Engine warning message

[Guohong]

Haven't been driving a lot lately due to lockdown and mostly short distance. A red warning message appears everytime with a battery pattern and says "Stop vehicle, read owners manual". It's been quite a while since this appeared first time, vehicle runs fine. Checked the voltage, 14+V when engine runs, drops to ~12V when stops, so supposedly alternator is good. Any advice please? Thanks a lot.

 

[John Laidlaw]

A good battery should be 12.6v or more when stopped and at rest for a time- if it's the original battery from 2015 it will be at it's end of life.....
Oh, and welcome to the forums !

 

[Guohong]

thank you for the prompt reply. I suspect it's the battery just want some confirmation!

 

[Tony Dyson]

12.6v is the ideal voltage of a healthy car battery, around 12.0v is indicating a 50% efficiency level, and as @John Laidlaw said ^

 

[John Laidlaw]

No problem! Modern cars are quite hard on batteries, they rarely last past 5 years nowadays....
(that comment is sure to trigger off loads of posts saying they've had the same battery for 30 years with no problem, etc etc... )

 

[Guohong]

yes, the start/stop function stopped working quite a while ago (because battery was not full) but it didn't bother me. I wasn't too sure because we haven't been able to run long distance and properly charge the battery for a long time.

 

[bembo449]

id give the battery a good charge up preferably with a charger that has a boost function

 

[SL63 Mark]

Sounds like New battery time

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Try Tanya online and Varta batteries are OEM, my battery from them arrived next day, give the battery a top up charge before fitting, a battery at just over 12V is almost flat

 

[LostKiwi]

Tayna not Tanya

 

[Guohong]

Will do a bit of research of what battery needed. Lukily the current battery starts the engine without any issue so I guess it's not that urgent.
It seems nobody will recommend Halfords? Got a trade card there.

 

[Wighty]

Will do a bit of research of what battery needed. Lukily the current battery starts the engine without any issue so I guess it's not that urgent.
It seems nobody will recommend Halfords? Got a trade card there.

Give MB Grangemouth parts dept a ring , mention the forum for a discount , they deliver for £5 .

 

[peterws1957]

Give MB Grangemouth parts dept a ring , mention the forum for a discount , they deliver for £5 .

Think delivery is "free" at the moment. Euan is the guy to speak to. His direct number is 01324 686002.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Tayna not Tanya

Damn it , I quite liked Tanya!

 

[John Laidlaw]

Think delivery is "free" at the moment. Euan is the guy to speak to. His direct number is 01324 686002.

Plus you won't have to research what battery......

 

[John77]

Hi I had the same problem 2 weeks ago. See https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/...ith-a-battery-icon-and-visit-workshop.186945/
Replaced the battery with one of the same spec as MB. I think it was £46. delivered. No lights since. Problem solved.

 

[Guohong]

well, it seems they have used batteries?
£46 is really good price, a bit too good... on Tayna it costs £120.

 

[Janchee]

Yeah, If I were you ... I'd get it replaced as MB start to do funny things with a low voltage! I'd just go genuine from contact details provided above however, Tayna offer 4 year warranty on some batteries? (don't know how good it is though!). BTW were you measuring battery voltage whilst it was still connected to the car?

Also, as @bembo449 said, get a trickle charge on it and see if it comes back to life!

Cheers, Jan

 

[davidsl500]

If you haven't been driving much recently as you say you haven't due to lockdown then first of all try charging your battery with a smart charger. My battery goes from 100% ( 2.8V) to 50% (12.0V) if not used for 2 weeks as a guide. No point getting a new one until you have tried that... The better half's Polo which is used for 10 mile round trip shopping was down to 12V and is now back to 12.9V after a good charge. The cold spell wouldn't have helped things either.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

^ +1 Charged the battery on my daughters 1 series BMW yesterday the car has been used for about 20 minutes a week for the last 10 months and the battery was <half charged it needed a 7.5hr charge with my MSX 7.0 to get it to full charge. Did the same with my son’s 220d the week before and his battery was in a similar state - looks like being a good year for battery manufacturers doesn’t do batteries much good sitting less than half charged