A Class (W169) Water Ingress to Battery Compartment

chorltonian

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I'd be interested to know if anyone has experienced or heard of an A-Class with the battery compartment full of water!

It seems there is a drain hole somewhere beneath the windscreen (well out of sight and reach) that has become clogged with debris and leaves, resulting in water seepage behind the steering column, under the carpets.

No evidence of this happening until the car wouldn't start one day the other week (not a peep from battery) and upon investigation I found the battery compartment full of water.

To be fair Mobilo-life got the car into the Mercedes workshop, but the quote of £6K+ for a complete new wiring harness + associated drying out just made me laugh (and cry!)

Seems to me this is a serious design fault. Shouldn't the cleaning out of the draining hole be part of the service plan? And if it is, is the Mercedes dealer guilty of neglect? Car has been kept to the service schedule throughout its life.

Any suggestions, other than calling my lawyer. Or possibly my insurance company (not sure if this might be insured - car would be a write-off for sure)

A very hacked off A-class owner.
 

television

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Would this not just be the heater box drain blocked
 
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chorltonian

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Would this not just be the heater box drain blocked

To be honest I don't know - engineers seems to be suggesting a build-up of leaves and debris in a hard-to-reach place. Not sure how an owner can be expected to know about such things, my opinion is this should have been dealt with as part of service schedule, but i've no idea whether it is actually a formal service item.

Would be useful to know as this has the potential to get a bit legal.
 
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JoHubb

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My wife has exactly the same problem with her A class.
Did you manage to sort your problem out? Or did you have to get the lawyers involved?
 

merk350

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water ingress

Two friends of mine had this happen recently, one on a 12 reg Audi A6 and one on his 55 reg audi A6 thousands of £££££ of damage ,all work was done by Audi under warranty in both cases.
 

bigtwin

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6K? Very reasonable. "They all do that Sir"....

I think a call to a lawyer would be a good move. I'd do it on a no win no fee.
 

nostradamuszen

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Product Recall: Class Action

I'm puzzled that, in two years, no-one has come up with a *solution* to this problem. Nothing at all from any Mercedes engineers or dealerships.

We too have the problem, which only came to light when the heater unit died completely.
Surely this is a serious, negligent, design fault, and should be the subject of a product recall - especially as it is likely to cause a total electrical failure without warning?
My initial 'quick and dirty' fix is going to be a) drill a 10mm hole in the battery box to keep it drained; b) take a Kärcher and squirt the bejasus out of the engine compartment; c) re-check all the fuses; d) remove the entire heater box (aarrgghh!) and plod through it with a selection of test equipment.

And, e) contact AA, Which, Telegraph, Top Gear and so on, with a view to starting a class action to get a proper product recall organised. Anyone else fed up with Mercedes cavalier attitude on this?!
 

Mickyp64

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I’ve had this on my A Class, I think it’s quite a common problem and one that you probably can’t do much about other than regular checks for drain blockages.

Under the Cabin Air Filter inside the engine bay (just in front of the windscreen) is a small drain hole that gets blocked with various debris (leaves, twigs, road dirt etc). Once blocked the rain water builds up and then spills back through the air intake behind the centre console – it ends up in the battery compartment as that’s the lowest point in the car.

Sure, bad design, but I don’t think there’s much we can do other that regular maintenance checks – providing you know about the problem beforehand of course!
 

anyweb

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any chance of a photo or diagram of where this drainage hole is exactly ? I'd rather clear it now than wait for the problem to occur
 
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anyweb

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nevermind, i went out in the dark and checked out A150, lifted the lid with three flaps beside the wipers, which covers the air filter, then i removed the air filter, at the bottom of that compartment is a hole apporx 1/2 inch in diameter or less, it was full of small leaves and debris, to the top, i got a strong long wire and used it to poke down into the hole, then i got a hose and sprayed some water in, it went down the hole and i could see and hear it draining away, i repeated this until most of the debris was gone, i'll give it a proper look at when it's bright next weekend perhaps

definetly one to check for on this model, i wonder is there something similar on my E350 (w212) ?
 

whitenemesis

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nevermind, i went out in the dark and checked out A150, lifted the lid with three flaps beside the wipers, which covers the air filter, then i removed the air filter, at the bottom of that compartment is a hole apporx 1/2 inch in diameter or less, it was full of small leaves and debris, to the top, i got a strong long wire and used it to poke down into the hole, then i got a hose and sprayed some water in, it went down the hole and i could see and hear it draining away, i repeated this until most of the debris was gone, i'll give it a proper look at when it's bright next weekend perhaps

definetly one to check for on this model, i wonder is there something similar on my E350 (w212) ?

I believe clearing drains is now part of the service schedule on modern models at least.
 

anyweb

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perhaps it is, but i dont go to Mercedes for my services, at least now i'm aware of this problem i can check it fairly regularly myself. So thanks to the guys that posted this or I wouldnt have known
 

Mickyp64

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Hi Anyweb,

Sorry I’ve only just seen this…glad you found it…I did take a picture at the time I did mine but it’s so dark and murky in that filter compartment that the picture wasn’t much use!

Thanks for the link…that’s a very useful page…

I think I’ve now got a similar problem with my sunroof drains that’ll need checking out!
 

Andy Wales

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I’ve had the same issue and cleaned the bung that was in the hole. It’s also wise to order a new pollen filter as mine had been waterlogged so moist air was being sucked into the cabin.

On a similar note, is this the only drain hole at the front? Just want to make sure that I can clear all possible drains.
 
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