DREAMER NO2
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
- Messages
- 4,960
- Reaction score
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- Age
- 79
- Location
- Kidderminster in Worcestershire
- Your Mercedes
- W124 2.6E M103 1989
This concerned me to when I first bought a CTEK, I emailed CTEK for advice, several times as they are not very forthcoming, asking about the desulphation phase on an AGM battery and they eventually stated that the owners manual was wrong and desulphation is skipped. I had a quick look for the email but can't find it now!
My MXS 5.0 is 4 years old now so I wonder if newer owners manuals have been updated with this info.
Yes, you manually select the mode.I thought you can manually toggle a CTek round the modes? And by default just connecting to charge never brings in the silly wreck a battery mode
My father has one. After he took out a good AGM that needed a top up and paid similar money for an ordinary maint free battery he used that stupid mode a few times over the 4 years it was on the car, it slowly got more and more useless.
Sometime in last few years we put a std Merc AGM back in. I found the old one all dry inside, topped it up and tried charging gently for a week it was dead. I pulled it apart and found evidence of severe overheating melting and deforming bits of the plastic inside the battery casing. So seems best to NEVER use the desulphation phase on anything
A good modern electronic charger detects what's happening and bounces around to tidy up and optimise the mess as it charges. You get the same features on a 15 quid aldi as the silly money ones...
Yes, you manually select the mode.
I like the CTEK, I have had poor experience with the cheap ones.
5 years battery life seems a bit mean! My Audi's battery is over 6 years old and we have a Vauxhall battery is nearly 12 years old and still going.@DMK/Happy you mentioned in an early post that “the battery looks new”, you can check the battery posts, they are stamped month on one post year on the other.
much over 5 years and it’s done. (Yes there will be people who get much longer out of a battery, but that isn’t the norm).
That’s the place to start from checking slow starting.
Check the cables are tight, corrosion free.
Going into a limp mode whilst driving probably isn’t the battery, best to get the codes read by STAR or a dedicated MB code reader - generic readers at a general garage won’t interrogate the systems as well, and could lead to swapping bits that are actually serviceable, and don’t clear the fault.
(When the mechanic will then say, yeah but we’ve found another issue £££££) cheaper to get a proper diagnosis from the start.
hope you get it sorted soon.
Total cost for diagnostics, module, labour,vat €830.00 , with guarantee, there it is,expensive although worth it for the satisfaction of knowing it is solved. Sweet and smooth a/t to drive again.Limp mode mode finally sorted,diagnostic check found faulty electronic selector module below transmission lever,now replaced everything normal again,hope this helps someone.
Based in the Midlands Ireland Roscommon ,really good ind' diagnostic repair shop here.On the ball everytime.where are you based DMK. Pay once pay right
- 8 here today engine did fire after 1,2,3,4 heating attempts.where are you based DMK. Pay once pay right
It varies by model but in the end it would only be a matter of going through a few resetting procedures if any were lost, there were no settings lost on mine at all, read the OM of your charger/conditioner and if any of the settings apply a voltage in excess of 14.8 v disconnect the battery N from the car body, some charger/conditioners have an auto desulphation stage as a pre treatment that use voltages in excess of 14.8 v which isn't good for either the car or AGM batteries. If you're unsure disconnect the battery you'll have nothing to lose!.