Head in the Cloud question regarding a 280 SE Auto

[Riscardo]

Hey guys ...

Round two of stupid questions. I found the ashtray, and the cigarette lighter.

Now for more head in the cloud stuff. I had the battery replaced on Saturday as I was told that the battery in the car was the wrong size. I went to turn the car over this morning given it has been cold for a few days and the battery is completely flat. I checked the lights, the central locking vacuum pump etc to see what may have drained the battery .. but nothing seems to have been left on.

Would there be something significantly using up the battery once the car is parked and left?

Yep it is silly without seeing the vehicle ... but someone may have had the same prob.

Thanks in advance ...

 

[television]

If the battery you purchased was a cheap make,ie Not a good known name like Exide,Bosch the chances are it has a duff cell. If this is the last thing you did and the car was OK before, change battery again.
Two years ago I bought a Halfords battery, it went down after one week,the second went the same way, after the third one went down and much arguing them saying that it was the car,but I can show that it is not, they changed it for an Exide and it has been fine ever since.
Do not go headlong into the car looking for faults until you are sure that the new battery is OK and we can take it from there.

Malcolm

 

[Riscardo]

Thanks

Malcolm

Thanks for that, I'll take it back. It's so frustrating ...

R

 

[Rory]

Just a thought - what was the state of the new battery when it was installed (ie was it charged)?
If not, did you drive a sufficient distance to charge it up after it was fitted?

 

[Riscardo]

State of battery

I believed the battery was fully charged. I bought it Saturday, drove around a bit on Saturday afternoon. Did 50 miles on Sunday around the East End. It was Tuesday when I found the battery totally flat.

 

[television]

I doubt very much that there is a fault on this car, if it was not charging the lamp would have been on,
bad new batteries is getting big buisness, many garages say oh your car is not charging or you have a short, they get the car, swap the battery and charge you for fixing the car. the avarage person hasent got a clue, easy money.
A short that could make the battery go flat in two days would have sent up plenty of smoke

malcolm

 

[Riscardo]

Thanks

Malcolm

Thanks a lot for that

 

[mlc]

Riscardo,

A few things to consider:

Why were you checking the battery in the first place to find it was the wrong one? I assume "wrong" means "too low capacity", but was the car giving trouble before the swap? If you had a perfect running car with the wrong battery and now have a non starter with the correct battery then perhaps the battery is faulty, however I find that unlikely. It would be a two minute job for your supplier to test the battery, if your not happy with what they say then run the car into one of the rapid fit chains for a check, they will be very happy to test it for you FOC.

Just because the alternator warning light goes off doesnt mean your car is charging correctly. The easiest way to check that the alternator is producing power is to get the car running then turn everything on! If the car can power lights, seats, heated windows etc whilst running with a flat battery then the power must be coming from the alternator.

Final thing is the "fault" item on the car. Most electrical faults are not sparking wires because they tend to be either an intermittant contact causing little immediate trouble or they burn out / blow a fuse quickly. Much more common is a device stuck on. I spent 5 years at the AA and was amazed how many cars would start all week for work then cause trouble on Monday morning after standing over the weekend. A quick check on the glove box / boot light (was it warm?) often found the fault. A single bulb stuck on could run the battery down in 72 hours, especially if the battery wasnt fully charged in the first place.

Let us now how you go on.

Mark

 

[Riscardo]

Thanks

Mark

Thanks for that. It seems that when the original battery was checked it was half the size (voltage etc) that it should have been. What had also happened was the pump for the vacuum to seal the central locking was continually on, so it ran the battery down. I got it started then in the afternoon had a new battery fitted. I started Saturday evening and Sunday when I did a little bit of driving. It was frosty Tuesday morning so I thought Id just give it a warm up, but the battery was flat.

Hopefully I can get the AA to start it on Saturday and then maybe check over the power from/ to the alternator. I'll check to see if anything has been wedged or left on ...

Thanks for that ...

R

 

[PINBALL]

I also have a 94-E280 & my battery is smaller than normal!

Was told by my indie that the cheapo "LION" battery is adequate for my car, and that battery tray is bigger due to additional extra's not being fitted to this model like: Air-Con etc.

If car was fitted with say Air-Con then it would have needed a bigger battery.
This cheapo battery came with car when purchased 9 month's ago & has only ever let me down once when I was away for 2 weeks & it went flat!

Was told by nice GEM breakdown guy that this was normal on a Merc & not to worry.
Just dissconnect negative side of battery before next lay up for more than a week.

Hope it helps,
Keith.

 

[Riscardo]

Hey Guys ...

Thanks for all the help with this. I had the AA out on Sunday morning and I seem to have got somewhere with the root of the problem.

Last weekend I had a radio/ CD fitted. When I picked it up the bloke in the Audio Shop went on about how it was a hard job, he had to fix this to that, that to this etc .. etc.

The AA guy checked over the battery and said something was actually draining the power. We checked the fuses and lo and behold the interior lights/ radio fuse was the one that was doing the damage. I have disconnected it, so now I need to tell the Audio shop.

Riscardo

 

[Rory]

Last weekend I had a radio/ CD fitted. When I picked it up the bloke in the Audio Shop went on about how it was a hard job, he had to fix this to that, that to this etc .. etc.

There's always more to these stories than first presented.

 

[Riscardo]

That's true, but the Audio people have indicated that the batttery problem was occurring before the new battery was fitted, so it could be an ongoing problem with an interior light or something. I've got to get time to drop it back oiver to them ...