got back to my new to me S211 having been away for a month, to a totally dead battery! (Battery 6 months old) No clicks, flickers, anything, dead as a post. Only Manual door lock working.

I think have traced the drain down to an after market fuse in the boot, under where the Nav DVD is. When I remove this fuse the ammeter drops down to 0.01amp from an average 0.14amp. I have read that 0.01 is normal?

1. Is there any feed back out there on what normal drain on a battery parked up should be?
2. How long is it reasonably safe to leave a 2006 E class parked up (0.01amp draw) with out effecting starting (assuming a charged good battery)?​

I think this fuse (see pic) is connected to a Dolphin DT0035 CAN-Bus interface. I am guessing this was used to add a phone to the car at some point.

http://www.sanostore.top/altro-cavi...nbus-interface-per-mercedesbenz-p-4931.xhtml?

So far disconnecting this fuse has not affected any functionality of the Command, though I don’t have a phone connected as yet.

3. Can any one tell me for sure what this box does and if it will effect anything now I have taken the fuse out?​

Out of a matter of curiosity there are several coils of wire (wild knitting when I got the car) that appear to be aftermarket. See attached photo

4. Can any one suggest what they might be? See the picture.
​

Aftermarket Wiring & Fuse

• gilesbracher
• Jan 28, 2018

Any suggestions what these loops of wire are for, and what the fuse is protecting?

Loop 1 comes from another black box on top of the Drive Rack with a GPS SIM label on it. And goes up the corner strut of the car. See photo below.

Loop 2 also come from the GPS SIM box but is some how connected with a wire that has a red LED in the end the still blinks every few seconds.

GPS SIM

• gilesbracher
• Jan 28, 2018

This is the box where loop 1 & 2 connect to

I have been wondering if there is some kind of alarm / immobiliser? When I use the key fob to lock the car the hazard lights flash twice. But if I open the door using the manual key there is no alarm sound, as I have read there would normally be? (Battery providing of course)

Thank you to any one who can shed some light.

 

[Submariner1]

Been through the mill on this irksome drain issue.
A good ex MB trained mechanic Mobilo guy ... said 30 to 40mA was good, and normal on mine, and they would start investigating when it hit 60 mA.
No idea what yours should be but I guess roughly the same.

Note that reading must be taken when the car has shut down!
Do you know all the tricks to shut your car down?
[when I say shut down, I mean has gone to sleep properly, as it never fully shuts down]

E.g
Turn my car off and shut the door and it could take 20-40 minutes! WTF!
However the quick process on mine is
1. Take out KLG, turn key left and pull out
2. Turn off AC comfort climate bla bla ***
3. Turn off Comand ***
4. shut doors, and sunroof
5. Push shut bonnet carches (omitting this can cost you 15 mins): and don’t forget to open them before dropping the bonnet !!!
6. lock car. (Leaving it unlocked , can consume 600mA for 10 mins or more)

( *** these are not essential once you know they are OK. I do not bother turn these off on mine).

Do the above and Then the car will shut down to 20mA to intermittant 30 mA drain in under 2 minutes
( if you are loopey you could watch it and it then can come down to 10mA to zero. )

Dont rule out a faulty Mercedes Battery. Apparently they have had quite few this year.
“We never ever had this problem before, but late 2016 and 2017 I‘ve had quite a few”!

All my issues were due to a brand new genuine MB defective battery. No issues before it was changed and none since the defective one was replaced..

I think 140mA is way too high and would give you problems.

Personally having seen how techy these systems are, like undervoltage causing 5 pages of STAR fault codes!
I would pay a good Indy to strip all that crap out, so it was pure std. MB!

 

[gilesbracher]

Thank you for taking the time Submariner1, that’s great knowledge.

I have done exactly as you said in measureing the drain. Your recommendation of removing any electronics that are non mb. Makes good sense.

With natural drain of 10 -20 miliamps how long is it safe to leave a car with out draining the battery? 2-3 weeks or 2-3 months?

And what about the auxiliary battery, or is that isolated?

I have often left a vehicle of older design for six months or more battery connected with no problems.

Just would like some feed back so I’m not left stranded again after a trip away.

Thanks

 

[Westheath]

The Dolphin canbus adaptor is a GPS/GPRS tracking system.

Standing current drain on those is @ 0.7amps

The motion sensor detects vehicle movement and triggers the unit to send a signal via the sim card interface,
then the cellular network to a tracking interface either a home PC
or controlled by a third party company.
The antennae loop is to the pillar and possibly the roof,
the led loop is an option for visual activation but usually hidden.

 

[gilesbracher]

Westheath... Brilliant thank you that makes complete sense! That is what probably drained my battery sitting in my drive. I just got my diary out and It has been almost 6 weeks!

Thank you for the info.